HodgeHi

Created new thread as after re-reading problem was very different.

We have around 35 iMac clients (running 10.5.8) with networked-based accounts all running garageband and occasionally iMovie. We also have a trolly of 15 macbooks that connect over an airport extreme also utilising network-based accounts but these mainly just browse the web. And then we have a few machines around the school connecting via AFP and using networked-based accounts. The rest tend to be SMB access. The Home dirs are stored on an XRAID connecting to the server via a 4GB Fibre connection. I think the XRAID is the Slowest part of the system with the drives only being ATA100. As for bandwidth, I'm not sure. Looking at the graphs theres usually around 40-50MB going through? I will see if I can find a graph and upload it so you can see what I mean. We have just recently upgraded the server 10.6.4 to sort out a major problem with our AFP service slowing to a crawl. It seems to have helped but not completely removed the problem. We have upgraded the suite over this 6 weeks to see if this helps.

So what type of user are you logging with? if it's an AD user are you using forced local home dirs? If you have an AD user by default I don't think you can create their home dirs on the OS X Server side through WGM so have these already been pre-created? Open Directory users have their home dirs created when you click on the create Home now button. This takes the default template on the SERVER and creates their home dir. So to change the home dir for all users you would need to edit the server's default template before you create the home dir. If you use AD users with networked based accounts you would need to copy the default template on the server into each home dir and adjust the permissions accordingly. If though you are using AD users with local home dirs I think these are created using the client's default template. So you would need to modify this as well. But from what you are saying it sounds to me that you have issues with your managed preferences applying. I would perhaps look at whether your clients have the OD server added to their list of authentication servers in the directory util.

I would probably look into forced local homes for the machines and then tell the students that any work they want backup up to be stored on the Server share/home dir. This will probably make things a lot easier in the long run. You can still lock down the users and allow access to the AD side of things using the Mac mini server. You just won't need to worry about the server having to cope with the AFP/SMB access for the home dirs. Apparently AFP requires a lot of RAM. It is for this reason our main server has 8GB RAM. We are finding now though that it seems that the CPU is not coping with the load Ours is an XServe xeon quad core 2.? with 8GB RAM. We could do with a new one i think. ^ What TomH said

When launching the application, have the console window open It will point you in the right direction as to what is happening. If it is a permissions problem then it will probably say so in the logs. If not it may help you find out what the problem is.

Maybe they know that nobody gives a toss anyway so may as well let it fall on a day where we can't get any more disheartened

Also Apple's Keynote remote app. Excellent Application. If you use Keynote for your presentations it allows you to remotely control the keynote pres on your iPhone (and I would imagine iPad) using the wireless network. But saying that you have the ability to VGA out from the iPad and have keynote app for it so it would make more sense doing that way. So probably forget all that i said Angry Birds. Good, fun game.

You need to create the pointer record for the XServe. Once the PTR record is added to the reverse lookup zone, it should all be good. You could just remove the A host record from the forward zone for the XServe and then re-create it this time clicking the automatically create PTR record option. This should create the PTR record in the reverse lookup zone for you. You do need to have a reverse zone created before you can do this though. Also when using the host command for the reverse record you do host 192.168.3.2. It should find the record in the Reverse zone and resolve to the appropriate hostname.

realVNC for iPad?

Try here: ScrumpyMacs - Buy or sell second hand or used apple macs, iPod, iMacs, PowerMacs, Mac Pros, Mac Books and spare parts online. or here http://www.krcs.co.uk

sudo mcxrefresh -n [name of a user in the AD] -a You will need to auth for the sudo command using a local admin account and then you will need to enter the password of the shortname that you have entered after the -n I got a volatile home dir Hope this helps.

You mention local accounts. Using 10.6 clients and 10.6 server it could be possible. You could manage the users using machine-based preferences. This would apply to all users on login. But you can also specify to allow administrators the option to disable the preferences on login. A box pops up allowing you to choose whether to keep the managed prefs or to disable to allow administration. May do what you need it to. Depending on your users you could possibly also enable simple finder. There are also the parental controls available for standard users. You could configure one machine up to how you want it and then image this machine and deploy the image to the rest using DeployStudio or your preferred imaging deployment solution.

Unfortunately I would have to agree with you. Over the last few iterations of hardware, there have been more and more issues as they try to reduce the cost of their hardware to bring it to the mass consumer market. But also since the transition to Intel processors. Coincidence? My Powermac G5 is still going on quite strong. It was also the 1st version, Dual processor 1.8 Ghz.

Apple manufacture the Hardware. The OS X is it's biggest selling point. It stands to reason why they don't want it running on non-apple hardware. Why would anyone spend more on an Apple machine if they could run the OS on a standard PC?

