Macintosh Manager: How to recover an unusable database

To manually reconstruct the Users, Workgroups, and Computers databases, delete the .idx files. These files are rebuilt when the Macintosh Manager admin application program is opened again. The .data files store the Users, Groups, and related information. You will not lose any data by deleting the .idx files. Before following the steps below, try deleting any of the following files that you suspect may be damaged or unusable:

• Macintosh Manager: Multi-User Items: Users: Users DB.idx
• Macintosh Manager: Multi-User Items: Groups: Groups DB.idx
• Macintosh Manager: Multi-User Items: Computers: Computers DB.idx

To recover a Macintosh Manager database that has become unusable:

1. Make sure no one is logged in to Macintosh Manager, including the Macintosh Manager admin application. Workstations can be at the login window without harm.

2. Stop the Macintosh Manager service.
If using Mac OS X Server: Stop the Macintosh Management Server process using Server Admin.
If using AppleShare IP: Turn off the Macintosh Management Server 1.2.2 extension using the Extensions Manager control panel then restart the server before proceeding to the next step.

3. Relocate the Multi-User Items folder on the Macintosh Manager server.
For AppleShare IP: Open the Macintosh Manager shared folder and drag the Multi-User Items folder to the desktop.
For Mac OS X Server: Create a new folder on any Mac OS Extended format (HFS Plus) volume and move the Multi-User Items folder into it.

4. Restart the Macintosh Manager service.
Mac OS X Server: Use Server Admin to restart Macintosh Manager.
AppleShare IP: Reselect the Macintosh Manager extension in the Extensions Manager control panel and then restart the server.

5. Open the Macintosh Manager admin application at your administration workstation. It opens without your Users, Workgroups, and Computers, and you are presented with default settings. This step recreates a valid Multi-User Items folder.

6. Quit the Macintosh Manager admin.
Mac OS X Server: Reopen Server Admin and quit the Macintosh Manager service. Quit Server Admin.
AppleShare IP: The additional step of quitting Macintosh Manager service is not required.

7. On the Server, two Multi-User Folders should now exist: One is in the Macintosh Manager shared folder, and the other in the location to which you relocated it in Step 3.

8. Open the Multi-User Items folder in the Macintosh Manager shared folder.

9. Locate the original Users folder (from the Multi-User Items folder relocated in Step 3) and drag it into the new Multi-User Items folder in the Macintosh Manager shared folder. Click Yes if asked to replace items with the same name. If you see an alert box with a message that the item could not be replaced because it is in use, check to see if anyone is logged in to a Macintosh Manager client or with the Macintosh Manager admin application. If no one is logged in and the message persists, drag the folder you are replacing to another location on the volume (being sure not to move it into a folder you are using for this process).

10. On the Server, locate the Groups folder in the original Multi-User Items folder (from Step 3). Drag that folder into the new Multi-User Items folder in the Macintosh Manager shared folder. Click Yes if asked to replace items with the same name.

11. If you want to restore your Computers list, drag the Computers folder from the original Multi-User Items folder into the new one. Click Yes if asked to replace items with the same name.

12. Other files that should be moved from the original Multi-User Items folder to the new Multi-User Items folder include:
• CD-ROM prefs
• Global prefs
• Multi-User Items
• User Prefs List
• Update Package
13. If necessary, start the Macintosh Management server process.

Note:

If issues persist, or if you would like to determine which Macintosh Manager database(s) is(are) unusable, follow the same steps except copy one database over at a time in the following order: Users, Groups, then Computers. It is important to stop the Macintosh Manager service before copying the databases and start it again before testing. Be sure to complete all of the steps above for each database before moving on to the next database. Use the following section to check the integrity of databases.

Verifying Macintosh Manager Database Integrity

1. Open the Macintosh Manager admin application on your administration workstation. It should open with a complete list of your Users. If an alert box appears with a message that says the Macintosh Manager admin application cannot be opened, there is fault with the User list, and it must be restored from backup or recreated manually. If the Macintosh Manager admin application opens and the User list is intact, then verify the integrity of the Workgroups list in the next step.

2. Open the Macintosh Manager Admin application on your administration workstation and click the Workgroups tab. It should open with a complete list of your Workgroups. If an alert box appears with a message that says Macintosh Manager admin cannot be opened, there is a fault with the Workgroup list, and it must be restored from backup or recreated manually. If the Macintosh Manager admin application opens and the Workgroup list is intact, then verify the integrity of the Computers list in the next step.

3. Open Macintosh Manager admin and click the Computers tab. You should see your Computers list. If an alert box appears with a message that says Macintosh Manager Admin cannot be opened, there is a fault with the Computers list, and it must be restored from backup or recreated manually.

4. Verify that the properties in Macintosh Manager Admin in the Global Tab are set correctly.
Important: You should review your settings after performing these steps to ensure the setup is as you want for your users.

After following these steps, run another consistency check by choosing Verify Users & Workgroups from the File menu in Macintosh Manager admin. This cleans up any information that is not consistent between your Users and Groups databases.

After checking and resetting these settings, the process is complete.

Note:  A consistency check only compares the User & Groups data managed by Mac OS X Server or AppleShare IP and the Users & Groups data managed within the Macintosh Manager databases. No integrity checking of the Macintosh Manager databases, beyond this comparison, is performed.

Instructions for users of Mac OS X Server 1.x

The steps above require you to start and stop the Macintosh Manager process with the Server Admin application. Macintosh Manager Server versions 1.0 to 1.2v3 do not offer that capability, so you to do this in the Terminal. You would follow these steps:

To stop the Macintosh Management Server process:

1. Log in to the server as the root user.
2. Open the Terminal application.
3. At the prompt, type:

# ps -aux | grep Macintosh

4. Press Return. This returns a line similar to the following:

root    564    0.0    2.6    6.40M    1.64M    ?    S    0:00 MacintoshManagementServer

In this example, the PID (process ID) is 564 for MacintoshManagementServer.

5. At the next prompt, type "kill <PID>". In this example, that would look like:

kill 564

To start the Macintosh Management Server process:

1. Log in to the server as the root user.
2. Open the Terminal application.
3. At the prompt, type:
   
   MacintoshManagementServer
   
   
4. Press Return