Setting up a Home Network w/ Snow Leopard server

I would like suggestions on how to best configure a home network.
One of my main goals is to enable my 5 kids to share 3 computers and my mini server.
I would like them to each have an account with the same files and set up available on each computer.
My wife and I also have laptops connected to the network.
My computers are listed below.
I have Airport extreme and some external hard drives also.

jpadilladeborst wrote:
Is it advisable to use the same Hard Drive that the server is running off as a sharepoint?
It doesn't matter too much - the only issue is from a restore point of view - what will you lose if the server creams in? From that perspective, it probably makes sense to have the OS on one drive and the 'shared area' (if that's what you're going to do) on the other drive. Then, once you have everything set up and working how you like, use Disk Utility or CarbonCopyCloner or something similar to image the OS drive onto an external HD for speedy restore purposes, and maybe set up Time Machine on the server itself to back up the shared area and probably the /Users/ directory to another external drive - 1TB+ if you have it.
Remember that in order for the drive to be useable as a TM destination, it has to be formatted in a way that OS X can understand, so GUID partition table and probably Mac OS Extended (Journaled). The reason I point that out is that some NAS drives (you mentioned a Hip something or other which I'm not familiar with but may fall under this category) run their own partition tables etc, sometimes even running their own OS (which can be Win 98 or similar) thus rendering them useless from this point of view.
Other things to think about are how you're using your space. Remember that if each user account has iTunes with a load of songs, that is going to suck up space on your server very quick. If that's the case, perhaps consider dumping everyone's songs onto a sharepoint and setting that as the iTunes storage location for each user's iTunes. Alternatively, with iTunes 9 you can now share music libraries between multiple computers (providing they're all using the same Apple ID). Of course that throws up iPod/iPhone syncing problems, so keep it all in mind.
Furthermore (I think you've already mentioned this), see what you can put on the shared area instead of in users Documents folder. For example, if one of them has a load of family photos - put them all on the shared area. Stuff you don't want the kids to have access to (financial documentation etc) can still be put on the shared area, but can be protected with user account-based permissions (this is where server OS's and networked user accounts really come into their own), or just leave within one user account.
And for goodness sake, especially if you have things you don't want the kids to have access to, don't let the main server account be the one that the kids use to log on to the server for every-day purposes, since they will then have access to everything (since the main admin account on any mac is by default 'root', which means it is the account which is allowed to do absolutely anything to an OS, including changing permissions etc etc)

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Thanks very much.
Following your tip I've found that to enable password request the command is
sudo nvram sucurity-mode=command
followed by
sudo nvram security-password=<pass_code>
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nvram security-password
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Setting up Snow Leopard Server with Address Book, iCal for Small Business

Hello Folks,
I have a small business with 2-3 people and I want to setup Snow Leopard Server on a Mac Mini. I have everything in place, RAID, Backup drive etc.
What I need is a guide on how to setup the server correctly and how to setup Address Book Server, iCal Server, DNS, etc. I was in IT a long while back but have gone back to my creative roots and sworn off IT but I am in a situation where my IT guy's wife is pregnant so he is busy painting the baby's room, etc.
I was looking at Snow Leopard Server for Dummies and a few other books. Do you guys have any suggestions on resources for me to read or research that would give me very straightforward steps in getting this setup. I am at a point where I can re-install from scratch if needed.
For the ease of those that might respond let's assume I know my way around Mac and general networking as a whole.
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Cheers,
Jason

Hi Guys,
First of, I will give you a brief background on me regarding networking as a mac user since 1994. I can setup and network multiple macs without a server in our home and small office. Turning file, print and internet sharing with a regular Mac OS X client version at no problem at all. This would be my first time setting up a Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server.
I'm in the same boat as Jakekub but we do not have a static IP from our DSL provider. We just bought a Mac Mini Server for our small office with 3 iMacs and 1 MacBook. We will just use the server for internal usage and to centralized things out and use some of server's features like Address Book, Mail, iCal etc. I've search the forums and found Orhidy's post here:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2148553
I even followed the sample IP Address, Subnet Mask, Router, DNS Server and I think I had it correctly setup initially. And I think I got it all running on the basic setup base on his instructions. So I tried to test my DNS settings via Terminal > hostname then got answer as
servername.companyname.private
And double checking DNS again with a command: sudo changeip - checkhostname and was given an answer of:
Primary address = 192.168.1.192
Current Hostname = servername.companyname.private
DNS Hostname = servername.companyname.private
The names match. There is nothing to change
dirserv:success = "success"
But here's another one that bugs me. I tried to follow from "Mac OS X Snow Leopard for Dummies" the command line:
NSLOOKUP hostname
and got an answer of:
;; Got SERVFAIL reply from 192.168.1.192, trying next server
Server: 192.168.1.1
Address: 192.168.1.1#53
** server can't find hostname: NXDOMAIN
So does it mean that I still haven't configured my server properly?
Thank you all for the help in advance!
dive

How to resolve network issue or dns to access web page on snow leopard server?

