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super newbie question apologies:

I have bought a shiny new Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server pre-installed. I have 5 macs already in the house, and of course on each one there is already a login ID (and password) to actually get into the machine (I'll call this the "local" id)

Should I be using these same local IDs (and password) when creating the users on Snow Leopard Server? Will it automatically create a "link" between this server id and the (identical) local id, or will there now be two same looking, but logically different IDs in existence - one for local one for server?

Ideally obviously I'd want one local machine ID that gets you into the machine, and also into the server. Don't want to go ahead before I'm sure, in case I create a dogs breakfast before I've even started!!

Thanks for the help.

Chealion
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Thomas Browne
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1 Answers1

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The local IDs are completely seperate from the IDs on the server. As it stands each server has it's own set of users and their appropriate IDs and passwords, so yes, there are two same looking but logically different IDs in existence.

If you want to have a username and password combination that allows you to log onto the server and any of the machines you want to create a central directory of this information (cue Open Directory) on the Mac mini and telling all the other machines to look at the Mac mini for their login information. This will take a little while to do as you may need to migrate the contents of home directories to the Mac mini if necessary.

The documentation for Snow Leopard Server is fairly good and I suggest starting with the Getting Started and progressing to the User Management

Chealion
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  • Brilliant thanks Chealion. Now what if one of the clients is a macbook and I take it off the network? Will it lose its Userid information so that I cannot log onto it anymore when off the network? – Thomas Browne Nov 17 '09 at 00:18
  • Depending on your set up (and how home folders are done) it may or may not require to be able to connect to the server. A standard network home requires it to be on the network but a portable home directory or local home directory does not require a connection to the server. – Chealion Nov 17 '09 at 03:28