Is OSX server right for me?

i work for a small dvd authoring house and I am trying to improve the efficiency of our workflow.
We are mostly PC based, with a few powermac G5s. I have set up one of the powermacs as a central storage server. It is connected to a 2 terrabyte raid array via fiberchanel.
Everyone retrieves and places files on to the array by connecting through gigabit ethernet to the powermac which is sharing the volume using a shareware program called sharepoints.
I have recently setup one of our employees that works remotely with an FTP account using tigers built ftp server so that she can also connect to the central array.
My questions:
Will upgrading the powermac to osx server yield any benifits for our workflow?
Is it possible to put two seperate gigabit ethernet cards in everyone's computer for faster network transfers to and from the central storage?
Our remote employee has noted that downloads and uploads to our server via FTP are far slower than transfers she makes to other ftps. Currently 20k a sec is her top speed with an avg of 10. She was getting close to 100k/s with the FTP server we rent from Readyhosting. Will upgrading to osx server improve the speed of remote transfers, what about rumpus?
We transfer a lot of media files throught out the day, it adds a lot of overhead. We cant afford to go all out with xsan and fiberchannel switches. Does anyone have any suggestions that may improve the workflow.
What would be ideal is if our digitizers could capture a movie directly to the central storage array and our dvd authors can read the files directly from the array. My gut feeling is a gigabit network doesnt have the bandwidth for this.
thanks for any insight.
ryan

Will upgrading the powermac to osx server yield any benifits for our workflow?
I doubt it. As long as the limited number of connections and lack of GUIs for the configuration aren't a problem, there isn't really much difference between client and server.
Is it possible to put two seperate gigabit ethernet cards in everyone's computer for faster network transfers to and from the central storage?
Not really. Trunking or bonding is connection based. In other words, one file goes over one wire, next file next wire. So if you're going to be transferring numerous files at once, it will benefit you, but if you're just transferring one big file, it won't.
Our remote employee has noted that downloads and uploads to our server via FTP are far slower than transfers she makes to other ftps. Currently 20k a sec is her top speed with an avg of 10. She was getting close to 100k/s with the FTP server we rent from Readyhosting. Will upgrading to osx server improve the speed of remote transfers, what about rumpus?
Have you checked the configuration of FTP thoroughly? FTP has the ability to limit how fast connections can transfer and this may be on accidentally.
We transfer a lot of media files throught out the day, it adds a lot of overhead. We cant afford to go all out with xsan and fiberchannel switches. Does anyone have any suggestions that may improve the workflow.
One other possibility is InfiniBand. It looks to be ~$1500/machine vs. ~$2100/machine for XSan.
What would be ideal is if our digitizers could capture a movie directly to the central storage array and our dvd authors can read the files directly from the array. My gut feeling is a gigabit network doesnt have the bandwidth for this.
Judging by the number of posts in the XSan forum that frames are dropped with XSan, I would say that gig isn't going to cut it. It looks like one of these streams needs ~150 MB/s and that would be, to be solid, both controllers on an XRaid.
Roger

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Is OS X Server right for me?

Hiya-
I work at a smallish print shop (about 70 employees). We are looking at getting an in-house server to primarily handle email (about 20 email accounts), as well as FTP and probably hosting a very small website. Most of the "pros" we've consulted with recommend a Windows-based server solution. Being a resident "Mac guy", I have pitched Mac OS X as being an easy-to-configure alternative. This has raised a few questions, and we would like to get some advice from some folks that have an OS X Server-based setup.
The primary concern is, of course, Spam. We get lots and lots of spam every day. We currently have our email routed through AppRiver, and I was shown a report that among the 15 or 20 email accounts we have, we received over 900,000 spam emails in a day. This seems incredible to me. The question is, would a single Mac Pro or XServe running the latest OS X Server be able to handle this without seriously impacting performance? (We have a 3.0 megabit internet connection and the entire LAN is 100Mbit or better). Are folks generally happy with OS X Server as an email solution?
Also, I would like to hear from anyone using OS X Server as an FTP solution. Right now we have maybe 50 or so FTP accounts, with a couple more added every few weeks as we get new clients, or current clients realize that email isn't the best way to send 15 megabyte files... Overall FTP usage is pretty light.
And finally, I would appreciate any comments or advice regarding initial configuration, for someone that has been using Macs for 20 years but has never actually setup a proper business server.
Thanks for any and all comments and suggestions...
Drewstre

