Going crazy with creating Users.

[wyattbiker]

When I create a new user in Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard, what is the difference between using System Prefs and Server Prefs panes to add users?

Is there a doc that explains how I use these two?

Thanks

 

[woodlandtrek]

Accounts created in System Preferences are local accounts, they will work on that machine only.

Accounts created in Server Preferences are network accounts, meaning that users can log on to those accounts from any computer connected to the server.

Check out pages 82-85 in the getting started guide you received with the server for an overview of the different types of user accounts (also available here)

For a more detailed explanation, see the User Management document.

You can find most of the documentation you will need for your server in apple's Server resources page

 

[dptech]

When I create a new user in Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard, what is the difference between using System Prefs and Server Prefs panes to add users?

Is there a doc that explains how I use these two?

Thanks

I was confused, are you creating local accounts or Open Directory accounts?
If you're creating OD accounts and assuming you have a source that you can extract the account information from, there is a tool called passenger. It's well worth the money and will take a csv (or tab delimited) file and convert it into user accounts that can be imported into OD.

 

[wyattbiker]

Accounts created in System Preferences are local accounts, they will work on that machine only.

Accounts created in Server Preferences are network accounts, meaning that users can log on to those accounts from any computer connected to the server.

Check out pages 82-85 in the getting started guide you received with the server for an overview of the different types of user accounts (also available here)

For a more detailed explanation, see the User Management document.

You can find most of the documentation you will need for your server in apple's Server resources page

Thank you for the detailed description. Makes a little more sense now. I will read through the manuals.

Just a quick question on this. Can a local user eg. johndoe be also an OD user. Any particular issues with that? Or vice versa. Can i add an OD user to local without issues.

 

[woodlandtrek]

Thank you for the detailed description. Makes a little more sense now. I will read through the manuals.

Just a quick question on this. Can a local user eg. johndoe be also an OD user. Any particular issues with that? Or vice versa. Can i add an OD user to local without issues.

On a client system, the login is always authorized against a the list of local users first. If it doesn't find a match, it attempts to authorize against the users in OD. You can create a local and network user with the same name, but the local one will always be accessed first. The two accounts won't really be related to each other in any way and will most likely cause troubleshooting headaches down the road.