While running TimeMachine on Mac OS X Server 10.6.3, some of my clients and I were experiencing problems with Open Directory. Almost every time backupd (TimeMachine) ran, slapd (OpenDirectory) would restart. Most of the time, this didn't cause any problems. However, every few days, users would be unable to login to services, some share points would be missing, etc. I believe I've found a temporary fix for the problem (until Apple releases an official fix).
Before TimeMachine would start, the process would call ServerBackup to export some service settings and Open Directory data. This is always when Open Directory would crash/restart and other services would be affected. ServerBackup runs based on plist files in /etc/server_backup. By simply moving these files, I've been able to avoid problems. (note: open directory will not back up with TImeMachine if you do this. you can manually create backups in Server Admin)
To move the files, issue the following commands in Terminal:
sudo mkdir /etc/server_backup.disabled
sudo mv /etc/server_backup/40-openDirectory.plist /etc/server_backup.disabled/
sudo mv /etc/server_backup/55-sharePoints.plist /etc/server_backup.disabled/
Moving these files back to their original location on my test server caused the problems to reoccur, so I'm confident in this temporary fix.
Tod's Blog
Comments
Ernst Mulder (unauthenticated)
Jun 22, 2010
Hello, same issue here with some of my clients' servers. Do you have any info on whether this is fixed with the 10.6.4 update?
Justin (unauthenticated)
Nov 22, 2010
Well it was broke as ever in 10.6.4 for me. Any word on 10.6.5?
offthewall (unauthenticated)
May 11, 2011
Still boken in 10.6.7.