On 7/18/2018 12:49 PM, Robert Watterson wrote:

If I manage ldap entries and dirsrv server options via command line only, do I even need an admin server component?

No.

I've been using Apache Directory Studio for my non-command line needs on a single 389 instance, seems to work out OK so far. The admin server (o=netscape) is installed and running, but I haven't been using the GUI. I'm about to spin up two new servers and do multi-master replication and certificates/TLS.

On a production server where all content changes are done via scripts (no GUI needed) do I even need to spin up an admin server?

We won't be using Admin Express, DS Gateway, Org Chart, etc. We'll never be managing more than 3-4 production ldap servers.

Am I missing something critical by installing just the actual 389 servers and NOT the admin instance?

Admin Server is really an http server that invokes CGI programs to do things that are not doable via LDAP (e.g. start and stop the LDAP server).

You can do all those things from the command line by logging into the machine the server is running on.