Populating POSIX attributes to eDir accounts

We are trying to implement eDirectory authentication on our AIX box.  
Currently we have about 1,800 users in our AIX passwd file, so I don't 
want to have to manually add the POSIX attributes for all of the users 
using the ConsoleOne UNIX snapin.  

I have developed a VB.NET program using the Novell ActiveX NDAP control to 
populate the uidNumber, gidNumber and homeDirectory attributes for each 
eDirectory account which I have retrieved from the AIX passwd file.  My 
issue is that the program works if the attributes have been previously 
populated using the ConsoleOne UNIX snapin.  However, my program fails 
with an error 608 (illegal directory field) when it tries to populate the 
gidNumber, uidNumber and homeDirectory attributes of an account that has 
never been touched by the ConsoleOne UNIX snapin.  A snippet of the source 
code is below:
 
    'The login_name variable contains the login name retrieved form the 
AIX passwd file. 
    'The context variable contains the users' context in NDAP format.  
     nwdir1.FullName = context

     Try
          Entry = nwdir1.Entries.Item(login_name)
 Catch ex As Exception
         'The login_name could not be found. 
          Continue Do
      End Try
 
      Entry.SetFieldValue("uidNumber", uidNumber)
      Entry.SetFieldValue("gidNumber", gidNumber)
      Entry.SetFieldValue("homeDirectory", "\home\" &
login_name)
      Entry.Update()

These attributes belong to the auxiliary class 'posixAccount' which must be 
added to the user objects before adding the attributes.

Read the user attribute "Object Class", add the value
"posixAccount", and 
save it back before or when doing the other attribute changes.

Wolfgang 

Thanks Wolfgang, worked like a champ.  I modified my VB.NET code to add 
the string "posixAccount" to the Object Class attribute of the user
object 
prior to populating the uidNumber, gidNumber and homeDirectory attributes. 
 My working code is as follows:

   'Populate the gidNumber, uidNumber and homeDirectory POSIX attributes 
for
   'an eDirectory account.  The variable context will contain the 
eDirectory 
   'context of the user object in NDAP format.  The variable Login_Name 
will
   'contain the eDirectory account name.  

    context = rs.Fields("context").Value
    Try
       nwdir1.FullName = context
    catch ex As Exception
       'The context could not be found.
       Continue Do
    End Try

    Try
        Entry = nwdir1.Entries.Item(login_name)
    Catch ex As Exception
       'The login_name could not be found. 
        Continue Do
    End Try


   'See if the posixAccount object class has been added already.
    vnt = Entry.GetFieldValue("object class", "", True)

    found = False
    For x = 0 To UBound(vnt)
        If LCase(vnt(x).ToString) = "posixaccount" Then
           found = True
           Exit For
        End If
    Next

    If Not found Then
       'The user is not ssociated with the posixAccount class.
       Entry.AddFieldValue("Object Class", "posixAccount")
    End If

    Entry.SetFieldValue("uniqueid", login_name)
    Entry.SetFieldValue("uidNumber", uidNumber)
    Entry.SetFieldValue("gidNumber", gidNumber)
    Entry.SetFieldValue("homeDirectory", "home" &
login_name)

    Entry.Update()

If there are any other attributes that I should be setting, please let me 
know.  

I also have another question regarding the future of the NDAP / LDAP 
ActiveX controls.  I have developed about 40 VB 6 / VB.NET applications 
that rely on these controls to manage our eDirectory tree and integrate 
eDirectory with our ERP solution.  Since Novell is not actively developing 
/ supporting these controls anymore, what alternative technology is there 
for manipulating eDirectory using Microsoft VB.NET?  

In my opinion it's critical that Novell continue to offer a way of 
programmatically accessing eDirectory, the NSS file system and GroupWise 
using Microsoft development environments.  Most programmers are not going 
to re-tool to develop LINUX applications when the usability of development 
tools / environments available on LINUX is not even remotely close to what 
Microsoft offered with Visual Studio 6, let alone VS 2005.  Furthermore 
most end users are currently running Windows, not LINUX.  So programmers 
who develop client as well as server based applications would have to have 
a dual skill set.  If eDirectory isin't going to be accessible using 
Microsoft development tools, we need a new directory that is.