Hello,

I need some help troubleshooting some network home folder issues. Here is some background. I have a an Open Directory DB that contains approximately 1720 users. I have approximately 700 systems over four locations that need to authenticate to the Open Directory system. Each location is connected by a T-1 line (this is the only connection that is available) to the main site building 1.

– Building 1 consists of an Open Directory Master and an Open Directory Replica.
– Building 2, 3 and 4 consist of two Open Directory Replicas
– Each Open Directory Server also hosts a portion of the network home directories on the server for the primary building where the user is located. All the systems in each building authenticate to the Open Directory Replica in that building. (I am going migrate the replicas to "connected to a directory system" to simplify the process)

– Throughout building 1 there are connections to client systems over 10Mb ethernet, 100Mb ethernet or 11Mb and 54Mb wireless connections.
– Throughout building 2 and 3 there are 100Mb ethernet connections
– Building 4 is a combination of 100MB ethernet or wireless connections

– The Open Directory Servers are running on 5 Dual 2Ghz G5 towers (ODM and 2 ODRs) The remaining 3 ODRs consist of 2 single 867Mhz PMG4s with 2GB and 1GB of memory respectively and a single 533Mhz PMG4 with 1GB of memory.

– The servers are all running 10.3.9 minus the last security update
– The clients are all running the latest version of 10.3.9

Yet again I must work with the infrastructure in place. Buildings 2, 3 and 4 had previously been logging into network home directories without issue. Building 1 had a Open Directory server setup but was not configured for network home directories. The objective of the project was to integrate the four Open Directory Masters into one Open Directory Master. After resolving UID, permission conflicts and testing a random set of users on multiple systems I was fairly certain that the system was working as it should be. Yesterday staff started to show up and well Murphy was in attendance. I have encountered 2 main issues that I have been unable to resolve. These issues occue

A: "The "Home" folder for user "username" cannot be found in the usual place." Which will bring you to a generic unmanaged Finder and Desktop with no network home directory. I have already implemented the suggestion in http://discussions.info.apple.com/[email protected]@.689f026b . As well as try using DHCP to provide directory access information. Both seem unsuccessful in resolving the majority of the issues. I have been able to delete and recreate the account in Workgroup manager repair permissions on the user folder with limited success. I have also needed to perform this function with the same user account multiple times while others never re-exhibited the issue. Any advise on how to prevent this from occurring would be appreciated.

B: "You are unable to log in to the user account "username" at this time Logging in in to the account failed because an error occurred. The home folder for the user account is located on an AFP or SMB server. Contact your system administrator for help." Once the user clicks the "ok" button the system returns to the login prompt. This can either be instant or take some time up to an excess of 30 seconds. This issue does not occur as frequently as issue A but I have not yet found a workaround to resolve it yet. Deleting and recreating both user and network home directory do not seem to resolve the issue. Also just attempting to login as the SAME user a few moments later may or may not work.

A sample system log file from the client:

Aug 31 13:14:03 localhost loginwindow[490]: sendQuitEventToApp (iTunes Helper): AESendWithMach returned error -609
Aug 31 13:14:04 localhost automount[281]: logout notification received.
Aug 31 13:14:04 localhost automount[281]: requesting logout processing.
Aug 31 13:14:04 localhost automount[278]: logout notification received.
Aug 31 13:14:04 localhost automount[278]: requesting logout processing.
Aug 31 13:14:04 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_unmount: /private/Network/Servers/sas/Users, flags 0, pid 281
Aug 31 13:14:04 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs UserCommand: sosend failed for request 32
Aug 31 13:14:04 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_Reconnect started /private/Network/Servers/sas/Users
Aug 31 13:14:04 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_Reconnect: connect succeeded
Aug 31 13:14:04 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_Reconnect: Opening session
Aug 31 13:14:04 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_Reconnect: Logging in
Aug 31 13:14:04 localhost automount[281]: handle_deferred_requests: user logged out.
Aug 31 13:14:04 localhost automount[278]: handle_deferred_requests: user logged out.
Aug 31 13:14:05 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_Reconnect: Restoring session
Aug 31 13:14:05 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_Reconnect: primary reconnect failed 5, trying secondary
Aug 31 13:14:05 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_SecondaryReconnect: succeeded
Aug 31 13:14:05 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_unmount: succeeded
Aug 31 13:14:05 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_unmount: /private/Network/Servers/sas/Users, flags 0, pid 281
Aug 31 13:14:05 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs UserCommand: sosend failed for request 32
Aug 31 13:14:05 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_Reconnect started /private/Network/Servers/sas/Users
Aug 31 13:14:05 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_Reconnect: connect succeeded
Aug 31 13:14:05 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_Reconnect: Opening session
Aug 31 13:14:05 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_Reconnect: Logging in
Aug 31 13:14:05 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_Reconnect: Restoring session
Aug 31 13:14:05 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_Reconnect: primary reconnect failed 5, trying secondary
Aug 31 13:14:05 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_SecondaryReconnect: succeeded
Aug 31 13:14:05 localhost kernel: AFP_VFS afpfs_unmount: succeeded

The servers log file does not indicate anything during this period of time other than a connection. The secure.log from the client only acknowledges the success or failure of the login attempt. I have also looked at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=107695 I have gone through most of my share points and all seem to be within he limit of 89 characters for a 10.3.9 system. Sorry about the length of this but I wanted to present as much information as possible. If you have any questions I will answer them as quickly as possible. Any help will be more than appreciated. I need to repair or perform maintenance to prevent these issues from occurring when the majority of my users show up on Tuesday. Thanks in advance for all your help!

–
Barrett Hartman