Using Apple Server File Sharing

How does Apple Server work? Is it possible to just use the file sharing feature? I would like to set up a file sharing service similar to dropbox where users log in and can see there files as well as files that everyone can access. How do I set up the server is it run off my "computer" that acts as a server for the company? Or does Apple host it?
Any help or information would be greatly appreciated. I am trying to see how Apple Server works with the goal of being able to remotly access my files like Dropbox but without the file size limitation.

If you really want to learn more about OS X Server, I highly recommend the Apple Training Series books at Peachpit Press.
http://www.peachpit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0321775082
You can get either an eBook, or a real book.... or both. They're very well written. OS X Server works much better on an office LAN. Hosting an Apple file share over the internet can be done, but you're always going to have to deal with connection speeds when connecting from outside of your office network. You'll need a very fast internet connection that includes a very fast upload speed. Of course, you're always going to be limited by the slower connection. If the users are at home on a 3Mb/s DSL connection, and your server is attached to a 20Mb/s data connection, the users will download only at 3Mb/s, not 20.
I suggest that you don't make your own system a server. If you shut it down, users can't get into it. My rule about servers is that they should NEVER be someone's personal workstation. You should invest the money to do this right. For a small office, a Mac mini does a great job. For a larger one, a Mac Pro loaded up with RAM and lots of storage is a better choice. ALWAYS deploy a good backup solution. Time Machine is good, but CrashPlan Pro would be even better.

Similar Messages

10.8 Server file sharing problem

We have a new Mac mini with 10.8 and OS X Server app. The mini has direct attached storage and will be used mainly for File Sharing. There is a repeatable problem/bug with case sensitive folder names and file sharing. For example a folder named "Editorial" is inacessible via "Connect to Server" from a client on the LAN. The same folder with the same permissions, same everthing, except it is named "editorial" works perfectly. Change the uppercase E to a lowercase e and it works. The drive is formatted with normal HFS+. It is Not HFS+ case-sensitive. I have Xserves running 10.4, 10.5, and 10.6 for file sharing and none have this problem.
Has anyone else experieced this? Is there a fix? Other than making everything lowercase.

Simon Slavin United Kingdom
If you have a problem please start a thread of your own. Don't get us confused between solving two different problems.
Simon,
The subject of this thread is dealing with:
"Server 10.8 file sharing problem"
Specifically for direct attached storage file sharing permissions issue.
Client computers having issues with folder permissions
These are exactly my issues as well. I was hoping to try a solution here or maybe proffer a solution if found elsewhere. I did not realize each problem should be opened as a separate discussion....
Sulking back into the shadow...

Lion server file sharing issue with windows API read/write ini file (GetPrivateProfileString)

Hello,
I try to config lion server as file server for a windows application we use at work. All other computers are windows 7 or XP, lion server is the only mac. I choose lion server because it's size, quality and personal love of apple products.
10.7.2 lion server's samba file sharing works almost perfectly with all my windows machines, I can copy, delete, modify any text files or office files without any issue, but the most important windows application for my business doesn't work with samba file sharing. After some digging, I found it is because windows program can't read or write INI file stored on lion share. Windows API GetPrivateProfileString always returns empty if the INI file is store on lion share.
You can download a small application for read/write windows INI file from codeproject.com to test this problem:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/files/ini.aspx
I can open/edit the in file using any text editor without any problem. The only problem is with those windows APIs. ACL is turned on for my lion share and assigned "delete" rights to samba users.
I install samba3 on the same server; it works perfectly with windows API. My windows program also works. Looks like there is something wrong with lion server's sambax.
I'd prefer to use built-in samba even I have samba3 working. Built-in samba is very immature right now, but considered how young it is, I will give apple some time to make it mature.
Does anyone have same issue or knows how to fix it?
Thanks,
Michael.

All the memory is fine. The server rarely if ever goes down when there are only around 10-12 users connected. When there are 20+ users connected and working heavily it goes down often. When I say working heavily, I mean they are transferring huge files to the SAN (100GB+), sometimes 5 at a time per user, and there are a bunch of others who are reading large video files at a minimum of 220MB/sec from the SAN.
Though this worked on Snow Leopard without any issues, Lion just doesn't seem to be able to handle it. The odd thing is, on Snow Leopard there was only a single 1GB ethernet connection to a NAS system, whereas with Lion we have a much more powerful machine with a 6-port 10GB ethernet card and a 4 lane 8GB fiber card to a true SAN. You would think that the newer scenario with Lion would handle far more users with ease.
So far, very disappointing with regards to Lion's file serving performance.

