• Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X Server 10.5: LDAP ACLs

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal In Leopard, Workgroup Manager supports rudimentary ACLs for the LDAP database. We’re all familiar with Access Control Lists by now. Especially in the Mac OS X Server community. However, we might not all be familiar with ACLs as they’re implemented in LDAP. But we should be, because LDAP is being used more and more as an address book, and with the new Directory application being shipped in Leopard it is conceivable that environments aren’t just going to use ACLs to secure LDAP but they’re also going to use them to allow users to self update their information in the directory. So in the interest…

  • Mac OS X

    Mac OS X 10.5: Solidifying the Top Menu Bar

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal In Leopard the Top Menu Bar is fairly transparent and will overlay on top of the background image. For those who want to disable it the following command will do so: write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer 'EnvironmentVariables' -dict 'CI_NO_BACKGROUND_IMAGE' 1 If you later start to miss this menu bar then you can undo this change by using the following command: defaults write /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.WindowServer 'EnvironmentVariables' -dict 'CI_NO_BACKGROUND_IMAGE' 0

  • Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X Server 10.5: Introduction to Ruby on Rails

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal So Ruby on Rails… What does this mean for me and what exactly is Ruby on Rails from a systems administration standpoint? Ruby on Rails was created by David Heinemeier Hansson from his work on Basecamp, a web-based project-management tool, by the company 37signals. Ruby on Rails was first released to the public in July 2004. Ruby on Rails is a web application framework designed to support the development of dynamic websites. To see some sites built using Ruby on Rails check out http://happycodr.com Ruby is an object-oriented program language that Rails is built on.  To access rails, you can use the rails command. The Ruby…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X Server 10.5: Troubleshooting CalDAV

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal So you installed your new server and you’re having a few problems. Let’s look at the common issues and a few simple fixes for them. iCal will not start, with log entries that it is unable to create a virtual host: Check your host name. iCal is going to need the host name to be correct in order to start. Use scutil --get HostName and then make sure that the host name listed in the iCal Server settings is identical to this value. You setup a user, check the box in Workgroup Manager for Enable Calendaring and then save your settings but you get the following…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Mac OS X Server 10.5: New Documentation

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal To answer all those questions like “How do I create a share point now?” Apple has been kind enough to post the documentation for Leopard Server at: http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/resources/ All of the new services are documented per Apple standards, so happy reading!

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security

    iWork/iLife Documents 2008 and Retrospect

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal iWork ‘08 applications (Keynote, Numbers, Pages) and iLife ‘08 components including iPhoto, iTunes, Garage Band have a slight issue with Retrospect – their data files are not considered documents using the Documents Selector. Now in the case of iPhoto, iTunes and Garage Band this is probably a good thing. However, for Keynote, Numbers and Pages it’s more than likely that if you’re using these then you will want Retrospect to back them up. So if you are using selectors and you are using the Documents selector then check out this Knowledgebase article from EMC/Dantz: http://kb.dantz.com/display/2n/articleDirect/index.asp?aid=9632&r=0.2114527

  • Uncategorized

    On the Road: Orange County

    I know, it’s close to LA so not very big on the travel thing.  But according to what part of OC you are in you still might want to just stay down here rather than brave traffic nightly.  But the thing that strikes me so much about OC is how different it is from LA.  There are definitely different parts of OC, each with its own little thing about it to set it apart.  Anaheim seems a lot like Atlanta.  It’s not as trashy as LA anywhere here, and there is obviously a lot of money.  I like that so many people here surf.  But there’s a reason people say…

  • Mac OS X

    Mac OS X Leopard: What About that ZFS Thingie?

    I originally posted this at http://www.318.com/TechJournal ZFS was released by a team at Sun in November of 2004. The name stands for “Zettabyte File System”. ZFS is a 128-bit file system, so it can store 18 billion billion (18.4 × 1018) times more data than current 64-bit systems. We’re not going to sit here and do the math for that but you are more than welcome to figure out what the theoretical size is at that point – all we can say is that it’s friggin’ huge. Traditional file systems reside on single devices and require a volume manager to use more than one device to generate a logical or…