[jstrauss]

I'm deploying about 30 MacBooks for a school lab next week, and I'm trying to setup a computer list. Basically, the 30 computers I want to put in Lab1 will go into the Lab1 computer list, and any user who logs into a computer in the Lab1 computer list will have to adhere to the Preferences placed on the Lab1 computer list. The only thing is... this entire setup isn't working. Is this how computer lists work, anyway? I can't get the computer list preferences to bind to the computers.

BTW, I'm using an integrated Mac/Windows setup here, so the computers are actually bound to Active Directory so AD users can login, and their NetBIOS names are listed (along with their Ethernet MAC addresses) in the Lab1 computer list.

Any suggestions? Big thanks, BTW, this forum has been a big help in the past.

[cms]

AFAIK the preferences are set by GROUP, not computer list. If you have a list of users in a specific group, then you can control that entire group by setting the appropriate preferences in the individual controls. I would guess that the group preferences are overriding the computer list preferences. In the school I work for, I set specific groups for different types of users on each LDAP server so that students, teachers, administrators, etc., are given the appropriate levels of access. It works well and is pretty much foolproof.

[jstrauss]

cms,

Thanks for the info. At my school, I have all the faculty/staff in groups by department, and it works well because most of the departments have their own buildings. With these student labs that will be all over campus, however, I was hoping I could control preferences by individual computer (for example, computers Lab1_1-Lab1_50 print to printer Lab1Printer, Lab2_1-Lab2_50 print to Lab2Printer, etc.).

What I'll end up doing is do what I did with the faculty and staff users: I'll import all student user records into WGM and set preferences for that group, and just add lots of printers.

Thanks for your help, and let me apologize for a case of what my girlfriend calls "excessive and unnecessary over-explanation."

- jeff

[Art Vandelay]

No, you can do preferences by computer lists. As for why it's not working for you, I'm not sure. I don't deal with AD. I do Open Directory and I do all my managed preferences by computer lists. It works perfectly.

[Jellytussle]

Preferences can be managed at a workgroup or computer list level. The client machines and the OS X server will need to have both the AD and the OD in their directory search list in Directory Access. The AD should be before the OD. Mike Bombich has good notes on this at Bombich.com: Mac OS X Deployment and Management Solutions, or look at AFP548 - Changing the world one server at a time. for more info.