My 2 cents also:
I've been a hardcore user of Macintosh systems since 1988 (still have my MacPlus in the closet) and should warn that OSX Server is about as far away from the Macintosh user-friendly point and click concept as it could be.
I used Webstar for years and can't ever remember reading more than a couple pages out of the manual because it was so user friendly. OSX Server is at the far other end of that spectrum.
For me... the manuals included in the box with OSX Server are so vague they're nearly useless. Online manuals at Apple are better but nowhere near as helpful as the "Mac Tiger Server - Little Black Book" by Charles Edge and other third party books. These forums have also been vital for me. (thanks everyone!)
On the surface, OSX Server is a mac, but you pretty much HAVE to work at the command line to get all the features working correctly and to fix certain problems.
The learning curve has been very steep and detective-style investigation is required on a regular basis. I've learned tons so far but still have a long way to go.
Having said all that, OSX Server is extremely powerful and should easily meet all your needs. I'm hosting multiple virtual websites, mail services, webmail, ftp, apple share volumes and... knock on wood... it handles everything like a champ! Has never bogged down and has never crashed once... Ever!
OSX Server is impressive and it can do everything I need it to do and more. I'm happy I chose it, but I'd say it's nearly as foreign to a Macintosh OS user as Windows would be. As long are you're ready to learn something new, you'll be very impressed and happy.
Cons: Not very user friendly, Not self explanitory
Pros: Powerful and Reliable as anything I've ever used... and it runs on a Mac!
(I like that part best for hardware replacement, backup, upgrades, spare parts, etc.)
That's my opinion anyway. Good luck!

Is Snow Leopard Server right for me?

I'm not sure if I need a server or not...
here are some of the things I like to accomplish
- Calendar Server, calendar for the entire family.. being able to set up appointments and others √
- iTune. We have 3 AppleTV in the house and I keep all my music on the Mini now, running iTunes and sharing turn on. I am streaming from my MacMini iTune to my AppleTVs. (Can I do this with server?)
- Run a DVD library software such as Delicious Library and other catalog softwares
- Ripping DVD
Can snow leopard server run non-server software such as iLife and iWork?
Please Help

Server and Client are IDENTICAL. If it is a Mac app, it runs on one and/or the other. Period.
If you can justify the added expense that is about the only question of difference.
I am doing it right now. My primary Mac is Unlimited Client 10.5.8 on a Dual 2.5Ghz G5. Works like a charm. Ripping, iTunes Sharing, et al.
Peter

Osx server website for virtualized application

I hope someone can help me.
On my OSX Mavericks server, I have a virtualized tomcat application. There is a Virtualbox instance, running Ubuntu, with bridged network. This means I have a unique IP number for this virtual machine. For tomcat I need to go to port :8080
I do want to set a "subdomain.domain.com" to open this 123.1.1.1:8080.
How do we set this in the webserver part of OSX server? Is this possible?

You will have two sets of DNS servers, your public DNS and the DNS running on your local network. If your external DNS is getting to your servers, then that's probably working. If you are getting the public IP address from your local network, then your gateway-router needs to "reflect" that address, or you'll need to configure local DNS services (OS X Server needs that in any case) to provide the local IP address for the public DNS name.
Put another way, read the article cited earlier and make sure your local DNS is correct. You can test for most of the common network and DNS configuration errors with the following harmless, diagnostic Terminal.app command:
sudo changeip -checkhostname
...and this will tell you about the configuration, and whether no changes are required, or about the various errors that might be detected.
You can see what IP address you're getting with the following Terminal.app command:
dig +short oc.example.com
...or whatever DNS host name you're using. You'll get either the public IP address (which if you use on the local network, your gateway-router needs to be able to detect that and run the connections back into your network) or your internal local network address.
Your local network clients will want to reference your local DNS server.
Do read the article cited earlier, too.

