Mailing Lists: Apple Mailing Lists
Image of Mac OS face in stamp
 
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Windows Home Directories and PDC/member servers


I apologize for saying so, but I am glad to see others having these same problems. We have been struggling with our Windows logins since the beginning of the school year (three weeks now).

Our Open Directory Master/PDC is a G5 Xserve with 2 GB RAM. We have disabled offline folders on our XP clients. On the Xserve, we have disabled roaming profiles, and have added 'socket options = TCP_NODELAY SO_KEEPALIVE SO_RCVBUF=64240 SO_SNDBUF=64240 IPTOS_LOWDELAY' to the [global] section of /etc/smb.conf . Additionally, we have doubled the allowable thread count (to 128) for lookupd (Apple Kbase Article 107899). An /etc/netlogon/login.bat , defined in the Login Script: field of Workgroup Manager mounts users' home directories: net use U: \\c5\%UserName% .

Students home directories are stored on four other servers (~1 GHz Power Mac G4s, >=1.5 GB RAM). Staff home directories are stored on three other Xserves which serve home directories stored on a >1 TB Xserve RAID array. All servers run 10.3.5, are 'Connected to a [Open] Directory System' and are Windows 'Domain Member[s]'.

While we have nearly three thousand users defined in WM, only twenty-five to fifty Windows users will ever be logged-in at one time. The eight staff members do not suffer the same issues our students do.

At the beginning and end of each period, as students in our Windows labs login and logout, our Open Directory Master (ODM)/PDC struggles as smbd daemons are spawned for each login/logout. Through extensive testing, we have discovered that the failure seems to occur between the hand-off of students to/from the ODM/PDC to/from the home directory server. For a while, we resolved the issue by restarting our ODM/PDC. Restarting Windows services on either/both ODM/PDC or/and home directory server does not resolve the failure. Only yesterday did we discover that by restarting the home directory server the issue could (temporarily) be overcome. So, as any more than five students simultaneously login to or logout of any particular home server, Windows services on their home directory server fails. Mac users (mounted over AFP) on failing home directory servers are fine during these failures. Students and staff with homes on other home directory servers are able to login/logout during the failures of one or more home directory servers. The connections pane in the Windows section of Server Admin will show an "unknown" connection for each user during these failures. Students get authenticated by the ODM/PDC, and students see a U: drive in Windows Explorer; however, students are denied access to U: , even if they type their username and password as Windows prompts for it (indicating a failure of the home directory server).

We have worked with Apple support and have implemented their suggestions; however, the engineers are now stumped, and we are left to figure-out the solution ourselves. Apparently others are effected by this problem, for I have found some discussion in Apple Discussion forums, a couple of Samba lists, and now here.

I am now trying to determine what happens between the hand-off to/from the home directory server, for that seems to be the point of failure. Has anyone any detailed knowledge of this process?

If anyone else is experiencing these problems, and can add additional details to define the problem, please post them. If anyone is able to overcome these issues, *please* detail how. Thank you.




On 24 Sep, 2004, at 16:05, Chris wrote:

Maybe the problem is that I'm not defining the users home directory. I just
select it in my list of Home Directories under "Home". The same as I would
if it was a OSX Home directory.

Are you having the Home Directories Map to the local machines? Or are they
just browsing to find the home directory?

Again I have no problem if my Home Directory is on the PDC... It maps and
everything is good. Just when I have the home on another member server... No
map, but I can browse to it.

How many concurrent Windows users do you have logged in at one time if you
don't mind me asking?
 _______________________________________________
Do not post admin requests to the list. They will be ignored.
Macos-x-server mailing list      (email@hidden)
Help/Unsubscribe/Update your Subscription:
http://lists.apple.com/mailman/options/macos-x-server/email@hidden

This email sent to email@hidden
References: 
 >Re: Windows Home Directories and PDC/member servers (From: Chris <email@hidden>)



Visit the Apple Store online or at retail locations.
1-800-MY-APPLE

Contact Apple | Terms of Use | Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2007 Apple Inc. All rights reserved.