User accounts with FCP X

[Craig Alan]

Just got notified by Apple that the site license for FCP X and Lion are on the way.

And your advice is making me feel more relaxed about getting this to work with reasonable order.

I wish everyone would just respect each other’s projects but I’ve seen otherwise.

This sparse image approach seems to be a real problem solver.

Still would need to log users in and out since we will also have research, scripts, and perhaps AVID files on these as well.

What I meant by partition each drive into two was to address your concern that if the raid went down I’d be loosing every period’s work. If it is just four independent hard drives then only two would be lost at a time. But raid 5 or 10 would provide some protection from any given drive’s failure. 10 would be more secure than 5 I assume, but 5 retains more total space? Yes I think the included drives are enterprise class.

[Andrew Richards] “Logging in is something that has to happen by hand since it requires authentication.
“

There is no way from the server computer that I can log in to each computer each period? I mean even without ARD I can set up two macs on the same network so that one can take over the desktop of the other and type in whatever. I thought for sure this would be possible.

MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170, Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Andrew Richards]

[Craig Alan] “10 would be more secure than 5 I assume, but 5 retains more total space? Yes I think the included drives are enterprise class. “

You’ll yield 50% more usable space with RAID-5 over RAID-10. Use RAID-5. Drive failures will be rare with a Pegasus anyway.

[Craig Alan] “There is no way from the server computer that I can log in to each computer each period? I mean even without ARD I can set up two macs on the same network so that one can take over the desktop of the other and type in whatever. I thought for sure this would be possible.”

By local I mean by actually typing in a password. You can do that via screen sharing or on the real keyboard. But there isn’t a button in ARD to “Log In User” like there is for Log Out Current User” that you can apply to multiple Macs in one stroke.

[Craig Alan] “Still would need to log users in and out since we will also have research, scripts, and perhaps AVID files on these as well. “

For filesystem permissions to work at all, you need to have the students log in with unique accounts. Did you say if you were going to use Open Directory on OS X Server?

Best,
Andy

[Craig Alan]

[Andrew Richards] “By local I mean by actually typing in a password. You can do that via screen sharing or on the real keyboard. But there isn’t a button in ARD to “Log In User” like there is for Log Out Current User” that you can apply to multiple Macs in one stroke.”

Suppose i want to enter the same password on all computers? The way I use user accounts is by having one user account for all computers per period. I assign each student and/or each team a specific computer per period. So if only student A is on computer #1 3rd period then no one else can play with his files, because during 3rd period he is the only one using that computer and the other periods are logged in with a different passcode/user account.

I’m the only one with the passcodes for each period.

So is there a way I could type in the same passcode on all computers at once? It would be rather time consuming to log in 30 computers individually. Though even that is easier sitting at one computer than walking up to each and trying to not have the passcode stolen.

[Andrew Richards] “For filesystem permissions to work at all, you need to have the students log in with unique accounts. Did you say if you were going to use Open Directory on OS X Server?”

I know nothing about servers and Open Directory on OS X Server. I was told I could control the computers using ARD so I ordered it.

MacPro4,1 2.66GHz 8 core 12gigs of ram. GPU: Nvidia Geoforce GT120 with Vram 512. OS X 10.6.x; Camcorders: Panasonic AG-HPX170, Sony Z7U, Canon HV30/40, Sony vx2000/PD170; FCP 6 certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.

[Andrew Richards]

[Craig Alan] “So is there a way I could type in the same passcode on all computers at once? It would be rather time consuming to log in 30 computers individually. Though even that is easier sitting at one computer than walking up to each and trying to not have the passcode stolen. “

Looks like you can script it. I haven’t ever done it though.

[Craig Alan] “I know nothing about servers and Open Directory on OS X Server. I was told I could control the computers using ARD so I ordered it.”

ARD does let you do that and more, and OD is a centralized set of users and groups that give you consistent permissions across all machines. You don’t need it, but I recommend it.

Best,
Andy