Allow or deny server rights for Firefox

Every so often my security software gives me an alert stating that Firefox is trying to act as an Internet server. It then asks me if I want to allow or deny it server rights. Why does Firefox need to do this and is it safe to allow it?
== This happened ==
A few times a week

Firefox uses a loop back connection to communicate with the Software Security Device (passwords and secure connections).
Some firewalls interpret that as Firefox being as server.
See also [[Firefox makes unrequested connections]]

Remove OSX Server For Mavericks

Hello,
I have a MacPro Mid 2012 running Version 10.9.4 (Mavericks). I Installed the OSX Server edition for on my desktop and now i would like to remove it. I removed the /library/Server to the trash (and Emptied). What else can i do to remove this application from my desktop?
Thanks

Delete the Server app.

Trying to get icloud, installed snow leopard, now it says I need OSX, but my processor isn't right for it. Is this possible? Do I need to buy a nw computer? will I loose all my mobile me storage?

Trying to get icloud, installed snow leopard, now it says I need OSX, but my processor isn't right for it. Is this possible? Do I need to buy a nw computer? will I loose all my mobile me storage?

You will lose the entire contents of your iDisk whether or not you migrate to MobileMe as there is no equivalent in iCloud and MobileMe will be terminated at the end of June. You will need to download any data which you don't have on your Mac already.
Snow Leopard is not compliant with iCloud and most of the facilities will not work. You can migrate from MobileMe to iCloud at http://me.com/move even with Snow Leopard: when asked to confirm that your Mac is running Lion just lie and say 'yes'. Of course you won't be able to access iCloud directly from your Mac.
If you have MobileMe mail set up to collect mail from external POP accounts you should cancel this before migrating, or you may find it still working in iCloud (where it isn't supposed to) and with no way of stopping it.
This will be the situation with Snow Leopard when you have migrated:
Your email, calendars, and 'Find my iPhone' will be migrated to iCloud. Contacts and Bookmarks cannot be migrated from a Snow Leopard Mac.
Your iDisk, together with website hosting and Gallery, will continue to work as before until next June.
Syncing of Dashboard Widgets, Dock Items and Keychains between Macs, and Mail Accounts, Mail Rules, System Preferences, Signatures & Smart Mailboxes between Macs & iOS devices, will cease altogether.
You will be able to access email and calendars on the iCloud website at http://icloud.com provided your browser is reasonably up-to-date.
You will not be able to sync contacts or bookmarks from a pre-Lion Mac.
You will be able to enter the server settings for email manually in the Mail application and access your email.
You will not be able to sync your calendars directly.
Some people have been able to set up calendar syncing by using the method detailed here - this is an unsupported hack and may not be reliable, and may stop working at some future point.
There appears to be no method of syncing contacts (though Address Book on a Mac can be synced with Google or Yahoo address books - I don't know how reliable this is).
There are a couple of third-party solutions which may be of interest.
BusyCal is an iCal-like calendar application with extra facilities: it can sync with the iCloud Calendar while running on Leopard, Snow Leopard or Lion. A single user licence (two machines allowed) is $49.99.
Soho Organizer can sync Calendars and Contacts with iCloud on Leopard, Snow Leopard and Lion. A single user licence (multiple machines allowed) is $99.99.

Heartbleed update for OSX Server on the way?

Hi all. Just curious about the Heartbleed situation as it relates to OSX Server. Any insights?

MadMacs0 wrote:
MrHoffman wrote:
LogMeIn is reporting the code as vulnerable.
Right, that was the most detailed information I could find.
I just wanted to let you know that I did research the inards of the effected software and found nothing.
What is effectively being discussing here is also known as reverse engineering. If the text strings related to OpenSSL were changed or were expurgated from the tool or have been obfuscated, then grep or strings or related won't find the keywords, and it'll be a false negative.
If OpenSSL is more overtly included in the package, then the grep and strings and find commands and related should find evidence of OpenSSL.
Check for updates from the tools and packages that use SSL/TLS, and run the tests, and upgrade to current.
Also review the network devices in use for updates, and particularly if there are any outward-facing or remotely-accessible HTTPS or SSL connections on any of those devices.
There's no easy way to do this. This is analogous to the problems that anti-malware scanners have, too; finding needles in haystacks.

Want to use OSX server as virus/spam filter for existing mail server.

