Tiger (10.4) Server discussion

[Craig R. Arko]

For things of a general nature with Tiger Server. Specific help issues should still have their own threads.

[giskard22]

The Apple website is basically mum on the subject of any changes to NetBoot/NetInstall capabilities (almost all the links on Apple's OS X Server page are the old ones about 10.3). Does anyone know of major changes? I currently use a NetRestore-NetBoot solution (with the PHP database option) to do my imaging, and Workgroup Manager once the machines are running. It would be great if the functionality of NetRestore -- maintaining imaging preferences for individual machines -- were integrated directly into the server. In 10.3, all you could do was make a list of machines that were or were not allowed to NetBoot.

[rusty]

I posted the following to Apple Discussions. I apologize for the generality of my questions at this
point, but I am trying to sniff out the viability and possibilities of this advertised feature of 10.4
Server, and would love to hear any early insight floating around on this list on this topic.


This is an advertised feature of Tiger Server:

Portable Home Directories

PowerBook and iBook users can now enjoy synchronized versions of home directory folders locally
and on the network. When a user goes offline, her home directory goes with her, so she can
continue to work just as she would back at the office. When she reconnects to the network, Mac
OS X automatically syncs up selected content ˜ such as documents, desktop items, music and
pictures ˜ in her local home directory with the one on the server.



I realize that Tiger Server may not be in too many hands as of yet, but has anyone seen any
documentation on this feature? Or have further insight into exactly how this will work?

What might be the bandwidth requirements to do this sanely and reliably on a 30-50 seat LAN?
Would it be sensible to do this over Airport (802.11g)? 100BaseT?

What would initiate syncing from the client laptop to the server? A schedule? The action of
changing a file on the local disk? The action of reconnecting to the LAN after having brought one's
laptop in from home? While connected to the LAN, would the "live" copy of the user's home
directory be the one on the server or the one on the local laptop disk?

Any insight into any of this at the current time?

Rusty

[bigpr]

Using 10.4.1 on new dual G5...

NUMEROUS errors for nearly all users...This is covered on MacFixit.
Believe it or not...A user on the network can't open a Quark file from the server and save it. You'd think they would TEST this!!!!!
True..it's Quark 4.1 and OS 9...but the point is clear. Bad File Format error messages, and permissions issues abound. Incredibly this ALSO affects WORD! Talk about not ready for prime time. Apple needs to fix this VERY soon. In the meantime...our company CAN'T WORK with 10.4.1 Server...it DOES NOT WORK ON A PROFESSIONAL LEVEL YET.
There are rumors about 10.4.2 already...We can't wait. We have to downgrade (upgrade?) to our previous server software 10.3.9.

[jokerlaughsatyou]

Quote: Originally Posted by rusty I posted the following to Apple Discussions. I apologize for the generality of my questions at this point, but I am trying to sniff out the viability and possibilities of this advertised feature of 10.4 Server, and would love to hear any early insight floating around on this list on this topic. This is an advertised feature of Tiger Server: Portable Home Directories PowerBook and iBook users can now enjoy synchronized versions of home directory folders locally and on the network. When a user goes offline, her home directory goes with her, so she can continue to work just as she would back at the office. When she reconnects to the network, Mac OS X automatically syncs up selected content ˜ such as documents, desktop items, music and pictures ˜ in her local home directory with the one on the server. I realize that Tiger Server may not be in too many hands as of yet, but has anyone seen any documentation on this feature? Or have further insight into exactly how this will work? What might be the bandwidth requirements to do this sanely and reliably on a 30-50 seat LAN? Would it be sensible to do this over Airport (802.11g)? 100BaseT? What would initiate syncing from the client laptop to the server? A schedule? The action of changing a file on the local disk? The action of reconnecting to the LAN after having brought one's laptop in from home? While connected to the LAN, would the "live" copy of the user's home directory be the one on the server or the one on the local laptop disk? Any insight into any of this at the current time? Rusty

Now that the software has been out for awhile, Anyone have and insights on this?

[-Monkey-]

Tiger integration in AD is doing my head in completely.

