I have set up 10.3 OS X servers with clients binding before with great success. I believe this was partly due to reliable (eg:’real’) DNS records. I followed the Apple K-12 set up guide; and for the ‘binding’ part, this document: http://homepage.mac.com/sdpserverhelp/pantherbinding.html – which is excellent.
However, public schools here operate behind a firewall, on private addresses. The Dept Of Education & Training has provided three host addresses for each school, which work anywhere on the LAN. As far as I can tell, they don’t work for OS X Server. I mean the server works, but the clients will not bind.
I spoke to an qualified Apple tech who told me that Apple don’t actually recommend this method. (I can’t find out if this true) He said it was because these addresses create very long pathnames to home directories – which is certainly true in itself (Panther is limited to 86 characters and it adds Network/Servers to the address as well)
So with investigation I succeed in setting up a server normally, on a private address, with a short dummy domain name. After set up, I connected to server.local, then set up DNS via this method: http://www.gtarling.com/dns/dns2.php
After turning DNS on, and setting the server’s own IP address as a DNS server in System Preferences/Network; I could then disconnect from Server Admin, and reconnect at the full address.
But – clients will not bind. No matter what. If anyone here knows why, or can help, this information would be much appreciated.
For a start, where would these failed look ups be written? If I had a log it might be a start . . .
Thanks for your time.
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