I have my network setup like as follows:
internet > router 1 > ethernet ports > switch > router 2
I have a mac osx snow leopard server connected to "router 1", but it is so slow when accessing a web page hosted on the server from a browser on a workstation connected to either router 1 or router 2?
Is there a problem with my network setup or maybe because I changed the name to newservername.local?

@Jeff and @Camelot,
I think it is a DNS issue. I completely reset the DNS settings on server and the local name with the steps below, but now cannot access the site hosted on the server at all
I used a modified version of http://www.mkahn.com/2010/09/configuring-dns-on-mac-os-x-10-6-snow-leopard-serve r-for-hosting/ to reset the server set
1. Stop DNS Service in Server Admin
2. Close Server Admin
3. Obtain 10.6 DNS Default files (below)
4. Overwrite the DNS files with DNS Default files:
/etc/dns/loggingOptions.conf.apple
/etc/dns/options.conf.apple
/etc/dns/publicView.conf.apple
/var/named/named.ca/etc/named.conf
/var/named/named.local
/var/named/localhost.zone
5. Restart your server
All machines have 1ms ping responses within the network including this snow leopard server that I am trying to setup. There is another test web server that return pages instantly within this network so I doubt it is a network issue, but a DNS issue.

Question about changing a Snow Leopard Server network settings

We have an Xserve running Mac OS X Server 10.6.8, the primary services running on it are afp, smb, dhcp, dns, jabber and the calendar sever.
Right now we have a router connecting two networks together, 192.168.0.0/24 and 192.168.1.0/24. The Xserve has a static IP address in the 192.168.0.0/24 range.
In order to combine two phone systems into one I am required to combine the above networks, this will involve removing the router and changing the subnet mask on every device from 255.255.255.0 to 255.255.254.0, any device that is currently part of the 192.168.1.0/24 network will also need to have it's router setting changed from 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.0.1. That part should all be easy.
However, this is my first experience expanding a network past a standard class C and am wondering if there is anything I need to watch for on my Snow Leopard Sever.
Specifically I wonder about dhcp settings, right now there are two dhcp servers, the Xserve which provides dhcp for 192.168.0.0/24 and the router that provides dhcp for 192.168.1.0/24. Once the router is removed the Xserve will need to provide dhcp for the entire network.
Looking at the Xserve dhcp configuration right now I have one subnet defined providing addresses 192.168.0.5 to 192.168.0.125.
Can I simply click the + to add another subnet and add for instance a range of 192.168.1.5 to 192.168.1.125?
Will it simply give out all of the ip addresses in the first range and then start with the 2nd? Or do I need to find a single range of ip addresses large enough to meet my needs? (e.g. 192.168.1.5 to 192.168.1.225 or something).
Is there anythign else to watch for after making this type of network setting change?
Thanks in advance.

Thank you for your very detailed reply.
I understand the problems that can arise using 192.168.0.x and 192.168.1.x and if this were a new project I would definitely switch to something else, however in this case we have been using these ip ranges for years (they were in use here long before I started) and I don't want to have to redo all of my dns settings at the same time I make these other changes so I'm going to stick with the same ip's we are using at least for now. Anyone here needing vpn access has already dealt with this issue but we have very few vpn users so it has not been a major problem for us to date.
My biggest question is about increasing the size of the dhcp pool. For instance, after I change all the network settings and set up a /23 network is it possible to have a single dhcp pool that includes some ip's in the 192.168.0.x range and others in the 192.168.1.x range? I guess what I am asking is when I am in Server Admin and click on DHCP one of the tabs across the top is "Subnets". Right now there is a single "subnet" configured that provides addresses from 192.168.0.5 to 192.168.0.125.
Ideally I would like one dhcp pool that provides ip's in the range of 192.168.0.5 to 192.168.0.125 and then if all of those are used up, moves to 192.168.1.5 to 192.168.1.125. Can I do that by simply adding another "Subnet" so there are two? Or do I have to find one larger single range? (e.g. 192.168.1.5 to 192.168.1.225?) You may have already answered this indicating I have to have a single larger range but I just want to be sure.
The parts about changing subnet masks, and routers and all that I think I have a pretty good understanding of.
Your last paragraph is something I have been worried about, I do have a feeling that after making this change there will probably be unforseen issues that will need to be resolved, I'm just hoping it is not too many. For the scope of this thread I will just focus on issues that may arise with the Snow Leopard Server however.
Again, thank you for your help.

