Can you Cluster MACs at home?

Question

Can you cluster Mac computers at home so they all use the same account/user information, and share all locally mounted volumes using somthing like Mass Storage Control Protocol?
I have Tiger version 10.4.10
Power Mac Dual G5
iMac G5
Mac Mini G5
and soon to be added 24" core 2 duo iMac
I also have a Black Mac Book Core duo, but it would not be a member of the cluster.
If this is not possible, will it be possible in Leapord?
Thank you in advance.

Answer 1

Mac OS X support the Unix Network File System (NFS). However, it leaves out
the GUI.
NFS Manager is a small tool for easy access to the NFS features of Mac OS X. As an operating system with a Unix core, Mac OS X is able to support the Network File System (NFS) protocol. NFS is the accepted industry standard for sharing files between Unix systems.
http://www.bresink.com/osx/NFSManager.html
This page show you how to use NetInfo Manager:
http://mactechnotes.blogspot.com/2005/09/mac-os-x-as-nfs-server.html#c1168221713 40271068
Once you figure out how NFS Manager configures the NFS shares, you can
use Applications > Utilities > NetInfo Manager to create more shares.
You will either have to coordinate Unix Userid number and Unix Group Id number or use the mapall option on the share.
To find out your Mac OS X userid and group id do:
applications > utilities > terminal
ls -ln
ls -l
# lists the NFS share on your mac
showmount -e localhost
#list NFS shares on a remote host
showmount -e remote-ip-address
Once you see what NFS Manager does, you will be able to use NetInfo Manager to manage a connection. In Mac OS 10.4 you can configure the /etc/exports control file. See man exports for the details. Before that you had to have the data in NetInfo manager. When Mac OS X came out, many common Unix control files were not present. Instead the data had to be in NetInfo manager. Over time Apple has added more and more standard Unix control files.
===============================================================
It's best to have common uid's and gid's.
This is tricky stuff.
You need to change these things:
1) Your account information
2) All of your files & folders
One way to change what uid and gid are defined for your account is theNetInfo Manager application. This doesn't change the UID & GID on your files and folders.
Mac OS X ... harddrive -> Applications -> Utilities -> NetInfo Manager
In the middle column is the function. Pick users then select your user. Click on the lock at the bottom of the panel. Go into the property list and change UID and GID."
sudo find -x / -user 501 -exec chown 5464 {} \;
sudo find -x / -group 20 -exec chgrp 211 {} \;
There are two generally used schemes for assigning a group to a user:
1) Assign all users to a common group like staff.
2) Assign each user to their own group. A user like test would be in group test.
Mac OS uses method 1 in 10.2 and method 2 in 10.4.
You should not have multiple users assigned to the same uid. My worry is that if you are only change in the 50x range, you could run into a conflict.
Your best bet is to change to a high number like 5464 on all of your accounts.
On Mac OS, there are a few files that have the old uid as part of their names. The .Trashes file will be on your removal media and maybe everywhere.
/.Trashes/501
/Library/Caches/com.apple.IntlDataCache.501
/Library/Caches/com.apple.IntlDataCache.sbdl.501
/Library/Caches/com.apple.user501pictureCache.tiff
Here are some terminal commands:
Macintosh-HD -> Applications -> Utilities -> Terminal
cd /Applications
Your current user is:
echo $USER
Let's assume myuser
To find out your UID and GID do:
cd ~
ls -ln
ls -l
Or, you can use the id command.
id
compare the output and write down what you find.
You best use the numeric value for your userid. In this case it is 500. To list all the files owned by a userid do:
sudo find / -user 500 -exec ls {} \;
#And you need to do this from an administrator id.
/* adding a -x before the / limits the search to the current file system. *
# To stop the display press control-c
sudo find -x / -user 501 -exec chown 5464 {} \;
#And you need to do this from an administrator id.
Hope this helps a little.
Robert
PS. This is a lot, but I hope it helps.