The Root DSE is a special entry that resides at the root of the directory information tree (DIT). The entry holds operational information about the server and its supported controls. Specifically, the root DSE entry provides information about the supported LDAPv3 controls, SASL mechanisms, password authentication schemes, supported LDAP protocols, additional features, naming contexts, extended operations, and server information.
Note: The Directory Server provides an option to retrieve the Root DSE’s operational attributes and add them to the user attribute map of the generated entry. This feature allows client applications that have difficulty handling operational attributes to access the root DSE using the show-all-attributes configuration property. Once this property is set, the associated attribute types are re-created and re-registered as user attributes in the schema (in memory, not on disk). Once you set the property, you can use ldapsearch without "+" to view the root DSE.

Use the dsconfig tool to set the show-all-attributes property to TRUE, as follows:

$ bin/dsconfig set-root-dse-backend-prop --set show-all-attributes:true
  • Use ldapsearch to view the root DSE entry on the Directory Server. Be sure you include the "+" to display the operational attributes in the entry.
    $ bin/ldapsearch --baseDN "" --searchScope base "(objectclass=*)" "+"