A few weeks ago I set up from clean a G5 with OSX 10.4.5 server. Then the first thing I did was bind to our (massive) AD. No probs, worked first time. I could authenticate with AD user accounts. This was a great relief as I've spent MONTHS messing around with all the previous versions of Tiger (and Panther before it) and had no success at binding.

Then, for reasons I won't bore you with, I had to use the same test Mac to bind 10.4.5 Client to the AD. First I did 'Unbind' of the server. Then did clean install of 10.4.5 client and tried the same approach as I did with 10.4.5 server earlier (except this time I used a relevant AD computer account, which has all been set up ready). The bind never worked ("unknown error" on step 5) so after umpteeen squillion attempts I gave up and re-installed 10.4.5 server on the same machine.

Naively, I followed EXACTLY the same steps to bind the server to AD as I had successfully used before and, you guessed, it doesn't %^$*%$ing work any more (an unknown error occurred, blah blah).

WTF is it with Apple that they can't get their OS to smoothly bind to a large AD in the same way any PC can? Not even after countless OS updates. Just do it like Windows does it Apple, or is that beyond you??? I've wasted soooo much time with this I could kill myself

Anyways, if anyone can offer any help (won't be Crapple that's for sure), I'd much appreciate.

[Raven]

For one you've got things mixed up... Microsoft looked at the Open Directory system and decided to make their own branded version that is meant to be used on MS Windows only. Apple did abide by the Open Directory standard, MS did not. If you look at it all the Open directory versions on UNIX LINUX and Mac do play well together. MS is the one who went non-standard, so don't blame Apple for having a hard time to work with non standard software.
Secondly I may be able to help you if you can tell exactly whats the step it stays stuck at (I don't count step numbers)
Also, did you check to make sure you did specify the complete OU path for your Mac client, include the AD domain name in Search Domains for the Built-in ehternet ? Did you indicate the AD workgroup in the SMB/CIFS pluggin of Directory Access ?
Are you making sure your binding with an Account that has Admin rights to the OU your trying to bind to ? Did you also try to create the computer object first in AD ?

[JPhillips173]

Quote: Originally Posted by Raven For one you've got things mixed up... Microsoft looked at the Open Directory system and decided to make their own branded version that is meant to be used on MS Windows only. Apple did abide by the Open Directory standard, MS did not. If you look at it all the Open directory versions on UNIX LINUX and Mac do play well together. MS is the one who went non-standard, so don't blame Apple for having a hard time to work with non standard software. Secondly I may be able to help you if you can tell exactly whats the step it stays stuck at (I don't count step numbers) Also, did you check to make sure you did specify the complete OU path for your Mac client, include the AD domain name in Search Domains for the Built-in ehternet ? Did you indicate the AD workgroup in the SMB/CIFS pluggin of Directory Access ? Are you making sure your binding with an Account that has Admin rights to the OU your trying to bind to ? Did you also try to create the computer object first in AD ?

raven,

You're right about what microsoft did, but shouldn't apple (6% market share) try to make it a little easier to work with microsoft's AD (75% market share). Especially since they developed the OD way after AD was already out. Sounds like alot of these people should look at AD/OD intergration document on AFP548.com
Respectfully, ( this website is the best OSX forum out there)

Jon Phillips
Sys Admin.
Princeton Regional Schools

[thibbs]

Monkey, or anyone else who might read this... You MUST have your Windows IT department delete your Mac's Active Directory entry if you unbind from it. I had that same nightmare. It worked once, then never again, until I had my IT person delete the Mac entry and start fresh. Then all was well.

[pkamm]

Folks,

I've just installed Tiger server (clean) on both an X-serve and older G4. In both cases, the Start Service in Server Admin for NetBoot is greyed out. Am I missing something? Why can't I start the NetBoot service?

Thanks.

-pkamm

[ECastro]

My 10.4.2 Server keeps freezing. I have it connected to an AD server and it’s also an OD master. The window users mount their shares through My Documents and the Mac users have their shares mount on the desktop. I have every Mac user connecting through SMB. For some reason the Server keeps freezing up and loses connection with my AD Server. I have to reboot the server, unbind/bind again to get things to work. Is anyone else having the problem?

