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Dealing with Mac OS X and NetInfo Problems?

Posted by Cliff on from the losing-the-keys-to-your-iBook dept.

newkid would like some assistance getting to the core of this issue: "Apple likes to refer to its server software as an industrial-strength server based on Apple's modern OS. However, there are serious flaws in the authentication system (netinfo): I am locked out of four of my remote servers (even root has been disabled, and that is unacceptable), and the instability is well documented here, here and here. I have successfully reinstalled one server and replaced another one with FreeBSD, but I have not decided what to do in the long run. What is your experience? Should I completely forget OS X for my servers and switch to something else? Or should I move to Panther (it uses LDAP instead of NetInfo to control user accounts)? I would like to know about your experience with OS X Server and if your have made the switch to something else." What experiences have you had with NetInfo on your Mac OS X boxes, and do you have any other hints and tips on recovering the NetInfo database in the event that it does develops amnesia?

5 of 89 comments (clear)

  1. flame on. by seann · · Score: 4, Informative

    evil weblog
    "DirectoryService: NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local."

    "The solution was to restore the Netinfo database."

    NO. the solution is to turn off "Net Info" in the Directory Access program located within /Applications/Utilities folder.
    If you are trying to athunticate to a non-existing netinfo daemon in your domain, your going to get problems.

    Turning off that option relieves the problems hinted at in this link. Please sirs, try this instead of blowing away your net info database, When I first got my powerbook 12" I had this same problem. I realized later on that I clicked "Net Info" in the Directory Access program, and it was trying to auth to a non-existant server.

    --
    I'm a big retard who forgot to log out of Slashdot on Mike's computer! LOOK AT ME.
    1. Re:flame on. by trouser · · Score: 4, Informative

      OSX does use Netinfo by default for local login but the previous poster is quite correct in saying the Netinfo should not be selected in the Directory Access utility. This checkbox is for enabling authentication using a remote Netinfo server and can cause authentication problems including fantastically long timeouts with no on-screen error message when logging in.

      I use LDAP authentication through OpenLDAP on a Linux box with local Netinfo as a fall back for a local admin account. It's been pretty flakey with previous versions of OSX, mainly authentication failures first thing in the morning on machines that have been left asleep at the login prompt over night. Directory Access used to have a lot of trouble working out what to do with itself when the machine woke up. Authentication failed but the Linux server logs tended to suggest that the LDAP requests weren't being made. Anyway, it all seems to work reliably as of 10.3

      --
      Now wash your hands.
  2. Dear Cliff, by reiggin · · Score: 4, Informative
    Would you please stop turning apple.slashdot.org into a hints, tricks, and tips forum? You're 2 for 2 right now. This is "News for Nerds" not "Nerds helping Non-nerds."

    Thanks.

  3. Good resource by sld126 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Especially for 10.2 servers:
    http://www.afp548.com

    and specifically to your question:
    http://www.afp548.com/Articles/system/n etinfobacku p.html

    --
    You're just jealous because the voices only talk to me.
  4. Are you really using NetInfo correctly? by plsuh · · Score: 4, Informative

    Not to minimize your difficulties, but Apple runs NetInfo internally at a very large scale. In the NeXT days NetInfo was used for large-scale deployments and was quite stable.

    Any Mac OS X or X Server machine has a local NetInfo database, stored in /var/db/netinfo/local.nidb/. It serves as the local directory services store for user and configuration information for that machine only. In addition, a Mac OS X Server that is acting as a NetInfo master or LDAP server will contain at least one other NetInfo database usually named "network". This is stored at /var/db/netinfo/network.nidb/. It is used to provide user and service information for a larger network of machines.

    Clients can connect via the native NetInfo protocol which is based on the SunRPC portmapper, or via LDAP. In either case the data are taken from the network.nidb data store.

    The fact that you were "locked out" of four of your servers is very unusual. To properly diagnose this, more information is required. Which one (if any) of these four servers was a directory service server for the group. Was that one acting as an Open Directory password server? What measures did you undertake to re-gain access once the problem was detected?

    By the way, Panther still uses NetInfo as a local directory services store. Passwords are no longer stored as crypt hashes -- they are instead stored as shadowed MD5 hashes in a separate location.

    --Paul
    Technical Training and Certification
    Apple Computer
    psuh at apple dot com