Completely wipe OD master data?

[MacDave]

I’ve been trying to promote my 10.5.7 server from standalone to OD master. I’ve done this many times successfully on Leo server, but this one is stuck. Forward and reverse DNS are correct, and “changeip -checkhostname” is saying hostnames match. But when I use server admin to do the promotion, I click the final ‘Continue’ button, and the gearwheel spins and spins for about 5-10 mins, and then throws this error:

“The server reported the error: ‘kNetworkError’ while processing a command of type: ‘writeSettings.’

I’ve deleted the /Library/Preferences/DirectoryService folder, removed all LDAP entries from Directory Util, and rebooted and tried again, but I get the same error each time.

Can someone tell me how to remove ALL Open Directory related files, so there’s nothing leftover from one of my failed attempts, and so that I can start over from scratch, and do the promotion from a pristine state?

Thanks!

[guitar24t]

The best option in my opinion is to reformat and reinstall the OS. I have had a few bad server installs that I just kept putting more and more time into without fixing the problem. It sounds like something bad! 😀
Good Luck,
Robert

[MacDave]

[QUOTE][u]Quote by: guitar24t[/u][p]The best option in my opinion is to reformat and reinstall the OS. I have had a few bad server installs that I just kept putting more and more time into without fixing the problem. It sounds like something bad! 😀
Good Luck,
Robert[/p][/QUOTE]

Well, I tried doing an erase and install, set up DNS from scratch and tested forward and reverse lookups, tried the promotion again, and I got the same result (!!). I thought I was going crazy, so just for good measure I tried a 2nd erase and install, same result.

Does anyone have any idea WTF could be happening here? The hardware is an Intel Xserve with dual NICs, with only one plugged in and configured. I’m using the same install DVD that I originally used to install Leo server, which worked fine (including OD) for months until it broke recently.

Any help would be really appreciated.

[guitar24t]

When you do a reinstall, does the installation disk check out ok?

How old is the xserve? If it’s within 90 days of purchase call apple tech support.

I think your DNS might be the problem judging by your error and another forum I saw. Do you mind posting your domain name? It should be in the form machine.domain.com

To do a proof of concept install (that your machine isn’t broken), reformat and reinstall (I don’t know if you have the time).

[code]Initial install:
For the hostname, type fileserver.contoso.com
The machine name should now automatically be fileserver
Set a static ip to fit your environment and to point to itself as a dns server.

After initial setup:
Update immediately
Once done with all updates, open serveradmin and remove the existing entry for the server and add the entry as fileserver.local
Configure it to use dns
On the dns settings, under the zones tab, add a primary zone contoso.com
Expand that listing and change the machine ns to fileserver and the static ip of the server
Click save
on the primary zone itself, change the name server from ns to fileserver and press save.
Add another a record as contoso.com. (notice the dot at the end) and point it to the ip of your server as well.
Under the reverse lookup settings for fileserver, make sure it resolves to fileserver.contoso.com and NOT contoso.com – if it doesn’t, change the drop down.

Start the service!

now in terminal type

nslookup fileserver.contoso.com

then type (sub the ip of your server)

nslookup 192.168.1.200

compare the results (192.168.1.200 should resolve to fileserver.contoso.com)
then run

changeip -checkhostname

If this verifies (it should), add AFP services, configure and start the service.
Then add the Open Directory services and promote the machine to a master.
[/code]

If this doesn’t work, I wouldn’t know what to tell you 😀 so let’s hope it does!
(Sorry for all the contoso.com stuff, microsoft got to me first)
Good Luck,
Robert

[Author]

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