Mac OS X Server 1.x: About Networking

Known Issues

Enabling NetInfo Access by Clients

When a Mac OS X Server computer is configured as a NetInfo server, clients cannot automatically get their network configuration information from the Mac OS X Server server. Once you have created a NetInfo server using the NetInfoManager application, there are a couple steps that you must take before client computers can access information on the server.

Note: When you configue the NetInfo server, make sure that you have the correct settings for the Hostname, Internet Address, Netmask and Router fields as appropriate for your network. After you have made all these configurations, restart the computer.

In order for a client to be part of a NetInfo network, you must do the following:

1. Create an entry on the NetInfo server for the client machine.
On the server, launch /System/Administration/NetworkManager.app. Click the "Computers" button. For each client machine you want to be part of the NetInfo network, do the following:
 
a. Select the appropriate parent domain in the upper portion of the NetworkManager window.
b. Click the Create Computer button located on the Computers tab.
c. Fill in the Hostname, Internet Address, and Ethernet Address fields. The format of the Ethernet Address field is six colon-separated lowercase hexadecimal values with no leading zeroes. For example, "0:5:2:ef:be:ce:" is a valid entry whereas "00:05:02:ef:be:ce" and "00:05:02:EF:BE:CE" are not. Both the Internet Address and Ethernet Address fields must not have any extra spaces anywhere.
d. Save the entry by choosing Save from the File menu.
e. When the application asks if the selected domain is the parent domain for this host, click the Yes button

2. Statically configure the client machine's networking information.
In order for a client to boot properly on the network, you must statically enter its network configuration. To do this, launch /System/Library/Preferences/Network.preference on the client machine. Set the Connect via pop-up menu to Ethernet, and TCP/IP Configure pop-up menu to Manually. Enter values for the IP address, Hostname, Subnet mask, and Router address fields (this information should be available from your System Administrator or Internet Service Provider). Once you've entered this information, click Apply. If you are not logged in as root, you will be prompted for the root password. Enter the root password and click the Authenticate button. You must now restart the client computer for the new networking settings to take effect.

The Mac OS X Server AppleTalk API is expected to change in the near future. For this reason, the header files for that API have not been included in this release. Developers who are working with a preliminary version of this API should contact ADR for support until an official API is released. In addition, developers should be aware of a potentially serious problem that is still being investigated at Apple.

The problem is that use of the SPWrite and SPWrtContinue functions can result in a system hang. When this happens, you must restart the system. Although these functions are not normally used, they are typically employed in an Apple File Protocol (AFP) server using AFP on top of ASP/ATP.

We currently have no workaround for this situation. An alternative is to use AFP over TCP/IP, which is not affected by this bug. When a solution has been found, we will notify developers through the usual channels, and will post a new version of the Mac OS X Server kernel.