New Snow Leopard Server, Slow Network Accounts

We've installed Snow Leopard Server on our XServe quite a while ago and since then all users who work with network accounts are complaining about serious perfomance issues. These issues are for instance logins which may very well take up to several minutes, or applications like Adobe InDesign which take their time to load files from the users network shares.
Our System consist of:
1 XServe running OS X 10.6.8 Snow Leopard Server
48 iMacs running OS X 10.5
1 Windows Server 2008
The XServe serves as an OpenDirectory and Fileserver, while the Windows Server delivers DNS.
We have created ~500 users and 25 groups in the OpenDirectory. All user files are located in their roaming profiles on the Xserve. Additionaly every user has access to one group folder, which is located on the Xserve as well.
All group folders are Sharepoints and added to the dock of all users in the appropriate group.
I have already checked DNS settings, user accounts, network connectivity in general, network load during peak hours, the ACLs on the group folders....
By now im simply out of ideas what my cause the problem, let alone how to solve it.
Any hints are greatly appreciated.

Are you using any redirections? Redirecting the cache folder from the network home to the /tmp should improve speed. Use this white paper from apple. http://images.apple.com/education/docs/Apple-ClientManagementWhitePaper.pdf The redirections are on page 53.

Wireless Network on Snow Leopard

Hi,
I am fairly new to Macs, and apologize if i ask a stupid question however.....I was wondering if someone would spend a little of there time and help me out with a few things. Completely high level at the moment.
I have an Imac running snow leopard and in the next few weeks will be purchasing a mac book pro. I wish to set up a wireless network which i understand i can do via airport utility.
First Question - How do i set up user accounts on the network, so that when a user logs into one of the two macs, there greeted with a login notification. When they log in there connected to the network and can i administor these user names through my Imac which will be the admin computer.
Second Question - In the near future i hope to purchase a mac mini running snow leopard server, and then user server admin tools to adminsitor the server remotely, again through my Imac. Again, when the users log in via there network passwords, they are connected to the network and server automatically.
Any help would be massively appreciated, thank you in advance.
Dan.

You can centrally administer user names and passwords, and some user settings such as Finder and Dock preferences. To get an idea of what's possible, read the documentation for Snow Leopard Server. You can also install Server Admin Tools and use the Workgroup Manager application to administer user accounts on your own Mac, even under the client OS. At the authentication prompt, enter "localhost" as the server and use your local admin name and password.
Note that Mac OS X 10.7, due out later this year, will have the server components included, presumably as an optional installation. If you're willing to wait, you can save some money, as SL Server is quite expensive.

I want to set up a home network to be able to watch my movies and litsen to music across multiple platforms without keeping my laptop connected.

I want to set up a home network to be able to watch my movies and litsen to music across multiple platforms. I have movies purchased from itunes as well as movies from my DVD collection that i converted to an .m4v format. I currently have these movies stored on an external harddrive. To watch a movie on my apple tv I have to ensure my external hard drive is connected to my macbook pro, then play the movie on my macbook pro and "mirror" it to my apple tv.
Ideally I would like to be able to watch movies from my collection without having to have my laptop on and work from that. Is it possible to navigate my collection from my Apple TV and play it on my Apple TV. My macbook pro is the machine I primarily use for work and school it is quite the protological nuissance to have to hook all that up everytime I want to watch a movie.
My thoughts are that I could take my old dekstop pc, attach an external hard drive to that and make that my "media storage". If I were to do that would I then be able to watch movies as well as select which movie I want to watch from my library through my apple TV without my macbook pro being in the equation? Or if I should desire to watch a movie from my library through my Macbook Pro, Iphone 4s, and ipad is that possible? I basically want to set up my library to be accessible from any of my devices.
My devices are; the previously mentioned Apple Tv, macbook pro, iphone 4s, ipad 3. I also have a desktop PC running windows 7, xbox 360 and playstation 3 (the xbox and PS3 would be nice if they could too but wouldnt break my heart as they are my roommate's and not mine so I rarely use them.)
Thank you for any help/advice you guys may have!

atv's can only access media from
1. a computer which is turned on running itunes
2. the internet
no other options
and NAS's which say they can work as itunes libs don't work

How do I change the name next to the home icon in Snow Leopard

How do I change the name next to the home icon in Snow Leopard?