I don't know but you could try this command to see if it brings anything up. mcxrefresh Use the man pages to see how it works.

I have never had any issues with Policies failing to apply. If they are machine based policies then they are kept on the clients. They even run when the OD isn't even there! I've had laptops that aren't on the network and the policies are still applied. But this is on 10.5. Have you checked the console for any errors around the time when the policies fail? Would be my first port of call. You may get a hint from there with what's going on. Also I would make sure that the binds are working correctly. I haven't used kanaka or Novell with OS X Clients (or windows ones for that matter) so am unsure if this could affect things differently with the connections to the AD/OD servers. Sorry, I can't help any more than that.

Thanks for the clarification. Will remember that in the future. I have also split the services across multiple servers. This should save use some money. Thanks for the link also.

I was under the impression that you need to use CALs for file sharing services, print services amongst others. Does this mean that you would only need one CAL for these types of services since they all reside on 1 server? Agreed

As far as I am aware this is correct. The mac guys are probably unfamiliar with the rip-off that are CALs. With a Mac Server CALs are not needed. I just explain CALs as a tax on the network cable that joins the 2, Windows (and other OS Clients) and AD Server, together. For example A Windows 2003 server has 10 Clients accessing services on the AD Server. 5 Xp, 5 OS X 10.6. The total amount of CALs needed would be 10. Even though 5 are not Windows clients they still access the services on the AD Server. There's even more confusion when you have multiple services on one AD Server. I think you then need more than 1 CAL for each client for each service being accessed on 1 AD Server.

Then I'm glad i could help Well done by the way. This is the exact same way I learnt. Using guides and the help of this site makes me what I am today. Along with the trials and errors. You're on the right track me thinks

chmod -R 777 should do it. 7 is for read write execute for owner, 7 is read write execute for group and 7 read write execute for everyone else. -R i think propergates the permissions down the hierarchy. Make a note of the permissions on the drive first and then give it a go. If it fails change it back. read and execute is 5 IIRC Run man chmod at the terminal prompt to get more of an idea. Also do some research online about chmod. They tend to simplify what it does. Worked for me. Or possibly someone with a little more knowledge of the command might come along.

I think DiskUtil would be the command you need. diskutil Near the bottom is an example of how to erase a volume. I think this is what you need to do. I am not 100% certain though so you may want to either test it on something first or wait for someone else to pipe up. I think it should work though. The command in the example is: Erase a volume diskutil eraseVolume HFS+ UntitledHFS /Volumes/SomeDisk

I've just looked at the likewise software and I'm not too sure what it does that the Directory utility doesn't. For simplicity's sake I would personally prefer to remove any software that could complicate things and just use what's there. Unless there is an issue with the dir util in general with 2008 AD and OS X. I would perhaps try those 2 together first rather than confusing matters even more with additional software. Or did I miss something, very is very likely If you aren't sure of the process of binding a mac to the AD then give me a shout and I will club together a guide for you.

Depending on the amount of users connecting at one time depends on what you can use. We have just rolled out 2 airport express base stations. These apparently only take up to 10 concurrent connections. Now,whether that is hard coded or just it's feasible capacity I don't know, but I'm going to find out in the 6 weeks. The airport extremes are good base stations. Fairly solid and can use RADIUS authentication as can the airport express. The airport extremes can according to Apple maintain up to 50 concurrent connections. So how you use them depends on which one to get. The biggest difference though which i think makes the decision the hardest is that the airport extreme base station cannot be wall mounted. It has to lie flat. The airport express on the other hand plugs in nicely right into a power socket. If you have an access point directly next to a power socket then these make very neat and tidy WAPs. If you have an XServe then configuring these things to use RADIUS authentication is a cinch. Just setup and configure the RADIUS service on the XServe, specify the users which you want to allow access and then choose the WAPs you want configuring. If they are Apple routers it will automatically re-configure the Wi-Fi settings to use RADIUS. I currently use 10.6 server for RADIUS authentication. This allows you to auth AD Users against the RADIUS service. IIRC my last attempt using 10.5 (not sure which increment) it wouldn't authenticate any users from the AD. The only issue I have with this setup at them moment is Windows XP users need to jump through a few hoops to configure their clients to connect. Not sure if this is a Windows XP issue or just the setup in general (using self-signed certs). OS X is a doddle to connect. Just click on the WiFi icon on the menu bar, choose the SSID and it brings a box up asking for your credentials. Hope this helps. I've attached the guide I found for the XP setup if anyone is interested. Connecting to Wifi.pdf

I know someone who upgraded his hdd to 7200rpm in a macbook. He says it has improved performance but did mention battery taking more of a hit. He think he also mentioned the hdd being a little more noisier. Other than he said the upgrade in speed was probably worth it. But more importantly it can be done.