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Hi,
I’m working on setting up a 10.5 Open Directory master with 10.4 clients. I am able to get 10.5 clients to connect to this server and receive their MCX settings but my 10.4 clients are not receiving anything. I have had no issues binding either client OS to the server. Is there something I’m missing? Do I need to configure either the server or the clients with something other than defaults?Are you doing an authenticated bind? Are machine accounts automatically created upon binding? What type of users are logging in….local admin, local managed, OD, AD? Laptops or desktops? And, finally, what type of prefs are you trying to manage?
Okay, I thought about this a little more and did some testing. Apparently computer/computer group MCX preferences on a 10.5 server do not – by default – get cached to 10.4 clients. This is probably because the way that 10.4 handles MCX is very different from 10.5. (I assume you’re using computer – not user – based prefs since user/user group MCX seem to cache just fine).
Here is the solution I’ve found to use computer group MCX preferences from a 10.5 server on 10.4 clients.
1) In Workgroup Manager, create a computer group for the machines you want to manage, add the machines to it, and set the preferences.
2) Download the 10.4 Server Admin Tools (http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/application_updates/serveradmintools10411.html) and install on a 10.4 client.
3) Use the 10.4 version of Workgroup Manager to connect to your 10.5 OD master.
4) Select the computer group you made in step 1 and then select “Cache”
5) You’ll see that it says 0 next to “Update the preferences cache every…” You want to change this to a number higher than zero, as well as select seconds/minutes/hours/days/weeks depending on how often you want the client to cache the group’s preferences. You can also manually update the cache by clicking “Update Cache.”
6) Restart and log in to one of your bound clients. Everything should be managed as you set it now….local and directory users.Post with any questions!
Does this apply to 10.6 as well? We have a 10.6 ODM with 10.6 and 10.4 mixed environment of clients. The 10.4 clients are not receiving the computer group preferences. I tried the solution above without success, for the 10.4.11 tools can not control a 10.6 server.
I don’t have a 10.6 ODM to try this with, but if you’re saying that the 10.4 server admin tools can’t control a 10.6 server, then you’re out of luck with this solution. I wonder if there’s a way, via the command line, to force a 10.4 client to cache its OD-based MCX preferences?
If you can’t get this to work, you might look into using Local MCX on the clients.
I have been working at this for a time now. Machead10, is there anyway to set the cache frequency via terminal/command line in some what shape or form?
I have tried installing the 10.4.11 admin tools to an iBook G4 and for reasons beyond me it is giving me a ton of errors and refuses to properly connect to the 10.6 server. I am not at the station at the moment but if necessary I will post the exact errors.My situation –
10.6 Server running on a mac mini
25 iMacs running 10.5.8
~120-140 iBook G4’s running 10.4.11These are the machines that I need to manage right now. The hardest bit about it is that I’m primarily a Microsoft Tech and have found myself in charge of a fair amount of Apple merchandise and I’m looking to get remotely close to some of the functionality of Active Directory. I appreciate the comments you have left so far as they have helped me get through some of the issues I’ve run into. Thank you kindly in advance for any help that you may be able to provide!
Darktide,
No, there is no command line tool for the cache on 10.4 that I know about. Unfortunately I haven’t tried using the 10.4 server admin tools with a 10.6 server, nor have I tried managing 10.4 clients with a 10.6 server. I suspect that using the admin tools is not possible given the huge amount of changes between 10.4 and 10.6 (server and client sides). Also, because of these changes, using a 10.6 server (with 10.6 client preference options) is not ideal for managing 10.4 clients. Your iMacs running 10.5 should have no problem being managed with the 10.6 server.
As far as managing your 10.4 iBooks, what are you looking to do? (i.e. Directory logins? User-based preferences? System-based preferences? etc.) Depending on your answer to this question, there are different ways you could go about doing it. For example, you could use Local Managed Preferences (MCX).
I know this is an old thread but I have a solution to this and wanted to share for anyone else looking.
I found this thread after googling the issue myself and finding no solutions online.
The posts by Machead10 got me started and i did his steps by installing the server admin tools on a 10.4 client, creating a group, setting the cache (6 hours)
and then comparing that group to one created in 10.6 WGM.In WGM(10.6), you can create a normal group for your 10.4 clients, set your preferences as normal.
If you enable Inspector and open “Inspector” for that group,
you have an attribute called:dsAttrTypeStandard:MCXFlags which is mapped to dsAttrTypeNative:apple-mcxflags
Normally in 10.6 (5?) this contains the content:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>has_mcx_settings</key> <true/> </dict> </plist>When replaced with the following from the 10.4 created group:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"> <plist version="1.0"> <dict> <key>cache_lifetime_seconds</key> <integer>21600</integer> <key>has_mcx_settings</key> <true/> <key>mcx_enabled</key> <true/> </dict> </plist>This tells it to refresh the MCX at set intervals in seconds. (21600 sec = 6 hours)
It looks to have been depreciated in 10.6 (or 10.5)Sending the 10.4 clients the command in ARD:
sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/mcxd.app/Contents/Resources/MCXCacher -f
followed by a reboot, The 10.4 clients should be now getting prefs!Rather than having to install 10.4 server admin tools, I think this would be a simpler way to go about it and wanted to share.
It may be simple to modify and use Bombichs Home directory Augment script to automate this change to be applied to all groups.Something like:
dscl /LDAPv3/127.0.0.1/ -append /ComputerGroups VARIABLEGROUP MCXFlags -u VARIABLEDIRADMIN -P VARIABLESECRETPW <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"><plist version="1.0"><dict><key>cache_lifetime_seconds</key><integer>VARIABLETIME</integer><key>has_mcx_settings</key><true/><key>mcx_enabled</key><true/></dict></plist>Or something…
#Note that that command is untested. Chances are it will need to be “escaped”
As I dont have many groups, I’ll just copy and paste.
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