I have communigate pro completely configured and running on an iMac. hundreds of accounts, all working perfectly. The bummer is that the spam/virus filtering of Communigate Pro is weak, and I'd like to try the one built into my Xserve.
Right now I have the domain company.com, with two A records for mail.company.com (the communigate pro server) and xserve.company.com (the xserve). And right now the MX record for company.com points to mail.company.com.
I'd like to switch the MX record for company.com so that it points to xserve.company.com (which I know how to do). The xserve would then reject/delete/catch the spam/viruses and then forward on the remaining "good" messages to mail.company.com. The company.com clients would still get their mail from mail.company.com via Pop/Imap/Webmail.
Any and all help is truly appreciated!!!

imho... you may be over-complicating your system and adding additional points of failure to your architecture if you go this route.
Communigate Pro allows you to run both SpamAssassin 3 and Clamd (the main antivirus/antispamspam tools provided in OSX Server) very easily on your CGPro box.
MPP Free gives you a nice gui for configuring them.
http://www.versiontracker.com/dyn/moreinfo/macosx/26139
Here's install directions I used to get it all working:
http://www.triksys.com/clamav.htm
hth,
b.

Help for first install of macpro with osx server

Hello to all
it's my first message on this forum, i'm seeking for help because i'm kind of new with Mac systems.
I'm gonna explain the problem
So we are going to buy a mac pro and put 4*2To inside with raid 5 and osx server.
The problem is that the cost of installation of sotwre and deployement etc is really expensive.
I need to create a vpn too, this mac pro is gonna be a storage and multiple users must have acces to it. In fact this mac will be connected on the router and users will acces to it on local network then later we're gonna move from our base so the mac will be at the home of one of us and other users will have to access it from outside.
I was thinking avoyding cost of install by doing it myself.
So i've thinked that the best way to do it is by asking help to the community.
Is anyone can help me with this or tell me where i can find tutorials to do it?
I have skills but this is hard form me. The thing is that i learn fast. But i need help.
Maybe my post is not really clear i write as it comes to me, english is not my langage too.
So feel free to ask me questions or informations if you need.
In the same time i'm reading posts on the foum about this kindof installations.
Thank u so much
.anto.

Dear Marcassin
i am happy to help to your problem .
first i would say you must read the Documentation. and you should familier with Mac Os installation System.
in your Mac Server DVD you will find the schedule sheet . print that and plan your server first. it will really help full. then come and list down the all the requirements.
may be you will need more services after that.
But again again again . read that sheet and fill all the requirements. and come back or read specific captors in the Documentation.
if you want more details about the installing sachira.herath at gmail
 certified Pro 10.6/10.5

Is there a way to have a wiki on osx server where users can be created at first logon? (for a semi-public wiki)

Hello,
I am installing an osx server that will be primarly used as a wiki for collaboration.
Problem: there will be many users from various organisations -> creating users manually on the server is not an option.
Is there a way to have a page/something where users will login and the account will be created at first logon? (after being approved if possible).
I'd want my users to go to the wiki and do something like click a "new user" or "create account" button then fill a form. The account in th directory would be then auto magically created.
Does this feature already exist for osx server with the built-in wiki?

Just generate the TTS on a separate slide and then assign the audio file created in the LIbrary to whatever object you need.

What are the right DNS records to host more than one site on OSX Server (ML). My conf in Server.app looks right but one of my sites lands on the default server. Any suggestion?

I started using OSX Server on Mountain Lion a few days ago and it looks promising.
I do however measure my ignorance in DNS matters...
I defined two websites in addition to the the Default Server, so I have three names to deal with.
For argument's sake
- www.main.com is the default site
- www.sitea.com is the first site
- www.siteb.com is the second site
I define a virtual host for www.sitea.com and another for www.siteb.com
The resulting apache conf is what I would expect, I am pretty sure it is correct.
So I modified my DNS entries (they were A records) to point to my new OSX Server.
My result is:
- www.main.com shows the default site
- www.sitea.com shows the first site
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Any ideas?
Cheers

