I'd like to clarify the requirements for the mdb maxsize parameter.

According to the current admin guide:

"This should be the largest that the database is ever anticipated to grow"

Which would seem to imply it cannot later be changed without completely rebuilding the database.

According to the slapd-mdb manpage:

"Note: It is important to set this to as large a value as possible, (relative to anticipated growth of the actual data over time) since growing the size later may not be practical when the system is under heavy load."

It can possibly be changed later, but maybe not ;).

Based on unauthoritative postings I've read, it seems that if you shut down openldap, you can change it to whatever you want, and when you restart openldap, the additional size will immediately be available with no problems. It also seems that if you're using cn=config, you can change it live and it will immediately take effect. I haven't seen any postings indicating a problem that occurred while changing it live.

Are there any restrictions for changing it while the server is down? What restrictions, or problems, if any, are involved when changing it while the server is up?

Thanks much.