ldap search is very slow

Question

I am using JNDI to connect to the LDAP active directory, and I want to search for users where the name contains the search string, so my search method is as follows:

public static List<LDAPUser> searchContactsByName(
        ExtendedDirContext extendedDirContext, String name) {

    try {

        LdapContext ldapContext = extendedDirContext.getLdapContext();
        String searchBaseStr = extendedDirContext.getSearchBase();

        String sortKey = LDAPAttributes.NAME;
        ldapContext.setRequestControls(new Control[] { new SortControl(
                sortKey, Control.CRITICAL) });

        SearchControls searchCtls = new SearchControls();
        searchCtls.setTimeLimit(1000 * 10);

        String returnedAtts[] = { LDAPAttributes.USER_NAME,
                LDAPAttributes.NAME };
        searchCtls.setReturningAttributes(returnedAtts);

        searchCtls.setSearchScope(SearchControls.SUBTREE_SCOPE);

        String searchFilter = "(&(ObjectCategory=person)(cn=*" + name
                + "*))";

        NamingEnumeration<SearchResult> results = ldapContext.search(
                searchBaseStr, searchFilter, searchCtls);

        List<LDAPUser> users = new ArrayList<LDAPUser>(0);
        while (results.hasMoreElements()) {
            SearchResult sr = (SearchResult) results.next();
            Attributes attrs = sr.getAttributes();
            LDAPUser user = new LDAPUser();
            user.setName(attrs.get(LDAPAttributes.NAME).toString()
                    .replace("cn: ", ""));
            user.setUserName(attrs.get(LDAPAttributes.USER_NAME).toString()
                    .replace("sAMAccountName: ", ""));
            users.add(user);
        }

        return users;

    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        return null;
    }
}

and here is how I am making the connection to LDAP:

public static ExtendedDirContext connectToLdap(MessageSource messageSource) {

    try {
        log.debug("connectToLdap");
        String providerUrl = messageSource.getMessage("provider.url", null,
                null);
        String securityPrincipal = messageSource.getMessage(
                "security.principal", null, null);
        String securityCredentials = messageSource.getMessage(
                "security.credentials", null, null);
        String searchBase = messageSource.getMessage("search.base", null,
                null);
        boolean ssl = Boolean.parseBoolean(messageSource.getMessage("ssl",
                null, null));
        LdapContext ldapContext;

        Hashtable<String, String> ldapEnv = new Hashtable<String, String>(
                11);
        ldapEnv.put(Context.INITIAL_CONTEXT_FACTORY,
                "com.sun.jndi.ldap.LdapCtxFactory");
        ldapEnv.put(Context.PROVIDER_URL, providerUrl);
        ldapEnv.put(Context.SECURITY_AUTHENTICATION, "simple");
        ldapEnv.put(Context.SECURITY_PRINCIPAL, securityPrincipal);
        ldapEnv.put(Context.SECURITY_CREDENTIALS, securityCredentials);
        if (ssl)
            ldapEnv.put(Context.SECURITY_PROTOCOL, "ssl");
        // To get rid of the PartialResultException when using Active
        // Directory
        ldapEnv.put(Context.REFERRAL, "follow");
        ldapContext = new InitialLdapContext(ldapEnv, null);
        ExtendedDirContext extendedDirContext = new ExtendedDirContext();
        extendedDirContext.setLdapContext(ldapContext);
        extendedDirContext.setSearchBase(searchBase);
        log.debug("success connection to ldap");
        return extendedDirContext;
    } catch (Exception e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        return null;
    }

}

The LDAP credentials are as follows:

provider.url=ldap://dc.fabrikam.com:389
security.principal=CN=administrator,CN=Users,DC=fabrikam,DC=com
security.credentials=password
search.base=dc=fabrikam,dc=com

Why does the search take so much time to retrieve the data? Is there any change that I can do to make the search faster, since I have only 285 contacts in the AD?

You are performing a prefix wildcard search, what do you expect? This runs in O(n) time. — Michael-O
@Michael-O, but i don't have too many users in the AD, only 285. — Mahmoud Saleh
@Michael-O same behaviour, more than 90 seconds to get search results, please see the post update of how i am making the connection to ldap. — Mahmoud Saleh
I've found that changing ldapEnv.put(Context.REFERRAL, "follow"); to ldapEnv.put(Context.REFERRAL, "ignore"); makes searches pretty quick — Petesh

Mahmoud Saleh Mahmoud Saleh · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-08T07:44:22

Solution was to change ldapEnv.put(Context.REFERRAL, "follow"); to ldapEnv.put(Context.REFERRAL, "ignore");

ldap search is very slow

3 Answers