Open the Accounts pane of System Preferences, unlock it, control-click your account, choose Advanced Options, and change its name there.
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Windows 7 (Client) map a network drive VPN Snow Leopard Server

Hi,
I have a Mac Mini Snow Leopard Server and are using a VPN service.
My services on the mac os x sls server are: AFP, DNS, Firewall, Open Directory, SMB and VPN.
I can connect the VPN from Mac clients and Windows 7 clients, but I can only map a network drive/share point on Mac´s.
On Windows 7 I get an error: path or name not found ( I am sure using the correct path, same from Mac client that works).
When I am using my internal network LAN I can map a network drive using Windows 7 and Mac but outside over a VPN not (only Mac works).
The only service, at this moment, that I need is File Sharing outside my network LAN using a VPN.
How can I map a network drive from a Windows 7 client using a VPN, is there any Firewall rules / SMB rules / File Sharing rules that I missed on the server side?
Thank You.

I really don't know what are going wrong with my settings. As you said/write it must be an easy setup.
I'm using a Time Capsule and used the Server app to add VPN to the port forwarding also.
When I am connected thru the VPN I tried to ping the Server IP and got no answer from it, from W7 client!?
My Mac's are just working fine with AFP and SMB share points thru the VPN.
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Lion Clients 10.7.4 show network accounts are unavailable and server is not responding when binding to Snow Leopard server 10.6.8

Hello,
I am running Snow Leopard Server 10.6.8 and my clients are Lion 10.7.4. While testing I had no issues binding 10.7.4 to our 10.6.8 server's OD. I created a 10.7.4 image to push to all of our machines and in the beginning of last week I was able to push the image and get the machines to bind with OD and apply preferences on these machines through workgroup manager. Towards the end of the week though this stopped working. Now any time I bind a 10.7.4 client to OD it allows me to perform an authenticated bind and the machine shows up in workgroup manager but immediatley after binding the client the status jelly next to the OD server in the directory list is red and says "This server is not responding". If I reboot the client I get a notification that "Network accounts are unavailable" at the login screen. My preferences from workgroup manager are also not applying, which is my main concern because without workgroup manager my mac server is somewhat pointless as we use it for very little else.
I've since tried to bind a snow leopard machine (10.6.8) and this still is working with a green status jelly. I've also built a lion machine from scratch, updated to the 10.7.4 combined update and am still getting the same issue where it shows the server is not responding when binding to OD. I then applied the subsiquent OS update after the 10.7.4 combined update but the problem still persists.
Is anyone else having this issue? Any help would help me keep my sanity.
Thanks,
Dane

Have you had any luck finding a solution to this? The only thing I have found was to unbind and then bind without authentication. Any help with progress on your end would be appreciated!
Nick.

Using ms office 2008 for mac home & student edition with snow leopard serv

Hi all,
I have a very particular question.
I have a new small business starting up and we want to make full use of leopard and snow leopard server in our infrastructure. We also want to use os x for all our client machines.
We want to use ms office 2008 for mac as our main offfice software but i believe we don't need all the uses or festures of the business edtion and i need to seek good advice and clarity on this.
We won't ever use any microsoft exchange servers but instead willl use the apple mail servers and all the other apple server services.
My question is, based on the fact that we will have an all apple mac os x backend and client frontend but want to use the ms office for mac as our business software, and also based on the fact that we wont use the "Build your Brand clip art, Build your skills by lynda.com, the Remote Desktop for mac 2, the Microsoft Exchange Server Support and the Microsoft Windows sharepoint services support, do we really need to go for the business edition? Can we not just use the home and student edition and get the same functionality using everything else apart form what we listed as we wont need these?
The other question is, the Entourage 2008, Web services Edition, will this work with an apple backend instead of ms exchange server?
Kind regards and thanks for your wise advice,
Neil Watson

Thanks, Kurt--I understand now.
One reason I was alarmed was that evidently when the tech installed Office 2008, something went awry with either the key installer or the key code, because when I finished the first two updates (12.1 and 12.2), I tried to open Entourage to see if the problem I'd been having was resolved. Instead of opening, Office gave me a message that my product key was invalid! I did find the product key, and called the tech, who will come by to see what's wrong (he's an honest guy, so I'm sure it's a legitimate error of some kind, not a pirated copy). But the thought of installing two pages of updates and maybe running into the same glitch every time made me blanch. So I'm glad to know that Microsoft is still doing Service Packs for 2008!

