[LazLong]

I am having the same issue with two 10.4.4 servers I have just bound to AD. These are simple member servers, using AD only, i.e. no OD.

[LazLong]

Macshome:

Server Admin won’t let me use the read-only mounted volume as a source for NB images. I have to mount the volume RW so that NetBoot starts, and then remount it RO. F’ing stupid.

Soooo….Either my desktop support people are going to have to maintain multiple copies of the NB images (one per server), or endure a ‘special’ startup procedure for each ‘slave’ (one that must mount the volume RO) server that includes unmounting and remounting. Blech. Wish OS X’s mount had the ‘remount’ option that the GNU one has.

Thanx for all of your previous help.

[LazLong]

[QUOTE BY= macshome]Netatalk is a AFP3.x server, so you should be OK there. Is the RHEL in your AD kerb realm? Were the mounts working with SMB? There are a few different things going on in this thread, so I just wanted to clarify.[/QUOTE]

macshome:

Yes, netatalk appears to work fine.

The RHEL server isn’t configured to auth via krb5, but Samba has security = ADS set.

The smb mounts via samba generally worked, with the exception of file locking issues with Mozilla and FireFox. It kept thinking the .profile was in use, when it wasn’t, and wouldn’t launch. The other issue appeared to do with amd (which on 10.3.x clients is the first version to support OS X), and it often not realizing that a mount had been successful. Users would then get the following message:

The “Home” folder for user “username” cannot be found in the usual place.

This resulted in their $HOME var not being set, and them getting the generic ‘profile.’ However, a df showed that the home dir had indeed mounted. I got tired of trying to figure this out (posted here a couple of times about it), and switched to netatalk. This was annoying as it meant one more service to support (as I already had Samba set up to support my Windows users).

[LazLong]

[QUOTE BY= chrisjasper]
to LazLong:
Got me stumped, not sure if the version of netatalk that comes with RHEL is fully compatible with OsX 10.4.3. Could you share a folder on a standard mac workstation with the home folder to see if it mounts?
[/QUOTE]

chrisjasper:

Sorry, I guess my message wasn’t clear. It was in reply to macshome’s suggestion to look at the NIDB’s cached user info. It indeed had the out of date info, and was overriding the AD UNC path for the homedir.

My issue with file locking has to do with samba shared homedirs and FireFox.

[LazLong]

[QUOTE BY= macshome]Take a look at the cached user record in the NIDB and see what it has for your home location.[/QUOTE]

This was it. Being a casual (read that as infrequent, as in when forced ) I keep forgetting that the Mac caches stuff in the evil NIDB.

[QUOTE BY= macshome]Are these homes on a MS Cluster?[/QUOTE]

No, they are on an RHEL box and are being mounted via afp by means of netatalk v2.03. I got tired of trying to solve the evil file locking problem FireFox had with SMB mounted (via samba) homedirs, and gave up. Don’t suppose you have any pointers on this?

Thanx for your help! I just wish I could get our Mac admins to frequent this site….

[LazLong]

Hurm….You were right. The read-only LUN mapping was the culprit, not the fact that the volume was being simultanously accessed. I should have tried this from the get-go, but concurrently mounting filesystems rw w/o some sor of SAN fs is counterintuitive to me. 😉

Once I mapped the volume rw for both of my test systems they were able to mount the volume simultaneously. Next up is to test putting the NB images on this volume.

Thanx for the pointer.

[LazLong]

SANsurfer reports the ports the 2510FS are attached to as FL ports (the port has a green background with the letters ‘FL’), and when you get properties for the port the port type is reported as a GL-port. So, yes, the 5200 apparently sees that the 2510FS isn’t a single device, but rather a public loop.

NB: This configuration with the same equipment (not identical, the same pieces) booted Win 2003 EE w/o any issues. Soooooo….I’m stuck pulling out what little hair I have left….I really need to get this going!

[LazLong]

As my reply stated, I got the info from a second level QLogic support engineer who purports to be knowledgeable of and specifically supports OS X.

Purhaps if I give a little more concrete info…

I have the following configuration:

Xserve (tried both 10.3.9 and 10.4.2)
2 QLogic SANBox 5200 switches
1 Infortrend EonRAID 2510FS fibre channel controller head
1 Infortrend EonStor A16F-J1210 fibre-SATA JBOD

The Xserve can not see the storage mapped to it if the Xserve and the storage are connected to the fabric. However, the 2510FS has a built-in ‘hub,’ and with the Xserve connected to it directly, the storage is visible. The zoning is definitely correct. I contacted my storage vendor (Zzyzx), who immediately put me in contact with QLogic. QLogic told me Mac OS X can’t participate in a fabric, and that Apple only supports their FC cards in a FC-AL configuration. I was told the culprit was OS X’s SCSI class driver, and it’s lack of appropriate SCSI-3 support.

So, my questions is, has anyone successfully used an OS X box in a fabric, with LUN mapping/masking? If so, what was the configuration?

[LazLong]

Well, after a call to my storage vendor and a call back from QLogic, it seems I have the answer as to why googling on Macs booting from SAN’s returned so little. QLogic confirmed my suspicion that Mac OS X sucks….Evidently the Mac SCSI class driver is a POS, and Mac’s can’t participate in a SAN fabric. Apple only supports FC-AL, which is pretty much a dead technology. Yeah….

[LazLong]

Yes, one can boot from a fibre channel device, and yes one can boot from a normal install disc and install an OS onto a fibre-attached volume. Both of these are true, as long as the device is visible to the damn Xserve!

For some reason my Xserve can’t see the san volume I’ve mapped to it. If I connect the Xserve and the FC storage box directly together all is fine, but once I put a switch in between them the Xserve can’t see the volume. I’ve verified that the zoning is correct….I really don’t know WTF is going on….

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