10.5.5 deleted all users and groups on my Xserve (!?)

[Peaceful]

I just bought an Xserve, set up a software raid (mirror) of the two hard drives, installed Leopard server, updated to 10.5.4 (this was yesterday morning).

I selected "standard", started setting up Mail, added some users and groups, tested some of them to see if they worked.

Then I installed 10.5.5 today ("great, it's out before we're using the server!")...and now the local admin user I created is GONE.

Weird. I was able to log in as "root" and the admin password I had set. I opened up Server Preferences. No users. No groups. Tried testing mail on a client again -- doesn't work anymore.

Where the heck did everything go? Is this standard practice for OS X Server updates to clear out everything?? (this is my first Xserve and my first experience with OS X Server).

???

 

[Peaceful]

Well, over a hundred views and not a single reply. A server with not even an admin account is useless.

I reinstalled OS X 10.5 today and updated it straight to 10.5.5.

Here's the WEIRD thing: On the Xserve I then recreated the user that I had set up my MBPro to access for Mail/etc. and set it's password to (X). After going back to my desk, I couldn't log into my MBPro with my password (Y). What the heck? I finally discovered that my user account login on my MBPro had been changed to (X)!!!

Is that normal? You set the password for a user on an Xserve, and then if that user connects with a laptop, it changes the local password on the laptop???

 

[MacsRgr8]

You sure you didn't make your Xserve an Open directory master, and as a consequence you couldn't find the old users which were stored "locally"?

FYI, it is recommended to store users & groups in Open Directory. Either your server will be the "master", or this server is some "replica" or "connected to", i.e. client.
But choose one. Leaving "Stand Alone" is not recommended.