• Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Migrating Data From The Apple Wiki Server

    “Taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what people fear most.” ― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment The Apple Wiki Server is sadly going away. I always liked this service. It was thoughtfully designed and looked much nicer than most of the other tools available out there. Sure, you couldn’t write articles offline, write in markdown, or do a lot of other things that I’ve learned to both love and hate from other solutions, but honestly it always felt the most Apple of services in macOS Server because it didn’t have every-single-checkbox. So, I’ll pour a little Jaëger on the ground in memory of the wiki server and…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Using Wikis In macOS Server 5.4

    A wiki is a repository of dynamically created and managed content, or content created or edited by multiple users collaboratively. This article is about using the wiki service in macOS Server 5.4 (the Apple Server app running on 10.13/High Sierra). I reference file services with WebDAV because it is a very nice integration piece that I think a lot of people will find pretty beneficial. To get started with the Wiki service, first turn it on. This one isn’t heavily dependent on host names (other than being able to access the server from a browser) or directory services (other than being able to authenticate users, but local accounts are perfectly functional)…

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Use wfsctl to Manage WebDAV Shares in macOS 10.13 High Sierra

    Apple has slowly been moving us away from the legacy afp file sharing protocol for some time. High Sierra (macOS 10.13) now comes with a new suite of tools to manage WebDAV shares. Most of these are configurable using wfsctl located at /usr/sbin/wfsctl. When run, the tool reports as “WebDAV File Sharing control utility.” To start the WebDAV service, use the start verb: wfsctl start At this point, the service will attempt to lookup the hostname of the server. If the hostname cannot be found (or once found does not match the expected results) then the service will not start. For more on why this might be happening, use the…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Manage File Services In macOS Server 5.2

    File Services are perhaps the most important aspect of any server because file servers are often the first server an organization purchases. This has been changing over the past few years, with many a file being hosted by cloud solutions, such as Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and of course, iCloud. And rightfully so. But many still need a terrestrial server and for predominantly Apple environments, a macOS Server running on Sierra isn’t exactly a bad idea (for many it is, so whatever there). There are a number of protocols built into macOS Server dedicated to serving files, including AFP, SMB and WebDAV. These services, combined comprise the File Sharing service in macOS Server…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Setting Up Wikis In OS X Server 5

    A wiki is a repository of dynamically created and managed content, or content created or edited by multiple users collaboratively. This article is about using the wiki service in OS X Server (the Apple Server app running on 10.10 and 10.11). I reference file services with WebDAV because it is a very nice integration piece that I think a lot of people will find pretty beneficial. To get started with the Wiki service, first turn it on. This one isn’t heavily dependent on host names (other than being able to access the server from a browser) or directory services (other than being able to authenticate users, but local accounts are perfectly…

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

    Take Control Of OS X Server (Yosemite) Now Available

    I’ve been light on posting here, mostly because I’ve been swamped with work, selling my old house, buying a new house, doing some crazy taxes, wrapping production on a new book and updating the Take Control of OS X Server book to Yosemite Server. Well, earlier this week I sold my house, got the next version of Bushel ready to rock and filed my taxes. Aaaaannnnnndddddd, the Yosemite version of Take Control Of OS X Server is now available at http://tid.bl.it/1xuCJUC. Boom. Will get back to my normally scheduled postings shortly!

  • Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    Setup OS X Yosemite Server As A Wiki Server

    A wiki is a repository of dynamically created and managed content, or content created or edited by multiple users collaboratively. This article is about using the wiki service in Yosemite Server (the Apple Server app running on 10.10). I reference file services with WebDAV because it is a very nice integration piece that I think a lot of people will find pretty beneficial. To get started with the Wiki service, first turn it on. This one isn’t heavily dependent on host names (other than being able to access the server from a browser) or directory services (other than being able to authenticate users, but local accounts are perfectly functional) and…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Using Wikis & WebDAV in OS X Mountain Lion

    A wiki is a repository of dynamically created and managed content, or content created or edited by multiple users collaboratively. This article is about using the wiki service in Mountain Lion. I reference file services with WebDAV because it is a very nice integration piece that I think a lot of people will find pretty beneficial. To get started with the Wiki service, first turn it on. This one isn’t heavily dependent on host names (other than being able to access the server from a browser) or directory services (other than being able to authenticate users, but local accounts are perfectly functional) and it doesn’t require the Websites service to…

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

    Setting Up The Mail Service in Mountain Lion Server

    Mail is one of the hardest services to manage. Actually, mail is pretty simple in and of itself: there’s protocols people use to access their mail (such as IMAP and POP), protocols used to communicate between mail servers and send mail (SMTP, SMTPS)  and then there’s a database of mail and user information. In Mount Lion Server, all of these are represented by a single ON button, so it really couldn’t be easier. But then there’s the ecoysystem and the evil spammers. As a systems administrator of a large number of mail servers, I firmly believe that there is a special kind of hell where only spam is served at…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Changes in Mountain Lion Server

    Mountain Lion Server is now available on the OS X App Store and as with the last few updates there are some things missing that you might be expecting and depending on. First up, three major services are gone: Podcast Producer, RADIUS and dhcp. You can still do dhcp as you always did with OS X client as those features work on OS X Server, but the more granular controls available in OS X Server are now gone. The biggest impact of dhcp is probably in testing NetBoot services when there are network issues and you need to prove to network admins that it’s the network and not your server……