[tony]

[QUOTE]1. In general, does Server have any performance penalty over Client on a given piece of hardware? I’m not serving websites or running mail . . .just file services and (once I’m running Server) portable homedirs and Open Directory authentication.[/QUOTE]

[color=Blue]Server simply manages server activities better and depending on which hardware you run it on will be faster. In general though, if it’s simply for file sharing, any mac will do provided you have enough ram and hard disk space for all your stuff. You definately want to be on a GIGABIT network though to really enjoy it, esp if you’re using portable homedirs.[/color]

[QUOTE]2. If I am currently using a user name of user1 on my laptop for daily use . . .can I easily convert that user into a portable homedirectory user or do I need to create a new username and move the homedirectory data appropriately? In other words; is the conversion from a local username of user1 with local authentication and homedirectory to OD authentication and portable homedirectory pretty transparent or a pain?[/QUOTE]

[color=Blue]There is a way to do it; in fact I believe it’s documented on this site but it’s really more oriented for those that comfortable with that sort of hack. The safest way to do it is to simply backup all your stuff to an external disk, delete your user from your mac, and then login with the network account you have created and bring back your files manually.[/color]

[QUOTE]3. Same as #2 but regarding the username user1 . . .how does the local workstation know that user1 is now an OD authentication vice local?[/QUOTE]

[color=Blue]Your client machine will need to be setup to get its authentication from your server. You do this by setting the LDAP setting in ‘Directory Access’ once the server is setup properly. You must have DNS setup perfectly on the server before anything will work.[/color]

[QUOTE]4. What happens once user1 is converted to an OD username and the laptop is at Starbucks with no connection to the OD server . . .does it use a cached copy of the credentials or what? I’m assuming that OD authentication goes hand in hand with the portable authentication so that the network OD server and homedirectory are used when the laptop is at home and the cached copy of the authentication and homedirectory when away . . .is this correct?[/QUOTE]

[color=Blue]When you login the first time with your new network account, you are prompted if you want to create a local mirror of your homedir. You say yes. When you’re connected to your network, your machine will sync with the server (portable homedir in action). When you’re not on your network, you will login normally as you do now. Once you get back connected to your network, your server will detect you and will auto sync the changes it detects.

Important: for all that Ive described to take place, you will have had to configure the preferences for your user (on the server) for Portable Homes.[/color]

[QUOTE]5. Since I’ll only be running a single instance of Leopard Server . . .what’s the best way to backup the OD database. Can a copy of Client run as an OD replica or do I just need to separately backup the database for restoration if required.[/QUOTE]

[color=Blue]Server admin lets you easily back it up.[/color]

[QUOTE]6. How do portable homedirectories perform as far as synchronization goes? I’m currently running an MBP and a MacBook across 100BaseT . . .but will be upgrading to one of the 802.11N Airport Extreme base stations soon . . this will give me N speed for the MBP and G only for the MacBook. Homedirs are in the 8 GB or so range in total size./[QUOTE]

[color=Blue]It will work on 100Base-T but depending on the number and size of files you have, you might find it slow. For wireless, I find that 802.11n only is very comfortable and GIGABIT is ideal.

Hope that helps :-)[/color]

[tony]

My server is NOT set up as a PDC it is a standalone system.

The users are authenticating to a W2003 server which is using AD.

[tony]

What do you mean spread them out?

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