Mac OS X Server

“Address already in use” When Trying To Bind Open Directory Master

From time to time you’ll see an error that “daemon: bind(8) failed errno=48 (Address already in use)” when trying to promote a Mac OS X Server to be an Open Directory Master. The address in question is usually fine and the DNS usually checks clean with changeip:

changeip -checkhostname

However the error recurs no matter what you do, even if you try and change the name of the Open Directory Master or the address you still usually end up seeing the same error. If it isn’t the address or the name then could it be the port? If you run lsof to see about that whole ldap port:

lsof -i | grep ldap

Then you’ll end up seeing something like a mail server or third party tool taking 389 first. So, the error should probably read “port already in use” rather than “address already in use.” Disable ldap or move ldap to some other port with the other service, or spin up a new IP and move ldap to that IP for the other service and re-promote and viola, you’re golden. Good luck!