Constant Database corruption

[NetModem]

We are using Entourage 2004 SP2 (11.2.1) with Tiger 10.4.5 all the
latest updates, with Exchange 2003 SP2. We constantly have users that
get corrupted databases. The thing that I have noticed is that some
messages retrieved from public folders cause the database deamon to
just crash therefore hanging Entourage. We also have users that simply
send and receive mail that at some point thier database will get
corrupted. The databases can be anywhere between 50-600 megs and random
corrption can arise. This happens most of the time with users who have
network homes and can happen with users whos home folder is on the
local machine.

Any help would be appreciated.


Thanks

 

[MikeTRose]

Hi Netmodem --

I don't have any explicit suggestions for you other than actually
turning off the "Repair in the background" option in the Database
settings (option-launch Entourage to access). However, we are about to
start a consulting engagement with Apple to implement network home
folders, and we would love any data/hard examples you have to
demonstrate this issue before it happens to us. :-(

--Mike
miketrose at gmail dot com

 

[NetModem]

We have our Tiger workstations integrated with our 2003 Active
Directory. Works greate. We have an XServer with Open Directory enabled
to manage user and computer prefs. We do not store user homes on the
XServe as the load on the drives were too much for them. (100+ users).
Instead we store them on our domain controllers attached scsi storage
along with our windows users profiles and documents. Total size of the
unit (Dell PowerVault 12 10k SCSI drives) is 320 gigs. It handles the
load of our windows and mac users easily. We avoided SMB homes because
Apple has not got SMB support right since it was introduced into OS X.
We instead purchased ExtremeZ-IP 4 to provide AFP 3.1 support from the
Windows 2003 Server. OS X network homes require AFP 3.1 to function. Do
not attempt to use Windows Servers built in SFM (Services for
Macintosh) it will NOT work. In the end our users can roam from Mac to
Mac and thier profile follow them, they can even go to a windows
machine and log in and thier my documents is mapped to thier OS X
documents folder inside thier OS Home directory. Its a sweat setup but
Entourage is giving us FITS with all this stupid database corruption.
BTW - If you dont use SMB mounted network homes disable the SMB option
in Directory Access. It will cause fits.

 

[NetModem]

BTW - The Entourage problems are not cause by the ExtremeZ-IP. The same
thing happens when storing the home directories on the XServe.