MySql Database set up on Snow Leopard Server for Wordpress

I am trying to set up a mySql database on the snow leopard server in order to install wordpress.
I have played around with the MySql database settings (in the server admin window) but can't seem to figure out how to set the database name, username, and password within the Snow leopard server.
Do I need to use third party software like Navicat to create the database and user names etc? If yes, any idea how to do that? If now, how do I create a MySql database, username and pw?
I have put the Wordpress install folder on my Snow leopard server. When I navigate to my domain it says I need to configure wordpress by providing my database name, username and password.
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That's set up via the [MySQL command line|http://labs.hoffmanlabs.com/node/376]. Or you can install the (free) Sequel Pro GUI package, given you're probably more comfortable in the GUI. The steps required for Mac OS X Server are the same as most any other platform, so [launch the MySQL client per the Wordpress Codex|http://codex.wordpress.org/Installing_WordPress], and follow the instructions.

Sharing Canon Wireless Network Printer on Snow Leopard Server

Trying to setup a wireless printer to share on the LAN via Mac Mini Snow Leopard Server, however the sharing option is not available.
Configuration:
Mac Mini Snow Leopard Server (latest updates etc.) (static IP)
TimeCapsule Wireless network (static IP)
Canon MP620 Wireless printer (static IP)
Two MacBook's (DHCP)
Printer drivers (network drivers, and scanner drivers) from Canon installed on Mac Mini and printer is connected and setup via wireless network on Mac Mini; it is operational and can print from Mac Mini directly without problem
Sharing option on Mac Mini for the printer is missing in Print Settings (missing checkbox), so unable to share the printer on MacBook's via the Mac Mini, also under Sharing Settings the printer option is not there (assuming because share this printer option is not in the print settings)
Ideally, I want to setup the printer on the Mac Mini as a print server, without having to hardline (USB) the printer to the Mac Mini.
Thanks for any help, ideas etc.

Hello and welcome to Apple Discussions.
On OS X Server, you need to use the Server Admin utility (Applications > Server ) to share the local print queue. This requires the Print service to be added/started and then a queue created for the local printer.
Seems unusual that you would want to share a wireless printer from the server. The MacBook 'clients' would still be able to connect directly to this printer without having to connect via the server share so without knowing all the details of your setup it just seems an odd requirement.

Why can't Firefox set permissions for Snow Leopard Server Web-Site Wikis

I've established a web-site for collaboration of planning for a state-wide NGO and a local citizens-government oversight commission.
I'm using Snow Leopard Server v10.6.4, to drive the web-site, which includes the use of wikis.
In creating a wiki and setting permissions, I find that I cannot set permissions for users or groups to 'read only' from the default 'read & write' while using Firefox. However, I CAN set them to 'read only' using Safari. And, once the permission has been modified in Safari, THEN it can be modified in Firefox.

Solution found at http://michaeljin.wordpress.com/2010/01/05/locked-out-of-mac-os-x-server/
It’s blog update time! Updates have been a little scarce lately, been super busy with getting trophies on PS3
Anyway, recently encountered the following with a Mac mini server running Snow Leopard Server:
Despite being able to ARD / Screenshare the Mac mini, I was unable to get any further than the login window. Authentication credentials are obviously valid. No weird access permissions have been set. However, the weird thing was, I can connect to the server via Server Admin tools (from another Mac) and all other services were running without a hitch.
After much head scratching it turns out to be a sACL (Service Access Control List) issue.
This thread solved the mystery!
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1654864
To save you the trouble, I’ll lay it out here. I cannot take credit for this, but Randall can!
Open Server Admin on a computer (any), and connect with the local admin to the machine.
Select the server and authenticate.
Select Settings, then go to Access. You’ll want to make sure that Login Window and SSH have the local admin account listed if you select the option to “Allow only these users”. For now, I would suggest making sure all services have “Allow all users and groups” selected.
If (as in my case) it was set to Allow All in the first place, simply toggle the settings – back and forth.
Save.
Try logging in again… should be a good one!

Setting up a Home Network w/ Snow Leopard server

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