Connection failed, no shares available

[andyf]

I have 1 server (out of several) running 10.6.5 as an Open Directory Master, which has had an odd problem several times now. The server was initially upgraded from 10.5 to 10.6, new users imported, etc, and all was well. Then we started having problems with users logging in. Trying to connect to server as these users would result in a “Connection failed” “There are no shares available or you are not allowed to access them on the server…” Deleting and re-creating the user’s account would do nothing, but simply changing the users UID number, and fixing the permissions on their network home would work fine. (We try to user student ID numbers as UIDs).

I tried Archiving and restoring the Open Directory, and that worked for a little while, but then it started happening again. I exported the staff users and groups, wiped out the directory completely, reimported the staff users, reimported the student users from an export from the Student information system, reimported groups, and all was well for a couple more weeks.

Now, again, it’s starting to happen. For some reason, suddenly, users (mostly students, but not always) are loosing access to their own home folders (and all the other sharepoints on the server), and the only fix I’ve found is to change the User ID number. Oddly, it seems to be working just fine if I connect them using SMB, but I’d rather use AFP for home directories. Some possible factors:

Single intel XServe running 10.6.5, Open directory master, AFP, DNS, DHCP, Netboot (DeployStudio Server), SMB, and SUS.
Access for all services is set for all users and groups, I’ve tried changing to select groups, and manually adding all groups, changing back, etc, no change.
Workgroups and management: The tech teacher in this building does a lot of workgroup management, far more than the other two Elementaries or the middle or high school. Due to the insane amount of management, and the insane amount of time she’s spent setting it all up, I have been hesitant to just dump it all, but I’m at the point where that’s going to have to be my next step, I think.
User IDs: Student user ids are tied to their student id numbers in the SIS, 6 digits, starting with the two digit expected year of graduation eg: 212345 Staff UIDs are generally 3-4 digits, depending primarily on when they were added to the system.

It seems to me that there must be something wrong with the SACLs, but I’m not even sure where to look for that, and I can’t find any evidence that there is even an SACL for afp, say nothing to that uid being blocked from access.

Anyone seen anything like this, or have any ideas where to start on trying to figure out what is going on, and why these users are being blocked from AFP access?

[marionbates]

We have a Mac Pro upgraded to Snow Leopard Server in October, and everything was fine for a month or so…then issues similar to what you describe began to happen, and we can’t seem to fix it. I’ve repaired permissions/disk, reapplied 10.6.5 combo update in safe mode, checked logs for clues…no dice. Sometimes there are no sharepoints listed when a user connects, other times they will suddenly no longer be able to save an open file on the share (“file does not exist” error). The client machines are mostly 10.6 and this is just simple file sharing. A classroom of students all log in to their computers as “student”, then they each connect to the server via AFP as user “5f” (grade 5, teacher’s last name starts with “F”). They create files with unique names on the server, using TextEdit, and save as they go. Sometimes it’s all fine, other times some of them will get the error and not be able to save unless they save as and rename. The younger ones get confused when this happens.

The weirdest part to me is, it didn’t manifest until well after the upgrade. I don’t think it coincided with the 10.6.5 patch, either — I think it began just before that. Waiting eagerly for 10.6.6…

[tmyers]

This problem just cropped up for us also. It “seemed” to be after the 10.6.6 SERVER update. Now from both 10.6.6 and 10.6.5 clients I am not seeing any shares. (Unless I log on using the XServe master login which then shows all shares.)

When I log in I see: Connection Failed: There was an error connecting to the server….”

Looking at the servers “AppleFileServiceAccess.log” I see that the user did “login”, but as soon as I say OK to the above dialog, it shows a log out.

Checking ApplePasswordServer.Server.log it shows that the user was authenticated fine. NOTE: If I enter a “bad” password, it says that that “Invalid username or password”. But no shares are showing up for normal users!

[brandwashed]

has there been any progress on this?

i’m having the same issue.

[andyf]

Wiping out the open directory master, and restoring from archive seems to fix things for a short while. I wiped out completely and re-imported users and groups, which also helped for a little while, but the problem did come back…

This server has by far the most group management happening, I’m thinking that was the cause, for the start of this year I started completely from scratch: set to stand-alone, created master, imported EVERYTHING from scratch, including no group management. Of course, the tech in the building started managing everything again… so I guess we’ll see how long that lasts!

[hewbert]

Just wanted to add a “me too.” Experiencing this daily on a server running 10.6.8 (not the OD master). Our file servers are balanced per school, so, for instance, the high school has its own file server. I rebuilt that server from scratch this summer, without migrating any settings. This occurs daily at this point. It seemed to start by only affecting a few users here and there but seems to be growing.

A restart of the AFP service seems to do the trick for a temporary fix, which is a huge inconvenience. Unfortunately, we’re starting to see the same symptoms on another file server running 10.6.8, which is also a “fresh” install.

As said, does not occur with SMB. I switched user homes to SMB for about a week, but that had its own issues (e.g. Firefox doesn’t play nice with smb homes).

No clues are ever in the logs at all, either.

Extremely frustrating.

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