Issue with OSX 10.3.3 and server llibraries

[tsturm]

Hello to all Mac users running 10.3.3 with libraries located on remote machines. Just ignore, those who are running Windows as I am sure you are unaffected.

I am attaching a picture of the before and after of the Library Manager window.

I, last week, installed the 10.3.3 update of OS X. Then I went to work on a new project. I opened a new file. Then went to attach our office library standards from our server. I found that I could see the server, but cannot open the arrow to see the directories to add the specific directory where our parts are.

I can run projects which have the libraries already attached. They load fine. I cannot add any additional libraries to projects. I am having to have others add the libraries for me, save and close the file, so I can work on them.

Is there anyone else having the same problem. I thought this might be an existing file problem. So I did a New & Reset. Nothing has changed. Should I trash my preference file?

[Greg Kmethy]

Dear Terrence,

I think I have not misunderstood your problem. What I'm trying to say is that the way a volume behaves in the Library Manager is determined by how it is mounted. The nature of this bug is that it only appears in ArchiCAD's library manager. In finder or in ArchiCAD's open dialog everything is fine, you can browse through the folders of the remote volume, etc. The bug is only with the library manager.
But it still depends on the way the volume is mounted. If the server is referred to with the IP address, all is well in library manager. If it is not, you might hit the bug.

Please try to mount your volumes the way I suggest. It will hopefully fix your problem. if you don't succeed, please tell us how do you connect to other computers in the network.

[tsturm]

Dear Ben

The remote machine that you are using to store your Library Objects. What type of machine is it?

Why do you not have the same automount/server that I do?

Are you sharing the whole remote drive to just a particular directory on that drive?

TFHO

[tsturm]

Dear Gergely

I tried to connect using your method. The attached picture shows the error message this process gave me.

Did you see my other post? Same "Connect to Server" menu command but without the smb://. This method works for me to reach the server.

I do not use an alias to connect.

I still do not get the Library Manager to work correctly. How should the remote machine be sharing its contents?

[__archiben]

tsturm wrote:
Dear Ben

The remote machine that you are using to store your Library Objects. What type of machine is it?

Why do you not have the same automount/server that I do?

Are you sharing the whole remote drive to just a particular directory on that drive?

TFHO

terrance

it is an x-serve. i do have the automount directories (they were hidden by the mounted server drop-down - see screenshot).

that particular volume is a sharepoint on the server. have you tried connecting to your library volume as gergely and i have suggested?

~/archiben

[tsturm]

yes Ben

I did try Gergely's method. See my prior post. I probably made it while you were making your picture showing the automounts.

Can you tell me more about the "sharepoint" and how you have it set up?

[tsturm]

Dear Ben

Just tried your method.

Here is a picture of the Library Manager using your method.

Note the lack of automount/server. Not sure why it was not there.

[__archiben]

terrance

the 'automount' part of things shouldn't really affect what you are trying to acheive - this relates to server volumes set-up to automount when you log-in. i think that this shows in the library manager as a way of containing all of the volumes of this nature . . . should they be set-up and mounted.

don't let it distract you from simply connecting to and accessing your server volumes; either in the browser (doesn't show in archiCAD's library manager) or by directly connecting via the servers IP address (works with the library manager).

try restarting (to clear all accessed server volumes) and then simply connecting via afp://192.168.23.10 (apple file protocol - try clicking on it from here!) with the 'connect to server' command. after you have done this, re-launch archiCAD because at present the library managers dialogue window isn't dynamic enough to respond to the network changes you make outside of archiCAD.

BTW - smb:// is a windows networking protocol. it probably wouldn't have worked unless you had enabled it on your server . . .

does this work for you?

~/archiben

[tsturm]

Dear ben

NOPE it did nothing.

did the restart. mounted the server before launching ArchiCAD. did a New & Reset. opened the Library Manager to see the server.

nothing new has changed.

Should I trash the preference file at this point to see if that changes anything????

Gergely, do you have any new ideas

[tsturm]

I am back with news on how to get this all to work and possibly why I had the problems I was having.

Let me start out by stating that this issue is with the XServe by Apple.

If you are using a pier to pier file sharing system, you most likely would not find this problem. This issue is with the manner in which we chose to make the information on the "server" available to all the users. We permitted the users to log into the "server" as the administrator. There by giving them total access to the "server". I am not sure if this was the problem, but some how is must be.

I experimented with logging into other computers on the network to see how AC was reading those drives and the way the sharing was reading the different drives. What came out of this was you can gain access to the mounted partitions from inside of AC via the library manager only to the user area of the "server" and not the administrator level.

Let me break this down some more. When you log into a remote machine, not an XServer, just an machine, you can access the root level portion of the "server" and a user level. On a Mac OSX machine, there are different areas of the machine. When you try to access these different areas from within AC's Library Manage, only the mounted partitions which are not accessing the root level will work.

Ben had stated in one of his posted that the volumes were "share points". So it took me some time to figure out how to configure the XServe to change the sharing properties of the contents so that I could then access these "share points". This all had to be done from within the Workgroup Manager application which comes with the XServe. Once I had made the "share points", like making a folder as a shared volume under OS 9 instead of the entire hard drive.

Now I can access these "share points" from within AC's Library Manager. More importantly, I can attach my libraries to new projects.

I can add more information to this topic if someone should need screen shots. I don't think may people will have this problem as I hope everyone out there with an XServe has theirs configured correctly.

HTH.

[Anonymous]

Just for the record, the issue is not with XServe (the hardware) but with OS X Server (the software). I assume this would also be an issue on Windows servers as well, but I have no first hand experience with them (Windows servers usually have security and IT people hovering around them to keep mere users from mucking them up).

In any server based system it is very important not to give everyone Administrative access; both for the reason you have discovered and because it is a serious breach of security. I am not talking about over the top, obsessive, Bush White House type security, just the basic stuff like taking your keys out of the ignition when you leave your car and closing the door when you go out of your house.