Thanks

[muscleflex]

hi Raven - do you have any links or books or websites you can recommend in setting up xserve on a windows network? you know, working with AD and all - i'm new to the macs and am trying to get our G5 xserve (10.3.9) to work properly instead of just it sitting and doing nothing but a file storage for the 5 G5's we have.

[ltrevino.acn]

hello everyone,

I have two Xserve's in an AD network and had problems with both server rebooting when I had OD Master and AD pluging Bind to the AD Server.

I went ahead and removed OD from the list in Directory Access and both servers have been working without a problem for 6 month now.

Two strange thing that I do have is that whenever I restart the server to do updates I have to bind to the AD Server in order to get my staff to authenticate to the server AFP & SMB. The second thing is that I'm a Domain Admin with Full rights but I can't use my account to bind the server to our AD Server. I have to use an Enterprise Admin to bind my server to AD. So far the AD pluging only like two of the 10 Enterprise Admin to bind it to the AD Server.

We just update to 10.4.6 over the weekend as a test and found out that we don't have to unbind and bind the server to AD. It looks like Apple has fixed the issue.

The next step for us is to update the clients to 10.4.6 and Bind them to AD and move the local user account to the new AD local home folders that are created once you login to an AD user account on the MAC after you bind to AD.

We have already tested 10.4.6 client and everything seems to work. I can change my AD password, I get prompted to change my password and get notified when my password is going to expire.

I will keep updating everyone as we go.

[vudutu]

My problem appears to be the 10.4. server bug. My problems have not so much been shutdowns but services slowdowns. Bad news is 10.4.6 has mixed success. See this post

http://discussions.apple.com/message...063489#2063489

It's worth reading just for a couple of tips in there.

Also trying to make sense of this. Not sure if this is a hint or normal.

http://www.afp548.com/forum/viewtopi...howtopic=12152

I am pretty fried and tired right now, will post more later.
Thanks Craig

[twm1010]

Indeed, your AD computer account needs to be created at the time. The latest 10.4 article from AFP 548 helps alot.

Make sure your the DNS name for your server checks out forward and reverse.

[Diabolique]

I administer an Xserve with Xserve RAID storage for about 100 Macs. We have found that if you attempt to trash a file that is locked from one of the Macs, it crashes the Xserve.
Not only that, but after you do a hard reboot, (which is the ONLY way to restart the server) you are unable to log back on from any of the terminals. We have found a way around this by restarting the AFP and Windows settings in Admin Monitor.

My question is: Why would a simple thing such a trying to trash a locked file on a networked Mac crash the Xserve? We have called in Apple themselves, who replaced logic boards, RAM chips checked the network, and still the same thing happens. HELP!!!!!!!

We run Tiger v10.4.8.

[Hans Breman]

Quote: Originally Posted by Craig R. Arko For things of a general nature with Tiger Server. Specific help issues should still have their own threads.

I have a problem with my MacBook Pro, I have tried to install windows
XP and before I start to work on it I did something what made my computer
color faint (not sharp)and my text are hardly unreadable and the letters have
funny colors with black letters what it should be.
Do you know how to solve this problem.
hbreman@daxis.nl

[Ian van de Burgt]

Our office has a new OS X Tiger server (and I'm not a tech-savvy guy) but...

Since upgrading our server from OS X Jaguar to Tiger we've noticed that the eMac computers (all running OS X 10.3.9) on the network have all slowed down in their Internet functionality, while our newer MacBooks (running Tiger) and even the lone PC (running Windows XP) have all maintained their speedy Internet connections running through that same DSL connection, which passes through our server.

Both the good and bad Internet connections above share the same routers, LAN, switches, and cables. The only difference is the operating systems.

The lag time in calling up web pages is substantial (i.e., 1 sec. on the MacBooks and PC vs. 10-30 sec. on the eMacs), and since we call up hundreds of pages/day we can save a lot of time by fixing this issue. I doubt the eMacs have an inherent problem, as they all worked great when we were running the Jaguar server, and the problem began when we so-called upgraded.

My question is: Is there a setting on either the eMacs or the server that might improve this situation?

[teletubies58]

I apologize for the generality of my questions at this point, but I am trying to sniff out the viability and possibilities of this advertised feature of 10.4 Server, and would love to hear any early insight floating around on this list on this topic.