Incorrect host names on Mac clients

As many of you are no doubt aware the Mac hostname displayed on the client and in the DNS Name field of ARD are more than likely incorrect. For example, your Mac might be named ldntam-DMX1234 but you get a hostname of OSLggk-DXP5678 or some other random name. This is a problem for applications such as LANDesk which need accurate DNS names associated to IPs.

After much research and many discussions with Apple we have finally received this definitive reply:

“Mac OS X 10.5 clients do not update PTR (reverse) records. The 10.5 Mac
clients will register an A record and the DHCP server must register
the Mac's PTR record. If a PTR record already exists with the IP
address that a Mac has, the Mac will be given the hostname of the
previous PTR record. That is why scavenging and choosing the option
to discard A and PTR records when the lease is deleted is necessary.”

DHCP servers can be configured to either update A and PTR records only if requested by clients or to always update DNS A and PRT records. The problem with the later method is that the server, rather than the client, will own the record and the client’s ACL is not included in the DNS object’s security list. This can cause problems if the client goes to another location, if the DHCP server is changed or if the A and PTR records are not released properly (which happens a lot).

It is also highly recommended that DHCP servers NOT reside on domain controllers. In such a configuration (DHCP and DNS on the same server) MS recommends using an account with DNS credentials to update the DNS records to ensure the integrity of Dynamic DNS updates.

According to Apple, Snow Leopard should have the ability to dynamically update PTR records.

BEUTILITY (BackupExec Utility)

To migrate the BackupExec databases after the server has been migrated to a new domain:

Make sure you change all the BackupExc services so that they launch using a local service account not a domain or local admin account.  DO THIS FIRST and then run the beutility.exe app.

The beutility.exe file is located in the in the same folder as the main BE application. 

Launch beutility.exe.  The option is not so easy to find.. You click on the List of servers, right click on the server name and select "update configuration to reflect new media server name", then fill in the new domain and server name and the old domain and server name.

Enable random signature in Entourage

• Setup your signatures in tools/signatures
• In the signature put a tick in "Include in random list"
• Close the signatures and go to tools/accounts/
• Double click on your mail account and go to the Options tab
  
• In the "Default signature" pull-down select "Random"
• Click "OK"

Now each time you create a new mail message it will select a signature from your Random list.

OS X Server: Speeding up directory searches

One of the major complaints about OSX Server is that once they are bound, searching for users/groups from the AD can take a long time (and sometimes times out before completion).

The problem, according to Apple, is that AD doesn’t index any attributes for a substring search and therefore all records have to be searched. The Workgroup Manager plug-in times out after 60 seconds and even an ldapsearch from the command line will only search for 120 seconds and then give up.

Apple has two suggestions to speed up searches:

• In Workgroup Manager, click on the little magnifying glass in the search window and select "Name is" and enter the last, first of the user you are searching for
  

• In Workgroup Manager, click on the little magnifying glass in the search window, go to “advanced” and search for “Real Name” This will search the cn attribute and is much faster than a normal search- this works for groups too

I have tested both of the above work-arounds and found that they work very well. The Real Name search is particularly fast.