Setting up file sharing correctly

[MrMJS]

Hello,

I bought and installed macOS Server yesterday on my local network. I have it running on my later 2009 27" iMac running 10.12.3. I set up file sharing and gave permission to my main login for that computer but also added two more logins which I will use to access the server from my two other iMacs.

When using the main login I am able to see & access the folders I am sharing [on my two other iMacs], but when using the other two logins I created I am only able to see the folder, but not access. The folders show an icon of a folder with three people, I'm assuming this is the standard share folder icon.. Both the other two logins have read & write selected under the file sharing options.

I guess my question is why when logged in using the secondary logins am I not able to see & access the folders?

 

[MacUser2525]

I guess my question is why when logged in using the secondary logins am I not able to see & access the folders?

Permission problems as you created additional users they have a different UID (User ID) than an original user on a different machine. 500 being the default numeric ID on a Mac machine if my memory serves me well. What you see displayed for a name is just that a display associated with that numeric ID. So second user would be 501 third 502 with the user on the spare machines being 500 so it will never work that way for access. What you really want to do is create directories for the extra machines in the original users folders on the sharing machine and put your files in them for each one. This way the IDs will match and you will have full access as long as you set the directories for that. This is how I do it on my machines all users have the same name/numeric id and the machines are named uniquely so no confusion there with a machine name (1) ... (2) you get when they are not unique on the network.

 

[MrMJS]

Permission problems as you created additional users they have a different UID (User ID) than an original user on a different machine. 500 being the default numeric ID on a Mac machine if my memory serves me well. What you see displayed for a name is just that a display associated with that numeric ID. So second user would be 501 third 502 with the user on the spare machines being 500 so it will never work that way for access. What you really want to do is create directories for the extra machines in the original users folders on the sharing machine and put your files in them for each one. This way the IDs will match and you will have full access as long as you set the directories for that. This is how I do it on my machines all users have the same name/numeric id and the machines are named uniquely so no confusion there with a machine name (1) ... (2) you get when they are not unique on the network.

Hello and thank you for your response!

If I am understanding you correctly if I am wanting iMacs to have full access to all of the servers files [ID 500] then I need to login using the information for ID 500. Is this correct? That makes sense and is what I am seeing at my end. I must have misunderstood how the file sharing works.

 

[MacUser2525]

Hello and thank you for your response!

If I am understanding you correctly if I am wanting iMacs to have full access to all of the servers files [ID 500] then I need to login using the information for ID 500. Is this correct? That makes sense and is what I am seeing at my end. I must have misunderstood how the file sharing works.

Yes that is correct. You can do a public folder sharing not to sure how that works as I never have tried that one. It would work the way you have it setup with the extra users if you created a new user on first spare machine and two new ones on the second so the IDs would match when accessing the server, seem like lots of bother to go through though as you will still have the underlying problem of having to access the files on the server as the new users in order to get things done. Be a lot of logging in and out with the different accounts to get anything done.