I finally got round to trying the iCal server again. Previously it was complaining that no virtual host could be found for iCal service. The solution is to create a Computer record in OpenDirectory whose name is the iCal server’s hostname followed by a dollar. For example ical$. It then all magically works despite there being nothing to do with iCal, virtual hosts or anything remotely resembling the error message in this new record.

And where have we seen hostnames followed by dollar signs before?

That’s right. Samba machine accounts.

And what attributes does Directory Utility.app allow us to map for Computer records?

Samba attributes.

Further research could prove interesting.

Oh and by the way the calendar still doesn’t work for reasons I’ll describe once I’ve fixed it.