Slow login to snow leopard server

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Slow login to snow leopard server

I have a lab with an open directory server, everything seems to be working fine, clients can log in, individually, one at the time. The problem comes when they try to connect at the same time. For example, my fifth grade comes in (32 students) they try to log in and it takes like 15 minutes. Login in one at the time doesn't take that logn. What can be causing this? Where should I strat looking? I only have AFP and Open Directory services, DNS and DHCP are provided by NYCDOE and only the 37 iMacs in the lab are bound to the server. Any help would be deepley appreciated!

Xserve, Mac OS X (10.6.8), Using Open Directory and a secondHD

Posted on Apr 12, 2013 5:01 AM

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Answer 1

Apr 12, 2013 5:46 AM in response to Bacartini

I can only verify that we had the same problem when we were using Snow Leopard, with wht looks like a similar set up to yours. Our suspicion ran to something flooding the network but our router admins said there wasn't any unusual level of traffic on our network. Sometime between 10.6 and Mountain Lion the problem went away.

The only thing we could do was to log ten machines in at a time.

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Answer 2

Apr 12, 2013 9:59 AM in response to Bacartini

Rule out the low-level stuff first... Check local DNS services for errors (sudo changeip -checkhostname), and check the OD server logs.

Could also easily be a problem with the WiFi or within the network, or a bandwidth constraint within the network. A WiFi network can easily run into capacity problems, entirely separate from the OD processing. Cheap WiFi widgets running high-power and 2.4 GHz and with 10 or 100 Mb networks can be overrun, etc...

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Answer 3

Bacartini Author

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Apr 25, 2013 9:33 AM in response to MrHoffman

I checked DNS in it looks fine! Can switches cause the slowdown?

On the LDAP mappings should it be set up to Open Directory Server like in this picture or just server? Is it better the ip address, the full QDN or just what shows on the pop up?

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Answer 4

Apr 25, 2013 2:02 PM in response to Bacartini

I don't immediately recognize what that output is from as related to DNS services from the Server Admin tool circa 10.6. What tool is that being shown?

As for testing DNS services, please launch Terminal.app from Applications > Utilities on the server itself, and please issue the following diagnostic command:

sudo changeip -checkhostname

This command requires an administrative password for the sudo, and will then output some host information and then an indication that DNS is correct and no changes are needed, or that there are problems and network or DNS changes appear necessary.

On the DNS server itself, the DNS server "self-reference" in the network controller settings will bee to 127.0.0.1; to what's known as localhost. It's the IP network equivalent of "me". Other hosts on your private (NAT'd) network will reference the DNS server by its IP address, and not by localhost.

In a network, anything from a bad cable to a "screaming" network controller to a bad switch port negotiation (duplex and speed mismatches) to DNS server timeouts can all cause network slow-downs.

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