OS X Server. Please help me. I feel like crying.

You're not giving us much to go on...

What sort of users and groups did you delete? The system has numerous users/groups that exist to run background daemon processes. You shouldn't mess with those. They shouldn't be visible to a normal user, but might be visible to an admin, depending on what you are doing.

Hi

Without any more details regarding which accounts you deleted (I don't want to appear harsh as you are asking for help) it's possible you may have shot yourself in the foot?

There are a large number of (UNIX) accounts you should not be deleting that are essential to the proper working order, not only of the server but, more fundamentally, of the OS itself. Ordinarily you won't see these accounts although a situation may sometimes arise where you (or some other mechanism) may have inadvertently and/or unknown to you, selected an option that shows you those hidden accounts in the Server.app GUI.

Apart from the Server.app you'd normally use Terminal or Directory Editor (available in the Directory Utility app stored in /System/Library/CoreServices) to see hidden accounts. I usually use the command line utility 'dscl' to view users (hidden or visible) in OS X. Below is the output of pretty much any OS X (server or otherwise) going back to at least 10.2:

dscl . -list /Users

_amavisd

_appleevents

_appowner

_appserver

_ard

_assetcache

_atsserver

_avbdeviced

_calendar

_ces

_clamav

_coreaudiod

_coremediaiod

_cvmsroot

_cvs

_cyrus

_devdocs

_devicemgr

_dovecot

_dovenull

_dpaudio

_eppc

_ftp

_geod

_installassistant

_installer

_jabber

_kadmin_admin

_kadmin_changepw

_krb_anonymous

_krb_changepw

_krb_kadmin

_krb_kerberos

_krb_krbtgt

_krbtgt

_launchservicesd

_lda

_locationd

_lp

_mailman

_mcxalr

_mdnsresponder

_mysql

_netbios

_netstatistics

_networkd

_postfix

_postgres

_qtss

_sandbox

_screensaver

_scsd

_securityagent

_serialnumberd

_softwareupdate

_spotlight

_sshd

_svn

_taskgated

_teamsserver

_timezone

_tokend

_trustevaluationagent

_unknown

_update_sharing

_usbmuxd

_uucp

_warmd

_webauthserver

_windowserver

_www

_xcsbuildagent

_xcscredserver

daemon

Guest

localadmin

nobody

root

user1

user2

user3

etcetc

There's a similar amount of hidden groups as well:

dscl . -list /Groups

_amavisd

_appleevents

_appowner

_appserveradm

_appserverusr

_appstore

_ard

_assetcache

_atsserver

_calendar

_ces

_clamav

_coreaudiod

_coremediaiod

_cvms

_cvs

_detachedsig

_devdocs

_developer

_devicemgr

_dovenull

_geod

_guest

_installassistant

_installer

_jabber

_keytabusers

_launchservicesd

_lda

_locationd

_lp

_lpadmin

_lpoperator

_mailman

_mcxalr

_mdnsresponder

_mysql

_netbios

_netstatistics

_networkd

_odchpass

_postdrop

_postfix

_postgres

_qtss

_sandbox

_screensaver

_scsd

_securityagent

_serialnumberd

_softwareupdate

_spotlight

_sshd

_svn

_taskgated

_teamsserver

_timezone

_tokend

_trustevaluationagent

_unknown

_update_sharing

_usbmuxd

_uucp

_warmd

_webauthserver

_windowserver

_www

_xcsbuildagent

_xcscredserver

accessibility

admin

authedusers

bin

certusers

com.apple.access_screensharing

com.apple.access_ssh

consoleusers

daemon

dialer

everyone

group

interactusers

kmem

localaccounts

mail

netaccounts

netusers

network

nobody

nogroup

operator

owner

procmod

procview

staff

sys

tty

utmp

wheel

If you've deleted all of the the users and/or groups beginning with underscore then you've truly shot yourself in the foot and unless you really know what you're doing it may be quicker if you simply reinstalled the OS? Possibly even format and install? If you've deleted some of these user/groups then it's likely you will start seeing random and intractable behaviour with either the OS, Server.app or both. In either case it's not surprising you feel like crying.

There are a number of 'golden' rules you should be aware of that are crucial to the proper working order of OS X Server. In no particular order these are:

1. before doing anything else configure DNS services properly

2. try and understand the UNIX underpinnings of OS X

3. avoid using .local (mDNS) as the basis for your internal/private domain

4. unless you really know what you're doing try not to fiddle

5. DNS

6. backup as often as possible

7. DNS

8. have as many backups as you can afford

You'll notice DNS is mentioned a number of times because it really is very important. The above is not definitive in any way.

HTH?

Tony

Hi

" . . . find something that will take me step by step . . ."

TBH I doubt if you'll find anything specific to you. However setting up OS X Server is relatively easy and should not take more than 2-3 hours at most if you just consider the server and its local environment first.

A fairly good 'rule of thumb' is to decide the domain you want to use (use a real world one if you have one), get DNS going and secure the server. Thereafter, if you want it, start PM/OD followed by anything/everything else. From there move to whatever you're using to defend your network edge if external access is something you want?

My 2p & HTH?

Tony

You might look at this person's video for instructions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPw0sEHqj6A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eA6rfepKWUs

He easily takes one through process I find...so subscribe for more.

I feel your pain. I have found Todd Olthoff's videos helpful and in addtion recommend Terry Walsh book (on iBookstore) called Using OS X Mavericks server at Home. Both good resources for a novice server user like me.

Stick with it.

I basically gave up about a year ago on mountain lion server. I'm finding mavericks server FAR more reliable and so far am having very good luck with it.

I'm sure that after deleting all those hidden users you probably had no choice but to reinstall. I'm pretty sure those were all necessary system accounts.

Once you re-install the OS and Server, note that you can _hide_ the System-related users and groups from the View menu in the Server app. Never delete accounts you don't recognize. Almost all of these are application- or daemon-specific accounts designed to restrict control over system services.