Changed IP of OS X Server (Mavericks)

[zerojase]

Well, I'm in a pickle. Was working onsite at a small office that has 4 iMacs and a Mac Mini running OSX server. They couldn't connect to the internet at most of the workstations. I added a router and got the connection up and running pretty quickly. In the process to organize their network I set them up on 192.168.4.X Afterwards none of the workstations (iMacs) can connect to the server. The server shows up in Finder just find, when clicked though it has "Connect As" and that fails. It says check the IP address of the server etc. I lowered the permissions on the file shares thinking that was the issue. It didn't work. I tried running the hostname change utility from OSX Server and that didn't work either. I can't for the life of me figure out what is wrong. Again, the server is right there in Finder but no one can connect. They are not using Open Directory services and are not on any other domain. Help would be greatly appreciated.

Mac mini, OS X Server

 

[S.B.G]

Prior to the router being there, was the mini acting as the gateway and DNS server? Did you update the server and clients to be on the same subnet as the router and point them to the new gateway and DNS?

 

[zerojase]

Prior to the router being there, was the mini acting as the gateway and DNS server? Did you update the server and clients to be on the same subnet as the router and point them to the new gateway and DNS?

Yes it was, and yeah they are on the same subnet and DNS. It's all manually assigned. I should mention that when in Finder and I got to Connect to server and manually type in the server address I cant connect that way either. But it does show up in Finder under Network

 

[S.B.G]

Yes it was, and yeah they are on the same subnet and DNS. It's all manually assigned. I should mention that when in Finder and I got to Connect to server and manually type in the server address I cant connect that way either. But it does show up in Finder under Network

What is the IP, GW and DNS of the Mac mini? And, what is the IP, GW and DNS of the router? Is the router pushing out DHCP IP's, and if so, what is the range of the DHCP pool?

 

[zerojase]

What is the IP, GW and DNS of the Mac mini? And, what is the IP, GW and DNS of the router? Is the router pushing out DHCP IP's, and if so, what is the range of the DHCP pool?

Mac Mini
IP 192.168.4.29
GW 192.168.4.1
DNS 127.0.0.1 (currently, but have tried using 192.168.4.29, 192.168.4.1, and 8.8.8.8 during test process none worked)

Router
IP 192.168.4.1
GW external IP from ISP (not infront of router currently)
DNS 8.8.8.8

It is pushing DHCP The range is 192.168.4.100-254 I have manually assigned all address outside of that range .23, .24, .25, .26 up to .29 for the server

 

[S.B.G]

That appears correct. What about NAT, are you using that or maybe double NATing it since you added the router?

What kind of router is it?

 

[zerojase]

This is the router
http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksys-BEFSR41-EtherFast-Router-4-Port/dp/B00004SB92

I haven't yet checked the NAT not sure where it could be doubled.

Here is the configuration

CLOUD---ROUTER----SWITCH--iMac(4 total)
\
MacMini Server (the MacMini is attached to the SWITCH when I posted it looks like it's point to the CLOUD that is not the case)

 

[S.B.G]

This is the router
http://www.amazon.com/Cisco-Linksys-BEFSR41-EtherFast-Router-4-Port/dp/B00004SB92

I haven't yet checked the NAT not sure where it could be doubled.

Here is the configuration

CLOUD---ROUTER----SWITCH--iMac(4 total)
\
MacMini Server (the MacMini is attached to the SWITCH when I posted it looks like it's point to the CLOUD that is not the case)

So you have a separate router and a switch in there? What make/model is the switch? Did you do any configurations to it? Is it a layer 3 switch and are there any VLAN's set up besides the default VLAN 1?

 

[zerojase]

So you have a separate router and a switch in there? What make/model is the switch? Did you do any configurations to it? Is it a layer 3 switch and are there any VLAN's set up besides the default VLAN 1?

Yes the switch connects to the router, mostly to expand beyond the 4 available network ports on the router. The switch is an old Dell PowerConnect. It has no configuration and no VLANs. It's a pretty simple(dumb) switch.