Lion Server File Sharing Crashes

We have a brand new Mac Pro (12 core with 64GB of RAM) running OS X Lion Server in a corporate environment. The server is running only file sharing and software update servers, and we have around 40 users who need to be connected over AFP at all times. This company runs 24/7 and we have an XSan environment using an ATTO Celerity 8GB 4 channel fiber card (84EN) along with a 6 port 10GB Ethernet card. The Ethernet card is configured in a link aggregation bond using ports 1-4. The idea is that clients who do not have fiber cards installed on their machines can still connect to the SAN via Ethernet and this file server. They AFP connect to the share, and of course the share is the SAN. It's a single mount point and everyone has read/write access.
The issue is that this machine keeps crashing (multiple times per day) and I cannot find any reason why. Syslog shows nothing of value and I've called into Apple Enterprise Support who also brought nothing to the table.
We initially had SMB and AFP file sharing activated but as soon as a Windows 7 client connected the machine was brought down. So, I disabled SMB via terminal (sudo serveradmin stop smb) and deactivated it via the Server app for the share point). That at least allows the machine to be up for 4-6 hours before crashing again.
This is seemingly the simplest of setups for file sharing and I would've thought that this beast of a machine would be able to handle being a file server without issue for far more than 40 clients. I'm seeing high CPU usage, which Apple support told me was perfectly normal (around 60% on the kernel_task process and around 55% on the AppleFileServer process). It also seems to consume all 64GB of memory, though it shows 60GB as inactive, but at the same time it's paging in and out.
Virtually all of the clients are running Lion (10.7.4), the server itself is running 10.7.4. There are a few ethernet connected clients running 10.6 along with two running 10.5. As I mentioned I disabled SMB so there are no Windows computers connecting to this machine at this time (though it would be nice to get that functionality back if AFP can be stabilized).
None of this makes any sense to me and I'm hoping someone can shed some light on this issue. This company simply cannot be down, especially not multiple times per day. The only way to bring things back and running from a crash is to hard boot the machine via the power button as you cannot perform a restart or a shutdown. Once the machine comes back up everything is back to working order for a few more hours until it happens again.

All the memory is fine. The server rarely if ever goes down when there are only around 10-12 users connected. When there are 20+ users connected and working heavily it goes down often. When I say working heavily, I mean they are transferring huge files to the SAN (100GB+), sometimes 5 at a time per user, and there are a bunch of others who are reading large video files at a minimum of 220MB/sec from the SAN.
Though this worked on Snow Leopard without any issues, Lion just doesn't seem to be able to handle it. The odd thing is, on Snow Leopard there was only a single 1GB ethernet connection to a NAS system, whereas with Lion we have a much more powerful machine with a 6-port 10GB ethernet card and a 4 lane 8GB fiber card to a true SAN. You would think that the newer scenario with Lion would handle far more users with ease.
So far, very disappointing with regards to Lion's file serving performance.

The Windows SMB feature has file locking if multiple users are accessing the same file. Does Snow Leopard Server File Sharing (AFP) provide similar features?

The Windows SMB feature has file locking if multiple users are accessing the same file. Does File Sharing (AFP) on Snow Leopard Server provide similar services?

Were you ever able to solve this problem. I'm having similar issues since upgrading to snow leopard. Four macs connect to a Windows Server 2003 for shared files. Each user has full permissions & when we "get info" it shows read & write permissions. Two of the computers were running 10.4, two were running 10.5. Everything worked properly until upgrading to snow leopard. Some files let me copy, move, delete. Others either just hang up or we get a "no permission" error. Also getting a "pdf is in use" error, even when the file/folder doesn't contain a pdf. We had our IT rep check the server who said everything is in working order. They don't represent macs any longer but feel that it's a mac problem. I would have to agree since this problem only started after the upgrade, and the one machine that was not upgraded (still running 10.5.8) is not dealing with these problems.
Lastly, I would install 10.5 back on all of the computers if I could, but the leopard disk that came with one of the computers wouldn't work with the 2 machines running 10.4 and I didn't see it available at the apple store. I'll buy it if it's still available, but why wouldn't the disks that I have work?
Thanks for any help

How do I use VPN for file sharing?

