• Mac OS X Server

    Hosed Your Mountain Lion Server? Reset it!

    The Server app is great. But when you go making changes to some things, you’re just going to cause problems. I know, you’ve been told that host name changes and IP changes are all kinds of OK at this point; “look, Charles, there’s a button!” Well, go ahead, click it. Don’t mind me, you might just be alright. But then again, you might not… And when you’re not, you’re likely going to be restoring some stuff from backup. But just before you do that restore, let’s try one more thing. Let’s try and rebuild some certificates and configuration settings that shouldn’t impact actual service operation. Let’s try to reset Server.app…

  • Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Logs, Scripts and OS X Mountain Lion Server

    OS X Mountain Lion has a lot of scripts used for enabling services, setting states, changing hostnames and the like. Once upon a time there was a script for OS X Server called server setup. It was a beautiful but too simplistic kind of script. Today, much of that logic has been moved out into more granular scripts, kept in /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/ServerSetup, used by the server to perform all kinds of tasks. These scripts are, like a lot of other things in Mountain Lion Server. Some of these include the configuration of amavisd, docecot and alerts. These scripts can also be used for migrating services and data, such as /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/ServerSetup/MigrationExtras/30-ipfwmigrator. Sometimes the scripts…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Server Admin Web Modules, curl & You

    Since the early days, OS X Server has supported performing the serveradmin commands through a web interface. This interface was accessible at the address of the server followed by a colon and then 311 in a web browser. This feature was disabled by default in Mountain Lion. But fear causes hesitation, and hesitation will cause your worst fears to come true, so we’re going to turn it back on. To enable, use the following command: sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.servermgrd requireUserAgent -bool false Once done, open https://127.0.0.1:311 in a web browser, or replace 127.0.0.1 with the address of the server if accessing from another location. This is stimulating, but we’re out of…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Enable Push Notifications In OS X Mountain Lion Server

    Push Notifications can be used in most every service OS X Mountain Lion Server can run. Any service that requires Push Notifications will provide the ability to setup APNS during the configuration of the service. But at this point, I usually just set up Push Notifications when I setup a new server. To enable Push Notifications for services, you’ll first need to have a valid AppleID. Once you have an AppleID, open the Server app and then click on the name of the server. At the Overview screen, click on Settings. At the Settings screen for your server, click on the check-box for “Enable Apple push notifications.” At the Apple…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Configuring Time In OS X Mountain Lion & OS X Mountain Lion Server

    Time is a very important aspect of OS X Server, as it has been since the early days. Time is so important that if you see network time server, NTP or 5 minutes as the answer on an Apple exam, you should just pick that one, as it’s invariably correct. The traditional way to configure time zones and Network Time Servers is to use systemsetup command. Before you set a time zone, run the following to see a list of all available time zones, use the -listtimezones option in systemsetup: sudo systemsetup -listtimezones To set the time zone, pick one and use the -settimezone option in systemsetup: sudo systemsetup -settimezone…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Getting Negative Mode Back In OS X Mountain Lion

    You’re out surfing in the morning before work and you return to your car, put all your crap away and just want to sit on the beach for an hour getting caught up on work. You bust out your laptop and it’s just a little too bright with the rays of the morning sun not only causing the fan of your computer to kick into high gear but also causing you not to be able to see the screen. Do you get up and leave? Do you sacrifice the sound of the morning waves and the breeze of the ocean air? Well, the fans are going to run when it’s…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mass Deployment

    Enable Server Side File Tracking in OS X Mountain Lion Server

    Mobile Home Directory synchronizing in OS X Server environments is used to synchronize the home folder of clients with a copy that lives on the server, so users can roam between computers with their desktop, documents and preferences following them from machine to machine. Server Side File Tracking creates and keeps a copy of the sync database on client machines and servers, comparing the two databases when synchronizing rather than scanning directories for all the synced files each time a synchronization occurs. In environments with synchronizing Mobile Home Directories, Server Side File Tracking (SSFT) can help reduce the amount of time required for syncs. Server Side File Tracking is disabled…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Setting Up And Using Web Services in OS X Mountain Lion Server

    Configuring web services is as easy in OS X Mountain Lion Server (10.8) as it has ever been. To set up the default web portal, simply open the Server app, click on the Websites service and click on the ON button. After a time, the service will start. Once running, click on the View Server Website link at the bottom of the pane. Provided the stock OS X Server page loads, you are ready to use OS X Server as a web server. Before we setup custom sites, there are a few things you should know. The first is, the server is no longer really designed to remove the default…

  • Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment

    Enabling ARD, SSH & SNMP On Mountain Lion Server Using serveradmin

    The traditional way to enable Apple Remote Desktop is using the kickstart command. But there’s a simpler way in OS X Mountain Lion Server. To do so, use the serveradmin command. To enable ARD using the serveradmin command, use the settings option, with info:enableARD to set the payload to yes: sudo serveradmin settings info:enableARD = yes Once run, open System Preferences and click on Sharing. The Remote Management box is then checked and the local administrative user has access to ARD into the host. The Server app will also have the “Enable screen sharing and remote management” option checked. There are also a few other commands that can be used…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Using The New FTP Service in Mac OS X Mountain Lion Server

    FTP went away in OS X Lion Server (kinda’) and now it’s back in OS X Mountain Lion Server (kinda’). Instead of sharing out each directory the new incantation of the FTP service allows administrators to share a single directory out. This directory can be any share that has previously been configured in the File Sharing service or a website configured in the Websites service. To setup FTP, first open the Server app and then click on the FTP service. Once open, use the Share: drop-down list to select a share that already exists (output of sharing -l basically) and click on one of the shares or Custom to create…