SLS changing short/login name to alias

[corbywan]

I've seen this in other threads (at least on Apple's discussion board) and thought I had a temp fix, but it hit again today. When you add aliases to a user in Workgroup Manager, it can/has change the primary shortname for one of the aliases, thereby changing the short login name used for network logins, email login etc. It happened again today. I wasn't able to check my email because it wouldn't authenticate, I looked at WGM, and sure enough the primary (first in the list greyed out can't edit) shortname had been changed to one of the aliases I had added for email purposes, and my original shortname had been demoted to an alias.

Does anyone else know id Apple is aware of this? Does anyone had an actual fix?

 

[corbywan]

By the way, this is SLS 10.6.1. No idea if this occurs in 10.6.

Talked with AppleCare. I was able to get the tech to reproduce the issue, and it isn't the first call they've had on this issue. Not sure if they were able to reproduce it before my call but they can now. So can you! Wanna try?

1) Make a bogus user in WGM or Server Prefs, doesn't matter.
2) Add an alias in WGM. Quit and reopen WGM.
3) Add a second alias (total of three short names now). Quit and reopen WGM.
4) Add a third alias (total of four short names). Quick and reopen WGM.
5) Look to see of the original short name you had created is still the primary shortname. Chances are it isn't, and one of the other aliases has been "promoted". It's also possible that your original short name has been deleted entirely. Go ahead, I dare you, add a fourth alias, quit and reopen WGM.
6) By this time you should at least see the rearranging of short names and the deletion. I can only seem to get WGM to remember 5 aliases (six short names) total. If I add more than that, quit and reopen, it reassigns and deletes.

Anyone else make this happen? Like I said, they are aware of the fat that it happens but are still working on a fix. The temporary thing to do is not to add more than two aliases, if not more than one if possible.

Since these, in my case, are just for email, I have no idea if the same thing happens if you add postfix aliases as is the alternative method in the SLS docs. Don't think I want to try at this point! ;-)

 

[calderone]

I just did this and was indeed able to reproduce the issue. Thanks for your initiative in contacting Apple. Hopefully they get this fixed in 10.6.2.

One question though, what scenario do you have that requires as many as four aliases? (This is a genuine question, not a criticism or snotty comment )

 

[corbywan]

Thanks for reproducing that!

In our situation, we have a few people who do a multiple of things, and there are times when someone's function will change or new volunteers will come on board. In our case we are a church. I like to separate the names of people from their functions because, as I said, sometimes people move around, new people come in, others need a break and step out. Some of the roles we have are:

childrens
youth
mens
womens
music
news
info

I put these roles as aliases on the accounts of real people. Sometimes people have more than one. In my case, being the head honcho, the aliases for news and info are applied to me since I'm the most "stable" person around. Additionally, we went through an email contact name format change, so I needed an alias to my old email address. That's three right there.

I suppose I could split them out to different real user accounts and have those accounts forward to me, but I don't like to have multiple email boxes going. I like it all in one place. Quirky I guess.