Hi folks, hope you can help.
I need to find a method for file sharing between my company's two offices, which are not only in different countries but also use both PCs and Macs. I think setting up a VPN is the way forward.
My file server is a Mac Mini running the standard client version of OS 10.5.4, with a static IP, 217.xxx.xxx.xxx. I need the PCs and Macs to access its resources. It is set up to share its files using FTP, AFP and SMB. It is running the application iVPN Server, which I understand is a GUI that makes the built-in OS X VPN Server function available to the client edition of OS X.
I am currently overseas and can connect to the Mac Mini over VPN. The problem is that I cannot seem to access the Mac Mini's files - I don't know what to do having established the VPN connection. I was half-expecting it to show up in the Finder under Shared or something.
The Mac Mini has a local IP of 10.0.1.20, but the VPN Server is issuing an IP to all clients in the range 192.168.2.200 and beyond. Is this where I'm going wrong?
Should the Mac Mini VPN Server also connect to itself, using VPN, as a client?
I'm really stuck, all help is very much appreciated. Thank you!

Thanks for prompt reply Topher..
I am familiar with the Connect to Server window, but I am not sure which IP I should be using. Assuming no VPN connection for the moment, and assuming I'm on a remote network, I can connect to the User's documents folder on the Mac Mini already by typing afp://[username:password]@[static WAN ip]/Documents
However, I need to ensure that SMB shares work (I know they work when I'm on the local network). So I type smb://[username:password]@[static WAN ip]/Documents but this fails to connect to the User's Documents folder.
To make the SMB shares work I think I have to connect using VPN. So I connect to the Mac Mini via VPN, and my laptop is issued a VPN IP of 192.168.2.200. Of course my laptop also has an IP from my local network. Do I need to rearrange my network order in System Preferences?
So I'm now connected via VPN. However to view the Mac Mini's files, surely it also needs to have an IP issued by the VPN Server? But the Mac Mini is the VPN server. So should I go into its System Preferences and set up a VPN connection to itself?
Now back on the laptop and I want to browse User's Documents folder on the Mac Mini using SMB. I go Connect to Server, and I guess I would type smb://[username:password]@[Mac Mini's VPN IP]/Documents
Am I on the right track? Thanks again...

HELP: Yosemite server file sharing not working

Yosemite server and OS.latest
I have followed all the steps:
Set up DNS
Set up OD Master
Added users one at a time, then added them to groups
Added shares in File Sharing and allocated groups to shares
Just in case, I propagated permissions from storage tab
All relevant services turned on
Problem: when I test the logins from another local machine, either the credentials aren't recognised, or the only share is admin's drop folder; there should be 4 others.
Urgently need to get this running; what on earth can I have done wrong?
Thanks

"Once credentials are submitted, the share is mounted without the need to select it - is this normal?"
yes , unless there are other shares as options.
"The share I need reports: drwxrwx---@ 22 admin all-staff 748 16 Mar 14:38 Current Work, so that looks right."
only posix owner and group are allowed which is admin all-staff. Are these groups available in LDAP ?
really you should have something like
drwxrwxr-x+ 12 root admin 408 Mar 15 22:32 MyShare
that little + then allows other users or groups to access the filesystem.
do an " ls -le " to see more
sample;
drwxrwxr-x+ 12 root admin 408 Mar 15 22:32 MyShare
ls -le
drwxrwxr-x+ 12 root admin 408 Mar 15 22:32 MyShare
0: user:_spotlight inherited allow list,search,file_inherit,directory_inherit
---- then I can allow other access rules.
Using the Gui in osx server I gave read/write access to the IT_dudes Group on the Share. *note the group is an active directory group from the NT Domain named BETH.
This server is bound.
drwxrwxr-x+ 12 root admin 408 Mar 15 22:32 MyShare
0: user:_spotlight inherited allow list,search,file_inherit,directory_inherit
1: group:BETH\IT_Dudes allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextat tr,writeextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit

