Autodiscover to the GroupWise Calendar Server is not working from the Mac OS X workstation

  • Document ID:7023682
  • Creation Date:28-Jan-2019
  • Modified Date:28-Jan-2019
    • Micro Focus Products:
      GroupWise

Environment

GroupWise 18
Open Enterprise Server 2018 (OES 2018) Linux

Situation

Problem:
When a Mac OS X user is attempting to provision the Mac for a CALDAV account for the Mac Calendar app, the error received on the Mac is "Unable to verify account name or password".

Resolution

As per our GroupWise 18 documentation, you need to create this DNS SRV record , as described in this
url :


Configuring Auto-Discovery of GroupWise Calendar Server

Auto-discovery allows your users to setup the accounts using their Groupwise email address and password. If you do not setup auto-discovery, the GroupWise Calendar server DNS name must be specified when creating the account. Auto-discovery does not work for CardDAV. To configure auto-discovery, a DNS record must be added to your DNS server for CalDAV.

Use the format below for the DNS record:

_caldavs._tcp 86400 IN SRV 0 1 TLS_port DNS_name

Example:

_caldavs._tcp 86400 IN SRV 0 1 443 calsvr.acme.com

If you have multiple iDomains, one DNS record for each domain is required.

Cause

The DNS SRV record was not created correctly in the OES2018 DNS/DHCP Management console, and the DNS record changes were likely not written to the OES2018 DNS/DHCP configuration file /etc/opt/novell/named/<dnsZoneName>.db

Additional Information

This is how the record should look like during composing of the DNS record :


This is how the DNS record will look after it has been created in the OES2018 DNS/DHCP Managment console :


Be aware that you likely may need to exit the DNS/DHCP Managment console, AFTER your make your DNS record and then "stop" then "start" the dns daemon with :

  rcnovell-named stop

  rcnovell-named start

Note:  Do not do a restart, do the stop then start as noted above.

FYI:  You can check if the DNS SRV record got created correctly by doing either a "dig" or a "nslookup" as noted here :

1.   nslookup -queryType=SRV _caldavs._tcp.<dnsZoneName>

OR

2.   dig _caldavs._tcp.<dnsZoneName> SRV

Note:  In my examples, my dnsZoneName is "lab.novell.com", and my example GroupWise Calendar Server domain name is :  contoso.lab.novell.com


** The resulting response from the "dig" command should be like this :

User1$     dig _caldavs._tcp.lab.novell.com SRV

; <<>> DiG 9.10.6 <<>> _caldavs._tcp.lab.novell.com SRV

;; global options: +cmd

;; Got answer:

;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 60394

;; flags: qr aa rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 1, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 1


;; OPT PSEUDOSECTION:

; EDNS: version: 0, flags:; udp: 4096

;; QUESTION SECTION:

;_caldavs._tcp.lab.novell.com.INSRV


;; ANSWER SECTION:

_caldavs._tcp.lab.novell.com. 28800 INSRV0 20 443 contoso.lab.novell.com.

;; Query time: 0 msec

;; SERVER: 10.10.10.1#53(10.10.10.1)

;; WHEN: Mon Jan 28 12:42:24 MST 2019

;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 100


** The resulting response from the nslookup command should be like :

MacPC:~ User1$      nslookup -queryType=SRV _caldavs._tcp.lab.novell.com

Server:10.10.10.1

Address:10.10.10.1#53

    _caldavs._tcp.lab.novell.comservice = 0 20 443 contoso.lab.novell.com.