MacOS Server 5.2 with newer MacOS iMac clients

[Jedi.Master.Dre]

I am trying to get T1 2019 and T2 2020 iMacs to connect as clients to my El Capitan Server running MacOS Server 5.2.

Extremely frustrating. I am hundreds of hours into this, and have tried so many things.

Is this even possible?

 

[Jedi.Master.Dre]

I had a T1 2019 working with MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 and then the next day it just spun indefinitely.

 

[Jedi.Master.Dre]

The login and password work and if I use admin or guest to login locally I can bind to a test account and access the server. So it’s a software issue.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

Search the threads here & elsewhere. MacOS server.app is dead man walking. Use a Synology NAS for basic, pain-free directory services.

 

[sevoneone]

How many Macs do you need authentication for? JumpCloud has a free tier for up to 10 users/computers that gives you access to all their features.

 

[Jedi.Master.Dre]

I have about 32 machines. I really want users to have menu bars saved/customized and have home folders stored on my 8tb server iMac.

I’ll pay. I’d pay a grand easy, if it was stable.

 

[Altemose]

I have about 32 machines. I really want users to have menu bars saved/customized and have home folders stored on my 8tb server iMac.

I’ll pay. I’d pay a grand easy, if it was stable.

If you are trying to bind using basic Open Directory, that is achievable with older versions of Server. It is a manual process to bind them and the later versions of macOS will not allow roaming home folders.

If you are trying to manage the later versions of macOS with Profile Manager, then you will need to upgrade the server to at least 5.11.1 (soon to be 5.12) on Big Sur. From there, you can create shares that map upon login but I do not believe roaming profiles is still supported due to the increased login times.

 

[sevoneone]

From there, you can create shares that map upon login but I do not believe roaming profiles is still supported due to the increased login times.

Back when Gigabit Ethernet provided the same throughput as your average HDD startup disk, network home folders or roaming profiles made sense. macOS is very much no longer optimized for low storage throughput. Just browsing an SMB shared folder with more than 50-60 items in it is an exercise in patience in many cases.

 

[Altemose]

Back when Gigabit Ethernet provided the same throughput as your average HDD startup disk, network home folders or roaming profiles made sense. macOS is very much no longer optimized for low storage throughput. Just browsing an SMB shared folder with more than 50-60 items in it is an exercise in patience in many cases.

That is why a lot of enterprise Windows environments have foregone roaming profiles in favor of policy enforced folder redirection.

 

[Jedi.Master.Dre]

If you are trying to bind using basic Open Directory, that is achievable with older versions of Server. It is a manual process to bind them and the later versions of macOS will not allow roaming home folders.

If you are trying to manage the later versions of macOS with Profile Manager, then you will need to upgrade the server to at least 5.11.1 (soon to be 5.12) on Big Sur. From there, you can create shares that map upon login but I do not believe roaming profiles is still supported due to the increased login times.

"the later versions of macOS will not allow roaming home folders" meaning no matter what version of server is running Big Sur clients won't allow home folders? If so damn. I so hope there is some way to make this work. I have tried numerous things and my brain is going mush... LOL

 

[Altemose]

"the later versions of macOS will not allow roaming home folders" meaning no matter what version of server is running Big Sur clients won't allow home folders? If so damn. I so hope there is some way to make this work. I have tried numerous things and my brain is going mush... LOL

Could you create a shared folder and force it to map on login that way each user has a default network drive?

 

[Jedi.Master.Dre]

Could you create a shared folder and force it to map on login that way each user has a default network drive?

Through finder > Network, users can access their home folder on the "server" but students are often absent-minded and save things on the desktop, then move "client" imacs the next class... hassle.