Mac OS X Server, File Sharing, Permission

Hi All,
          I’m trying to use Mac os X server Maverick in a small team within my
          organization. I was able to successfully install and setup the server, which
          resides in a local network. I did the following setup:
     1 ) Open Directory Setup
      2 ) File Sharing , /Users , available for home directory over AFP
      3 ) Created Network users with home folder pointing to /Users
      4 ) Bound Clients to the server
      5 ) XCode Server Setup with git repository
      Users now can login using their own account and their home folder
      is loaded from the server. Unfortunately there are issues. Clients are having permission issues,
      which we have never encountered on local machines before we switched to using XCode Server.
      Here is a list of some of the issues so far
      Xcode issues on client computer:
           a)   When creating a XCode project, it reports the error “Couldn’t not find build module Drawin” when clicking create
             button.I found online a workaround fix that supposedly works, which is to set "Enable Modules (C and Objective C)"
              to No. But we didn’t have to do this before using XCode server.
           b ) When committing to git repo , the following error happens “fatal: Repository has been updated ,
                but unable to write to new_index. Check the disk is not full or quota is not exceeded ,
                and then "git reset HEAD"   to recover” Another work around we found online is to do on the client,
               cp index backup ; mv backup index
       We don’t want to have to do this every time we create a project, what could be wrong with the setup?

You need to run Server Admin and click on the File Sharing icon at the top. Then click on Share Points, and Browse. You then browse to the folder you want to set the permissions on.
You will see in the bottom half of the window the current permissions. While in theory you can use just POSIX permissions, Snow Leopard prefers using ACL permissions. So as an example to set a folder to be only accessible by members of a specific group and to deny access to everyone else you would do the following.
Click on the + symbol at the bottom
A window will open listing all your users and groups, click on groups at the top
Find the special 'Everyone' group and drag it to the ACL section
Find the group you want to give access to and also drag that to the ACL section but make sure it is above the Everyone group as higher setting override lower settings
Set the Everyone group to Deny Read permission, this will prevent them being able to access this folder
Set the group you do want to have access to Allow Read or Allow Read/Write, the first would let them only be able to read, the second also allows them to create files or modify files.
Now click on the Save button in the bottom right.
You might also want to click on the gear wheel symbol and choose 'Propagate permissions' if you want to apply these permissions to all the files and folders within this folder.

Lion Server file sharing

Hi guys, I have a client running Lion server 10.4, and roughly 5 Mac's around the office all running lion 10.4. Everything was setup and running smoothly until this morning when he lost all file sharing to the server. (Data is stored on the server and Mac's connect through finder>network>server) When hitting "connect as" there is no login window, the black bar just says "connecting" and doesn't get any further. I have tried restarting the file sharing service from the server, connecting manually via its IP with both AFP and SMB to no avail. I have also tried turning off AFP on the server and restarting that, as well as adding other shared folders, opening up permission etc. Hoping someone has an idea of what's going on!

No problem! We rebooted the server to no avail, and the client iMac. It's all sorted now, I was logged in remotely so I couldn't see all the machines at once, according to my client it just started working but I'm pretty sure there's some detail he left out in what he was doing. It did however seem to be an issue only on the one workstation so all good! Thanks for the quick response

Not able to use Apple TV Home Sharing when internet down

I am encountering an odd problem.
I have been using Apple TV ever since the 1st Gen and have been using it to stream content from my iMac using Home Sharing.
It's all been working without incident until the past 2 weeks as my internet connection has been spotty and dropping out for 30 mins - 2 hours at a time.
When the internet is down I am able to browse my itumes library, look to see what is there, no issues.
But when I try to play the content I get the spinning wheel indicating it's loading content but nothing loads.
I've tried resetting the Apply TV. Restarting iTunes, etc, etc - nothing works.
It only starts to work again once the internet connection comes back - then I am able to play content.
This is odd as it's all offline content (subscribe to many podcasts that download automatically and want to play them via Apple TV from my iMac iTunes).
Has anyone else had similar issues and have a workaround? Or is this a new "bug" that has to be corrected by Apple?
Many thanks

Hello,
i have the same problem when I go on holiday.
i Take my airport express to create a local wifi without interne So I can use home sharing from my laptop to apple tv for children animation movies or watch our own series.
1) if you wait several minuts the spinning wheel will disappear and the content will start.
2) IF you want it quicker when you are offline> launch it from your mac then airplay it (via the iTunes airplay icon near the fast forward button of the video) then it starts immediately.
This is an issue that only affects Apple TV not being connected to internet when trying to retrieve content from Apple TV via home sharing.
Let me know if both workarounds works for you the same way it works for me.
Regards

