DNS is DNS. And named is named. Except in OS X Server. The configuration files for the DNS services in OS X Server are stored in /Library/Server/named. This represents a faux root of named configuration data, similar to how that configuration data is stored in /var/named on most other platforms. Having the data in /Library/Server/ makes it more portable across systems. Traditionally, you would edit this configuration data by simply editing the configuration files, and that’s absolutely still an option. In Mavericks Server (Server 3), a new command is available at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/DNSManager.framework called dnsconfig. The dnsconfig command appears simple at first. However, the options available are actually far more complicated…
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Managing DNS Using Mac OS X Mountain Lion Server
The most impactful aspect of the changes in OS X Mountain Lion Server at first appears to be the fact that DNS looks totally different in the Server app than it did in Server Admin. For starters, most of the options are gone from the graphical interface and it looks a lot less complicated, meaning that there are indeed fewer options. However, all of the options previously available are still there. And, the service behaves exactly as it did before, down to the automatically created host name when a server is configured and doesn’t have correctly configured forward and reverse DNS records that match the host name of the computer.…
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When Zones Just Won't Die
At times, you may find that information gets stuck in Server Admin and can’t be removed. For example, you see a Zone in Server Admin, and it doesn’t have a Name Server record attached to it. You can’t delete it but every time you add a Name Server it just disappears. This is often caused when you remove or change something and it gets dumped from the zone files in /var/named but not from the BIND view. Running serveradmin will show the data but as it’s serialized it can’t be removed: serveradmin settings dns Without a Name Server record, the zone is unresponsive to queries. Removing the zone can delete the…
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Server Admin on Linux
Apple recently announced the end of the Apple Xserve. The data center is a funny thing, and being such rack space is critical to most who spend a lot of time there. Many of the previous Xserve customers will continue to buy Mac Pro’s and use them in racks as tall Xserves. Others will purchase Mac Mini’s and use them for certain situations. But many will move on to using the same iron in the data center that they use for everything else, finding a way to duplicate or replace the functionality that was previously in the Xserve with something else. Server Admin is not going to run on Linux.…
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Invitation to Bind in Mac OS X Server
One of the new features introduced in Mac OS X Server is the new invitation to bind. You can send an email to a user, once you have created their account. To do so, from Server Preferences, click on the account you would like to send an invitation for and then click on the cog icon below the list of users. Amongst the options will be a choice to “Send Invitation to ” followed by the users short name. If you send this then the user will get an html formatted email similar to the following: If the user then clicks on the Automatically Configure My Mac icon they will…
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Keynote & iPhone
For those that have not yet used it, the App Store has a little application called Keynote Remote, which can be used to control a slide deck that you’re going through. Once you’ve installed the application on your iPhone simply open it and click on the New Keynote Link… dialog (also in the Settings pane of the app on the iPhone). You’ll see a Passcode. Open Keynote, from the Keynote menu, click Properties, then click on the Remote icon in the Keynote Preferences toolbar. Then click on the check box to Enable iPhone and iPod touch Remotes, click on the remote you will be pairing to your Keynote installation and…
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Dual Chroot'd DNS Servers
Sweet: http://www.etherboy.com/dns/chrootdns.html