OK, by now I’m sure everyone has heard that OS X Server is a download off the App Store. For a whoppin’ $50 you get the OS that was once called “Open Source Made Easy” until someone at Apple realized that GPLv3 might mean that Open Source doesn’t always mean “free as in beer”. Wait, did I say that out loud? Point is, there are bigger changes here than just moving the server to the App Store. There are also some pretty big changes to the GUI of OS X Server. The first and most obvious is the LoginWindow, which is different in OS X in general. It obviously looks…
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Rorke Aurora Galaxy and Xsan
With Apple bundling Xsan into Lion and opening up more storage options than before, it seems like time to start exploring alternatives to Promise Vtrak’s for Xsan storage. ActiveStorage makes a very nice RAID chassis and should be shipping metadata controller appliances soon. I’ve discussed both here before and they make for very nice kit. But in order to have an ‘ecosystem’ you really need a little biodiversity. And the Xsan environment needs to become more of an ecosystem and less of a vendor lock-in situation. So another option that I’d like to discuss is the Rork Aurora Galaxy. These little firecrackers have a lot of potential upside: 4 8Gbps…
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Querying ldapsearch
Need to perform lookups on Open Directory from Linux? Need to determine a search base to use an LDAP plug-in for a third party with Active Directory? Determining the layout of a directory service can be important for a number of tasks. Most of these have to do with connecting systems of different platforms with one another. In OS X, there are a number of tools that will look up directory service information. Most are based on ldapsearch. Using ldapsearch, you can determine whether a search base is good, whether a directory service responds to a given request and validate some assumptions you may have about an LDAP environment. Let’s…
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App Store Article on AFP548.com
I posted an article on the Volume Purchasing Program (VPP) for Business on afp548.com. It’s available here. I didn’t think to include a link to the Apple page on the VPP, but here it is.
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RAMdisk on MacBook Air
I can’t remember where I picked up how to get a RAM Disk mounted in OS X, but it’s a great way to get some unbelievable speeds on your Mac for those minor IO intensive processes that don’t need persistent data. It should be mentioned that the contents of RAM disks are erased, once ejected, but the speed of processes while they’re running can be pretty phenomenal on systems with fast RAM. The best example is a MacBook Air, where the memory is surface-mounted QFP and so really fast. Let’s say you have 4GB of memory and you want to run a process that isn’t going to take more than a…
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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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MacTech Boot Camp: LA and Chicago
MacTech Boot Camp is getting great reviews (90% of attendees recommend it). After selling out in a number of other cities, MacTech Boot Camps are coming to Los Angeles (July 27th at the LAX Sheraton Gateway) and Chicago (August 31st at the downtown Hotel Allegro). The Los Angeles event includes Ben Levy, Phil Goodman, Ric Wilson, Sean Colins, Chris Keller, Jonathan Goldhill, Scott Immerman, Sean Costello, Steve Favarger, Allen Hancock, and Peter Linde (there are some super great guys and some really good, experienced speakers in that bunch). While the early bird pricing for the LAX event has ended, you can use the following link to save $200: http://www.mactech.com/bootcamp/special-reg_Krypted Geared…
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Lion: Configuring Out of Office Responses in Mail
Out of Office responses to incoming email are an incredibly useful thing to have with any mail server. In Microsoft Exchange, these are sent by the server on behalf of each user when the user has enabled them. Out of Office messages can be configured using the Exchange web portal or using a standard mail client, which has up until now, usually be Outlook. In Lion, Apple has built in an Out of Office setting in Mail.app. To configure an Out of Office message using Mail in Mac OS X 10.7, first configure the Mail client to communicate with the Exchange server. Then open Mail.app from /Applications. Right-click on the name…
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animinneapolis vs. Dragons vs. Norway
Summer in Minnesota always comes with plenty of fun stuff to do. There are the really big events, such as the Basilica block party. But, not feelin’ the events at the Basilica? Never heard of the acts on the Warped Tour? Like Anime? Cosplay? The nerdiness abounds at animinneapolis. If you’d rather see the real thing in action though, check out the Dragon Festival over at Lake Phalen Park. The Dragon Boat Race is awesome! And if you’re looking for something a bit more traditional, check out the Raspberry festival out in Hopkins. All this stuff is going on all weekend (not the block party, since it is at a…
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OS X Server: Forcing DNS Propagation
Here I sat, tapping my fingers on the desk, waiting for a DNS change to propagate through a number of secondaries (note to self, I have too many secondary DNS servers at home). While sitting, tapping my fingers I dozed off and dreamt of fishing on the river I grew up on, of the sweet looks my daughter gives me and of retiring into a luddite colony of burning men and women in the desert. When I awoke and wiped the drool from my face, I realized I was wasting my life waiting for DNS to propagate. Then I flushed the cache one more time, just to see if it’s…