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

Hello.
I am so tired of this. My Mac mini server is acting up again. There were over 80 user accounts that seemed like they should be hidden that appeared in the Server app. I deleted them. Then over 110 groups appeared in the server app appeared. I deleted three of those. Open Directory isn't working. Authentication is acting up. It won't let me connect remotely to the server from other Macs using my main user account on the server. I looked on my user accoount on the server, and whenever I try to give myself permission to administer the server, the Server App just freezes. Please help me. I am so tired of this.
ANY HELP, ANY AT ALL WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED!!!
Thanks.
Sincerely,
Austin

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

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