Thanks MrHoffman!
My problem ended up being a name but not in the DNS!...In Apache.
Your information allowed me to rule out possibilities and zoom in to the culprit faster.
I just report here the conclusion hoping it can help someone else.
When I installed OSX Server last week, I had in mind to principally run siteb.
During the initial install, this is what I must have entered and then forgot about it.
Then I defined my virtual hosts sitea and siteb and realised my machine was called siteb and changed its name to main to avaid a name collision. At which time I remember OSX Server telling me that changing the name could have consequences...But it apparently went ok, and it did except for one little thing.
The consequence was this:
in the main configuration file /Library/Server/Web/Config/apache2/http_server_app.conf the ServerName directive had remained siteb (instead of main). I manually updated it with TextEdit (could do vi from bash, its the same) and replaced siteb with main.
There is a way to detect it.
In Server.app, there is a "logs" panel, which displays all sorts of logs for everything including the websites.
Each website's logs are presented as "access" and "error" logs. The information was there, but I could not see it because the viewing window in remarkably small for so much information in raw text...
web logs are actually written to only two files in /var/log/apache2 (error.log and access.log)
I openned two bash windows and run tail -f on error.log in one and tail -f access.log in the other.
When I started the web service, apache threw a warning stating from mod_ssl saying that the certificate did not match the serve name...I the certificate was what I expected, I checked http_server_app.conf and found the ServerName directive that was not changed when I renamed my server...
Easily fixed when its found, but it can take a while to find.
BTW, I was using A DNS records for and it works, but I find your method of using CNAME records documents the administrator's intent better than with A records; I started to do the same. (A records a useful though, they can run a domain across multiple machines)
Cheers mate!

Trying to limit a user on OSX Server to one directory for FTP

Hey there everybody,
I'm trying to set up a client FTP for a new mac mini running OSX Server (Mavericks). FTP is enabled and I am able to get and put files but, the server is going to be used for a client services company and we will need to use it to transfer files back and forth without allowing access to the whole machine. The core issue is when I FTP in as a user I can still move around and see folders and files. I would like to create a user that can only see one folder or directory and only get / put files to that one place. Can't seem to find any similar posts, though I would assume this is fairly common.
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Hello again,
I have tried sending messages from my webmail account in another domain and get the following reply:
This is the Postfix program at host www.patrickwgill.com.
I'm sorry to have to inform you that the message returned
below could not be delivered to one or more destinations.
For further assistance, please send mail to <postmaster>
If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
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The Postfix program
<[email protected]>: Command time limit exceeded:
"/usr/bin/cyrus/bin/deliver"
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Arrival-Date: Sun, 8 Jan 2006 14:05:25 -0500 (EST)
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Action: failed
Status: 5.0.0
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"/usr/bin/cyrus/bin/deliver"
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Seeking best practice for disaster recovery for osx server

I am seeking a solid disaster recovery solution. I would be happy if it complements Time Machine, but I don't require that.
I use DAR2 for the linux systems, but with the aid of nice UI provided by the distro vendor. It provides all the files necessary to follow up a clean base OS install with a file restore to provide a full recovery from a disaster.
I just placed a new Mac Mini Server with the Promise Tech DS4600 in service, so I am eager to put a plan in place.
What do other Mac OS Server users do?
I would be most grateful for links to articles, products and suggestions.

For anyone who comes across this post, here is what I settled on:
The server is a mac mini server and is configured with RAID 1 over the two hard disks. I use DAR to backup the linux boxes to the OSX Server. Carbon Copy Cloner is used to backup the OSX Server to a 2 terabyte storage array.
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Grant Application Impersonation Rights for UPN on Exchange Server 2007

Hi,
I would like to know , how to grant application impersonation rights for UPN account in exchange server 2007 . As i am working for mailbox migration , i should have this rights . I can do impersonation rights for domain\username but not for [email protected]
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Big thanks in advance.
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vinoth

Hi,
I have a test in my environment using Exchange 2007, you can use the following cmdlet to assign Application Impersonation rights to an account using UPN.
Get-ExchangeServer | where {$_.IsClientAccessServer -eq $TRUE} | ForEach-Object {Add-ADPermission -Identity $_.distinguishedname -User (Get-User -Identity
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Get-MailboxDatabase | ForEach-Object {Add-ADPermission -Identity $_.DistinguishedName -User
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Hope my clarification is helpful.
Best regards,
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Is OSX server right for me?

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