HT4974 Changing file service location for Groups

Question

Who has found the "separate interfaces" for File Service data mentioned in the referenced article?  I cannot figure out how to get Mountain Lion OS X Server to move away from the /Groups folder for Group Services.
TIA,
Tim

Answer 1

Hi there
I have been looking at this also and am also very annoyed that Apple has chosen not to surface this functionality in the Server administration GUI for system administrators. It must be part of their drive to 'prettify' OS X Server — a terrrible mistake and the persons responsible should be sacked and some people with real (painful) sysadmin experience be put in responsibility. Strong words I know, but read on...
The minute someone decides to install OS X Server they go from being a 'user' to being, whether they like it or not, a 'sysadmin'. It is no trivial thing being a systems administrator, and sysadmins very quickly, with respect to touching systems, become familiar with this sentiment : "Be afraid, be very afraid..."
The functionality to change the location of the File Sharing  — Groups, Server Public (Shared Items) & Users — mount points exists in OS X Server. In fact it can (should be able to I believe — I have not tried it... yet) be changed with one command... if necessary preparations have been done.
To view all the server settings for file sharing issue this command in Terminal:
sudo serveradmin settings sharing
we will then see the following for Groups (there is more listed for users etc. folders I haven't shown), I have blanked out some site specific information.
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:dsAttrTypeStandard\:GeneratedUID = "xxx"
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:smbName = "Groups"
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:afpIsGuestAccessEnabled = no
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:smbDirectoryMask = "0755"
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:ftpIsShared = no
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:afpName = "Groups"
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:smbCreateMask = "0644"
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:ftpIsGuestAccessEnabled = no
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:nfsExportRecord = _empty_array
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:path = "/Groups"
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:smbIsGuestAccessEnabled = no
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:name = "Groups"
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:smbInheritPermissions = no
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:ftpName = "Groups"
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:smbIsShared = yes
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:afpIsShared = yes
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:isIndexingEnabled = yes
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:dsAttrTypeNative\:sharepoint_group_id = "xxx"
sharing:sharePointList:_array_id:/Groups:mountedOnPath = "/"
This is based on, in my installation, of having the Groups folder in the original default location of "/Groups". One of the lines shows clearly what needs to be changed to move (change mount point) '/Groups' to a new location...
The concern I have with the way you moved the Groups folder is it may not work cleanly long term because just symbolically linking the folder may not be sufficient.
Also using rsync with '-avvE' options copies the extended attributes (ACLs) but setting/copying the (traditional) Unix owner and group ownership & permissions (which are also used by OS X) are not done. If the command is executed as root then all the copied files & directories will change owner & group to root's. The following rsync switches should be used
--owner
--group
--perms
preferably though the Unix 'cp' command should be used with the '-a' switch, something like this:
cp -a /Groups /Volumes/VolumeName/SomeNewFolder
N.B. no trailing '/' is used.
Of course this is untested by myself as yet, and you should check and confirm yourself. I have a Parallels OS X virtual machine I will install OS X Server on to try this, I will not do on my production server.
You will note that I have not listed the the serveradmin settings command to change where OS X Server should look for the '/Groups' folder can you see what it should be? I can post what I believe it should be if you wish, let me know.
Of course all of the above relies on the fact that OS X Server will not get 'upset' with us changing a setting outside of a, non-existant in the first place, GUI surfaced settting function. Which again is why I would like to test this on a virtualised server. Of course you can give it a try, I would be obviously interested to hear how it goes — I would do a full backup first though. After making the serveradmin settings change I would reboot the server.