Can a NetInfo Domain be setup w/o OSX Server???

[hfastedge]

I read Apple's "UnderstandingUsingNetInfo.pdf" available from it's knowledge base.

The guide talks about setting up a netinfo domain with an OSX server. It talks about something called "NetInfo Domain Setup", an application built into OSX server.

OSX client has NetInfo Utility and it seems like setting up a domain between two clients might be possible.

My attempt w/ OSX client has been as follows: go into NetInfo Utility, authenticate, go to Domain menu, Hierarchy,create new parent domain. Then in that I add a new user just by copying the entry for another user in an establish domain (ie using that as a template).

Then, on the machine that I hope to be a client of this parent domain I go to directory setup. I do static binding, and type the host of the parent machine and the domain name. Restart everything....but nothing happens. Can't log in.

Anyway...I have played around with the command line utilities too...they work fine, but I can't do anything until I have a simple setup to demonstrate that this can work.

There is one glimmer of hope. I set up a domain either by command line (nidomain -m TAG) or GUI. Then on another machine I use NetInfo utility and under the domain menu I select open domain by tag. If I enter the proper info, I can see the domain on the other machine....So clearly they are able to connect.

Anyway...I need help!! I have to show my UNIX sysadmins that this CAN work. ALso, upgrading to 10.1 over the weekend. Maybe there will be some changes there.

Thanks Folks!

[Jadey]

Mac OS X can do all the essentials that OS X Server can, it just doesn't have the GUI interface tools to do it all. If you want to set up a regular, fully qualified domain name, Darkshadow just posted a great DNS How-To here:

http://www.macosx.com/showthread.php?threadid=6323

If you want more GUI, try webmin at http://www.webmin.com Webmin does work under regular X or the server edition.

[hfastedge]

I am looking for assitance with creating a properly working NetInfo domain. I already have one machine getting its info from my UNIX NIS server. I want to play with NetInfo and get it to share that data to the other macs...Yes I could do it the same as the first, BUT I WANT TO USE NETINFO!!!!

[hfastedge]

Yello, any ideas?

[Jadey]

http://www.osxfaq.com has instructions on setting up domain names using Netinfo. Yay them! Who's Yello btw?

[hfastedge]

I am not asking about domain names!! I am asking about using NetInfo for serving USER data amongst MAC OSX machines!!!

This has nothing to do with the internet.

It happens...that the terminology that apple uses to define a NetInfo server is a "domain".

Refer to original question. Read in detail

[alexrd]

Do you want to create a netinfo authorization domain, or use OSX as an NIS server? That's not really relevant to answering your question, I'm just nosy...

Did you try setting NETINFOSERVER to ON in /etc/hostconfig? I would also try manipulating the other NIS and netinfo lines in there (actually, an old sysadmin trick, turn everything on, then start turning stuff off until it breaks.)

You should be able to do this with OSX client. The aforementioned caveat about nice graphical admin tools applies of course.

My home mac is a solitary type, if I have time I'll explore the issue further at work tomorrow, I've been wanting to get OSX playing nice with NetBSD NIS for awhile anyway...

-alex.