Open Directory and LDAP questions/difficulties

Question

Hi, my company is about to try out OSX Server to replace our old Irix file server. In order to do this we need to run through a number of tests in order to validate the idea. Basically, the test setup is a PM G5 running OSX Server 10.4 and a connected Mac and/or PC on the G5's second ethernet port as test clients. The first ethernet port is connected to the local subnet (192.168.1.x) and, ideally, the OSX Server should have its own subnet on the second port and serve DHCP, AFP and SMB to that port only, along with an OD shared directory providing both authentication and home directories for users. (later on, if all is successful, it will serve those services on the company subnet). DNS is supplied by a separate server on the subnet (DNS caching server running tinydns)
I've read my way through the OSX Server documentation, and gathered all the information the Worksheet requires. The problems started occuring because we installed OSX Server over an OSX Client and broke off the Server Assistent, because we were worried at the time that turning on a Windows PDC would collide with our current (and very flaky) Samba server running on the Irix machine, and that DHCP might also collide with our current dhcp server.
As a consequence, we tried to set it up via the Server Admin Panel, Network Prefs, and the Workgroup Manager, after having connected the second ethernet port of the G5.
Doing this, and setting the OD service to an OD Master, along with a Search base of dc=hostname, dc=domain, dc=tld has not exactly changed much. The problem is that the info panel says that LDAP is not running. This confuses me no end. I thought OD was based upon LDAP. The server name in the Server Admin panel is hostname.local. And now I get to my real questions (finally):
1.Would it be better to just wipe the machine and start again using the Assistent, and set up the ODMaster that way?
2.When is an ODMaster not a local directory and when is it a shared directory (the hostname.local worries me)
3.What services exactly need to be running for the ODMaster to function properly
3.How do I configure the local subnet on the second port (should I use the Gateway Assistent or do it by hand), and how do I only serve those services to that port (do I do it by setting the router/gateway for those services as the IP of the second port or as localhost).
4.Do I need to simply enable LDAPv3 on the clients and set the search path to automatic to get the clients to Autheticate?
5.Do user and groups added to the hostname.local become part of the OD Domain?
I'm sorry if I come across as a total newbie. I'm used to doing most of this on the commandline in Linux (except for LDAP, which is new to me), and the GUI. I have managed to entangle myself quite nicely in all this and could really use some pointers.
Thanks in advance
Theo.
PowerBook G4   Mac OS X (10.4.7)  

Answer 1

1. Starting with a freshly installed OS X Server is recommended, but start no services at first, you need working DNS with reverse zone for the server IP to run OD Master (and other services). If the server domain is to be different from the existing network domain name setup DNS in OS X for the test domain.
2. I'm not sure I understand the question. LDAP/OD can be used on the server to "house" the user accounts but you don't have to bind computers to it.
If you don't use the more advanced possibilities with LDAP/OD I don't think the clients even need to have LDAP configured to be able to authenticate.
hostname.local = hostname and the standard Bonjour domainname .local ?
3a. DNS, so that reverse lookup works for the hostname before setting up OD Master. OD needs a "true" domainname Bonjour isn't sufficient. Setup/use something like mydomain.private.
3b. You don't need to do NAT, you can also route between two subnets (you would need a static route in your Internet router too).
If you want NAT you can use the GW assistant. The interface on the top of the list in Network config (where you can add more/alias interfaces) is the "main" interface used as the "WAN"/"Internet" interface.
4. If the clients are "standalone" (not bound to the OD domain or not using server based homefolders and such) I think you only need LDAP if you want the clients to be able to search for info in OD/LDAP. Not needed for authentication.
You can send out LDAP info with DHCP.
5. If you mean you add/enter users and groups to OD/LDAP directory it just means you can have different servers/clients using a central repository(?) for authentication purposes.
If you add (bind) machines to the domain you can to control what clients can do locally (priviledges), which applications they can run and so forth.
In /etc/smb.conf you can say which interface to use för samba (don't remember what to enter though). And if using the firewall (you must if you want NAT) you can stop Bonjour (mDNS - multicasts) from entering the "old" network if you like/need.