I have a user who only uses iCal Server from this server. She recently changed her name after getting married. I edited her account in Workgroup Manager to reflect the name change, but I can't change her shortname. If I create a new user with the correct shortname, she'll lose all her calendar events and reminders. Should I just leave the shortname as-is, or am I missing something?
Mac mini, OS X Server
Howdy there grayloon,
It sounds like you would like to change the shortname of one of the user accounts. This article outlines how to accomplish this:
Mac OS X 10.6 Server Admin: Changing a User’s Short Name
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH9332
To change a user’s first short name, you can use the ldapmodrdn command-line tool in Terminal. Any short name except the first name can be changed in the Basic pane of a Workgroup Manager user window.
WARNING: Changing a user’s first short name can have unexpected and undesirable consequences. Other services use each user’s first short name as a unique and persistent identifier.
For example, changing a user’s first short name does not rename the user’s home folder. The user has the same home folder (even though its name doesn’t match the user’s new first short name) unless the user accesses his or her home folder through a group membership.
The following example shows how to change the short name of a user account using ldapmodrdn:
$ ldapmodrdn -U diradmin -Y "cram-md5" -W -r "uid=oldshortname,cn=users,dc=example,dc=com" "uid=newshortname"
This example assumes you’re using Terminal on the Open Directory master server or you’ve set up an SSH connection to the Open Directory master server using Terminal on another computer.
In the example, you replace diradmin with the name of a directory administrator, oldshortname with the short name that you want changed, and newshortname with the new short name.
You must also replace dc=example,dc=com with the server’s search base suffix. You can determine the server’s search base suffix by looking at the Protocols settings pane of the Open Directory service in Server Admin.
If you use ldapmodrdn to change the first short name of a user record with multiple short names, the record’s second short name becomes the first short name and the new short name becomes the record’s last short name.
To reorder short names, use the ldapmodify command-line tool. For more information, see the ldapmodify man page.
Please do keep in mind the bold underlined text.
Thank you for using Apple Support Communities.
Cheers,
Sterling
Add a second short name in Workgroup Manager. Then change her full name.
She'll be able to log in usign her old name and new name.
It's dirty, but easy.
Rename User Account