Using Automator for File Sharing, including 1Password Question

I'm using 1Password (http://agilewebsolutions.com/products/1Password) on three computers at my shop and instead of using three separate library files I just want one main file/directory/database that all three computers can use, share and update.
So far I've accomplished this by using File Sharing.
It's working fine though when I shut off all three computers and restart I have to reconnect all computers (selecting a 'SHARED' computer on the left of an open window menu and clicking on 'Connect As...' on the top right) to reestablish the linked file.
Is there anyway I can set up a macro using Automator to do this when I turn on my computers?

you don't need automator for this. go to finder preferences->general and check the box to show connected servers on the desktop. then just connect to the remote computers and then drag the mounted volumes from the desktop to your login items in system preferences->accounts->login items. then when you log in the remote computers will be automatically mounted. you can also use a cloud storage solution like Mobileme or DropBox and store the password database file in a central online location.

Permission error over afs (Apple Personal file sharing)

Hello, I am trying to share my powerbook's external harddisk to my MBP.
Both system are running OSX 10.4.8, and the system files of MBP are directly migrated from My PB. Therefore, I am using the same user account on both machine.
The personal file sharing sharing preference are started on both machine. I am able to see and connect to the other computer over finder, and authenticate with the my own user name. I can mount that external hard drive but I do not have permission to modify it over network.
I have changed all the files' permission (from the root directory and apply to enclosed items), not working. I even checked the "ignore permission" of the external volume, still not working.
I tried to used sharpoints, but it is still the same thing.
Do you guys have any idea?
thanks!

found out it's because i changed my shortuser name from another account, so the user id is 502, which caused the conflict.

OS X Server File Sharing slows down some time around 5 PM

We have a problem with our OS X Server file server becoming sluggish to browse and save files around 5 PM each day.
Historically we had this problem with Mac OS X Server 10.5.8 but it's also seems to be a problem with our new Mac Mini running OS X Server 10.10.
We have one IMAP account on the server that we use to archive about 18000 emails at 12 GB, stored under a number of folders. Could it be this that's causing the problem? I noticed on our 10.5.8 server that it used to process the email and use up gigabits of HD space in the process and then release it all again when it was done. The sluggishness seemed to coincide with this.

I know there are options in the policies section of the Open Directory area of Server Admin. Or, in Server App, you can click on Users and then if you click on the little gear thingy under the window displaying the users you can choose Edit Global Password Policy and a drop down window will show the same settings.

How to connect to desktop mac using iPhone. File sharing, ScreenSharing???

Can you please explain how can I connect to my desktop using my iPhone like ScreenSharing will do or file sharing.
Please describe step be step how to?
Thank you,
A new iPhone user who want to get the most out of it

If by it you mean Mocha VNC, that is how it works. You can connect when you are not on your network but you will have to enable forwarding on you router if you have one.
What is it tha you want to do remotly?
This world of remote management is that of the IT tech. Mocha is for techs and people that get the technology they are using or are interested in getting it. It is not plug and play stuff. You have to be willing to learn a bit and then with that comes a lot of power.
If you just want to turn it on and have it work anywhere you won't find that. The reason ports are blocked form the internet is to protect your computers from someone else doing exactly what you are trying.
So if you want you can enable port forwarding for port 5900 on your router. The IP address VNC Mocha will need is now the IP address of your router. Create a second connection on the list in Mocha for this connection as it is different than the one that will work on your network. Your router will forward anything on that port to you computer. I have successfully done this. It isn't very fast i will say. The screen refresh is very slow. You need patience to get anything done. I needed a file from a PC i had at home. It took about 15 minutes to get that file moved on to my iDisk through running Firefox on the PC from several towns away using Mocha. I might have been on a slow internet connection too.

Urgent!!!!!!! How to run the application using webui,server files in Jdev

Hi All,
I have bit knowledge on OAF
I have webui,server files which I took from Server
Now I want to run this application thru Jdeveloper
How can I do it?
Please any help would be greatly appreciated
Best Regards
HHH

As told numerous times on this forum, personilization values only affect if at coding level that property is not set, if in controller code initial value property has already been set, then it will take over your personilzation properties. So better check and confirm this!
--Mukul

Using Apple Server File Sharing

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for