 

[S.B.G]

Yes the switch connects to the router, mostly to expand beyond the 4 available network ports on the router. The switch is an old Dell PowerConnect. It has no configuration and no VLANs. It's a pretty simple(dumb) switch.

Okay, so you have an unmanaged switch; that shouldn't be an issue then.

Do you get any response when you try to ping the Mac mini or the router from one of the clients?

 

[zerojase]

Okay, so you have an unmanaged switch; that shouldn't be an issue then.

Do you get any response when you try to ping the Mac mini or the router from one of the clients?

When I ping the Server from the Client it doesn't respond. The server does show up in client (iMacs)Finder. I verified this wasn't just some left over by changing the local hostname from the Server utility and it changed in Finder correctly.

 

[S.B.G]

When I ping the Server from the Client it doesn't respond. The server does show up in client (iMacs)Finder. I verified this wasn't just some left over by changing the local hostname from the Server utility and it changed in Finder correctly.

Is the OS X software firewall turned on? If so, turn it off, since you now have a hardware router in place.

 

[zerojase]

Is the OS X software firewall turned on? If so, turn it off, since you now have a hardware router in place.

Ok I will have to try that. Should I turn it off just at the server or at the workstations as well?

 

[S.B.G]

Ok I will have to try that. Should I turn it off just at the server or at the workstations as well?

Turn it off on all of them. The Linksys Router is now acting as your firewall.

 

[S.B.G]

Ok I will have to try that. Should I turn it off just at the server or at the workstations as well?

It's a little slow at work today, so I whipped up this diagram of what I think your network looks like. Is this right?
View attachment Drawing.pdf

 

[zerojase]

It's a little slow at work today, so I whipped up this diagram of what I think your network looks like. Is this right?
View attachment 488693

Pretty much. Except the workstations are Static 192.168.4.23 through .28

 

[S.B.G]

Pretty much. Except the workstations are Static 192.168.4.23 through .28

Oh ok. Any luck with the software firewall?

 

[zerojase]

Oh ok. Any luck with the software firewall?

Going to try that right now.

 

[S.B.G]

Going to try that right now.

If that doesn't work, do a factory reset on the Dell PowerConnect.

----------

As I'm looking over the diagram I am building. Change the gateway on one of the iMac's to the IP of the Mac mini server (192.168.4.29) and see what happens.

Leave the gateway on the clients as 192.168.4.1 and set the DNS to 192.168.4.29. But you can leave the Google DNS (8.8.8.8) on the router. Make sure the Mac mini's DNS is still set to 127.0.0.1.

 

[zerojase]

Going to try that right now.

Well its working now. I don't know what happened. But I determined to find out. The company that has this setup sublets from my company. My company is Windows based and I help them occasionally. I am wondering if they called Apple. I will ask them who they used and see if I can't get a report of the changes made. I can't say thank you enough for the help. You are in my opinion a pillar of this community. I want to do my part now and report the solution once I have it so someone else might be saved some grief.

 

[S.B.G]

Well its working now. I don't know what happened. But I determined to find out. The company that has this setup sublets from my company. My company is Windows based and I help them occasionally. I am wondering if they called Apple. I will ask them who they used and see if I can't get a report of the changes made. I can't say thank you enough for the help. You are in my opinion a pillar of this community. I want to do my part now and report the solution once I have it so someone else might be saved some grief.

Regardless of how it got working, I'm glad to hear that it is. But like you said, you should know what made it work and what was mis-configured so that it can be avoided in the future.

I'd like to hear the outcome too, if found out.

 

[zerojase]

Regardless of how it got working, I'm glad to hear that it is. But like you said, you should know what made it work and what was mis-configured so that it can be avoided in the future.

I'd like to hear the outcome too, if found out.

I spoke with the staff and they didn't do much of anything. Apparently it just started working. I have no idea why it didnt work for me. Very curious. I will keep a close eye because perhaps the issue is intermittent.