Anyone willing to share their config files for systems with network users?

[kd4ttc]

I am trying to set up for network users. DNS and Kerberos are working and I can log in. However, the error message comes up saying that the home directory is not in the expeted place. Also, I cannot get a home directory made on the server with the create home directory button followed by a save. I suspect the LDAP is not set up correctly, though a DNS setup problem is not out of the question.
Does anyone have some config files from their server that I could look at so I can proceed with my configuration attempts?
Steve

[slowfranklin]

Well… many of the configs are ldap records. So possilbly you check some of this records and post what you’ve found.
For to check the automount records on the client you could use:
[b]lookupd -q mount[/b]
To dive into user records use (again on the client):
[b]dscl[/b]
HTH
-Ralph

[kd4ttc]

Thanks for the comments. The tests suggested checked out on my server. I found through some other means that getting automount to work requires that Guest access needs to be enabled in AFP for this all to work. I had deselected that option since I figured all the users were going to be authenticated. Wrongo on that one!
Another mistake was that the name in the DNS setup has to be the name of the server. I thought any of the alias names would be OK. This does not appear to be the case.
I’d like to be able to have my users log into “/Network/Servers/Server1” rather than “/Network/Servers/dns.myzone.com”. Given how DNS is used at setup I suspect that if I can get DNS to report the name Server1 rather than dns.myzone.com it may work. Whether that will mess up Kerberos is a question for another forum.
I also had to get the space out a part of the file path earlier, but that was a previous adventure.
My thoughts on sharing config files is that having config files that work shows what the end result is that one is looking for. The details of setup are so complex that it is hard for the documentation to include all the dependencies. Having a config file that works would let others check that they had used the GUI correctly by checking the file in /var/named. I also think preloading the config files on the server would provide the GUI with a set of startup settings which would guide changes. For example, I used cat in the terminal to look at my zone file:
[code]
dns:/var/named notsosmart$ cat myzone.com.zone
$TTL 86400
myzone.com. IN SOA dns.myzone.com. myname.there.com. (
2006072904 ; serial
3h ; refresh
1h ; retry
1w ; expiry
1h ) ; minimum
myzone.com. IN NS dns.myzone.com.
myzone.com. IN A 10.0.8.20
dns IN A 10.0.8.20
www IN CNAME dns
Server1 IN CNAME dns
[/code]
It seems there could be a set up set of server config files that could be installed that would then be edited through the GUI. It would seem to be a way to avoid a bunch of setup questions that newbies like me are asking.

[kd4ttc]

The ironic thing about the 1000 plus pages of documentation is that it is so voluminous that it is not an effective set of documentation. The need for no spaces in the path to the home directory is in there, but rather buried. The need for guest access is buried in there, too. I’ll recheck my server and see if I can dispense with it. The documentation is full of instructions which say you can do this or that and how to do each little piece, but it does not say that for setting up home directories you need to do the following steps. At best you get a bunch of cross referential instruction pages. Then, when you do get to some part you are told to enter values with no guidance on how certain selections have implications. For example, in entering the name of the server for DNS you could reasonably read that to mean machine name, the first part of the domain name, or the fully qualified DNS entry (with or without a trailing dot).
In short, I have been very unimpressed with the utility of the documentation while at the same time finding the volume of documentation overwhelming. At least with those issues I haven’t bothered to worry too much about the errors.
The best resource I found is a PDF written by a teacher in Australia that gives a step by step guide, including the gotcha’s. I’ll post up the URL when I get home tonight. – Steve

[Anonymous]

For step-by-step on how to setup different services I refer to the Server Essential and Administration Reference vol 1 & 2 from Peachpit Press. Highly recommend

[kd4ttc]

On Peachpit press and amazon I got the following ISBN for the Server Essentials book: 0-596-00635-7.
Also known as Essential Mac OS X Panther Server Administration (Paperback) by Michael Bartosh, Ryan J Faas.
This the book? The user reviews are effusive on Amazon.

For the best online reference for setting mac OS X server I found http://homepage.mac.com/sbarnham/macosx/files/Install_MacOSX_Server_v2.1.pdf
The site http://www.barnham.com.au/macosx is the source web page with the citation.
Steve

[Author]

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