[Simon]

OK, I have a PowerMac and I'm going to get a couple of others (iMac, eMac and portables). They can all run OS X. Since the only users are my g/f and I we don't want many user accounts - two is enough, but we want to have access to our user accounts from all machines.

So I was thinking of using my PowerMac as a server. I would then connect the other Macs through a hub to the ethernet network or (in case of the portables) through Airport. I would like to have OS X running on of all of them, but when one of us logs in we would like to always get the same single user account. And of course we'd like any changes made to the user account from any client machine to be available at the next login at any other client. The idea is to have Macs in a couple of rooms and be able to login to our user account from each of them.

Is this possible with OS X (Jaguar) or do I need the server version? I don't think I'd have the cash for the server edition. Could this be done through the Netinfo Manager? Is there a web site that explains how to do this? Will it work if the clients have dynamic IPs (our stupid cable ISP only allows DHCP with dynamic IPs)? Are the user accounts all on the server and is that the complete user data, i.e. would one backup of the server be enough to backup all the user data? And finally, will we be able to also login to the server PowerMac with our normal user accounts and use the server like a client?

Thanks in advance for any help, tips, etc.

[Graymalkin]

You can just export a user directory on the server (PowerMac) and mount it via fstab at boot-up. Having it mount as /Users will let you and your gf have your home directories available on all your systems. You don't need to boot from the server, just grab an NFS export. The client versions of OSX come with nfsd which allows you to export NFS shares.

[Sarc]

what you need is OS X Server .. doesn't matter if 10.1 o 10.2 ... what I suggest though is a Macintosh Manager Enviorment.

I have worked closely with all of those technologies (NetBoot, NetInstall, Mac Manager, etc) and IMHO the best results come from a Workstation Model ...

each iMac boots from his own HDD and then a sort of "Network Login" appears, so then the user Logs in, and his home directory is loaded from the Network Server ... and stored there as well ...


In this way you don't saturate your network with trafic, but still have the beneffits of a centralized server.

[Sarc]

my bad ...

all what I wrote up is ideal for OS 9 machines ...

However I'm almost sure the same can be done in OS X.

[Simon]

Originally posted by Graymalkin:
You can just export a user directory on the server (PowerMac) and mount it via fstab at boot-up. Having it mount as /Users will let you and your gf have your home directories available on all your systems. You don't need to boot from the server, just grab an NFS export. The client versions of OSX come with nfsd which allows you to export NFS shares.

Thanks for your reply. This sounds good, but I think I want more than just /Users. Would this also work for /Applications? You see, I would like to have all user data but also all apps accessible from any client without having to install apps manually on all clients.

Anyhow, I think I have an idea what you are suggesting. Although I could use a hand through this stuff, since I've never done it before. As far as I understand you, I'm going to have to do:

1. Get the server up and running with user accounts, apps, etc.

2. Get the clients running with OS X but no special user accounts.

3. Then modify the client's boot files to load the server's /Users and /Applications as volumes on the client machine. BTW, does the server have to have a certain fixed IP for this to work or is a "OS X machine name" enough?

4. Use Netinfo Manager to re-route the client machine's /Users and /Applocations to /Volumes/server_users/ and /Volumes/server_apps. Or would this just work with symlinks w/o having to fool around with the Netinfo Manager?

Is this correct? Can you tell me what the file names are for the files I have to edit. Could you also tell me what the entries should look like? I haven't been able to find a website with google that would give me step-by-step instruction on how to do this.

Thank you very much.

[Simon]

Originally posted by Sarc:
my bad ...

all what I wrote up is ideal for OS 9 machines ...

However I'm almost sure the same can be done in OS X.

No problem, thanks for the reply anyway. I have come across pages on the web that talk about this idea, but they all rely on OS X Server, NetBoot and Macintosh Manager. I can imagine that this solution works very well, but I really don't have the money for X Server.

So, I'm hoping to get this to work with some cheap fiddling around.

[Axel]

Have you done it successfully ? If so, I'd be glad to know how because I'm planning to do the same thing at my house.

[Simon]

Originally posted by Axel:
Have you done it successfully ? If so, I'd be glad to know how because I'm planning to do the same thing at my house.

No, unfortunately I haven't come across a solution w/o using OS X Server. I'm still stuck with several machines booting and running on their own...

[goMac]

Macintosh Manager does NOT work under Mac OS X client. Macintosh Manager can only be served from OS X -> OS 9 clients.

You probably want a NetInfo server setup which can be done with OS X Server 10.1 or 10.2 (although 10.2 is best). The tutorial for OS X Server is actually a setup like the one you are describing, so it shouldn't be to hard to set up. If you want to go for cheap, you can get something like a 10 client license of OS X.

I'm not sure mounting a server directory would work because that has to be done during the actual startup of the machine (before netinfo kicks in).

[Simon]

Originally posted by goMac:
I'm not sure mounting a server directory would work because that has to be done during the actual startup of the machine (before netinfo kicks in).

I agree 100% and that's why I thought I needed some tools (i.e. OS X Server) to get this to work - simple NFS mounts somewhere after boot time is not going to cut it...

[Drizzt]

I already did it with a Linux server...

Export via NFS a directory containing the user files, in NetInfo, change the user's directory path to point to the NFS share.. et voilà!

Be advised that you MUST created the users in the same order on all the machines, otherwise the UID will be different and you will not be able to have access to your files..

Good luck

[Simon]

Originally posted by Drizzt:
Export via NFS a directory containing the user files, in NetInfo, change the user's directory path to point to the NFS share.. et voilà!

OK, sounds good to me. But the NFS mount has to be done basically at boot time because NetInfo needs to find the linked server volumes right from the start I suppose. How do you do such a mount? And what about the export?

The NetInfo part otherwise is clear.

[Drizzt]

Originally posted by Simon:
OK, sounds good to me. But the NFS mount has to be done basically at boot time because NetInfo needs to find the linked server volumes right from the start I suppose. How do you do such a mount? And what about the export?

The NetInfo part otherwise is clear.

No, since the boot process doesn't need to know where your home directory is.

Once you get to the logon screen, the machine is more than ready to connect to the server

[Simon]

Originally posted by Drizzt:
No, since the boot process doesn't need to know where your home directory is.

Once you get to the logon screen, the machine is more than ready to connect to the server

Ah shucks. Bad wording on my behalf. Sorry.

I meant how do I do the NFS mount before the user logs in, i.e. how to do the NFS mount w/o the user going into the Finder and mounting manually.

P.S. As I mentioned further above I'd like a common /Applications folder on all client machines. Could I do a NFS export of the server /Applications as well and just do a soft link on the clients?

Code:
% rm -r /Applications
% ln -s /Volumes/Server_Applications /Applications

Or is there such a thing as a NetInfo entry for the location /Applications too?

[Drizzt]

On the client, use NFSManager to do a static mount in /Application.. that's all (or you could do the mount in /Network/Applications and /Network/Users.. for a more consistent setup).

The OS will do the work for you..