The latest version of macOS Server (5.4) is now available to be installed. To do so, first backup your server. Then, backup your server again, making sure you have a functional, bootable clone. Once you’re sure you have a solid backup of your server, open the App Store and search for Server. When you find the Server app, click on it. Once downloaded, you’ll be prompted that the Server app has been replaced.Go into Applications and open the Server app. When prompted, click on Install (or Open if the server is already installed). The download will begin. Once complete, you’ll see a notice that the “Server app replacement detected.” Click OK.…
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Manage Users On macOS Server 5.4 On High Sierra
There are a few ways to create users in macOS Server 5.4, running on High Sierra. The first is using the Server app, the second is using using the Users & Groups System Preference pane and the third is using the command line. In this article we will look at creating users in the Server app. To do so, open the Server app and connect to your server. Then click on the Users entry in the ACCOUNTS list. The list of users is displayed, based on the directory domain(s) being browsed. A directory domain is a repository of account data, which can include local users, local network users and users in a shared…
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Manage The Contacts Service In macOS Server 5.4 High Sierra
Every Mac by default has an application called Contacts. Every macOS Server 5.4, running on High Sierra, has a service called Contacts. While the names might imply very different things that they do, you’ll be super-surprised that the two are designed to work with one another. The Contacts service is based on CardDAV, a protocol for storing contact information on the web, retrievable and digestible by client computers. However, there is a layer of database-driven obfuscation between the Contacts service and CardDAV. The Contacts service is also a conduit with which to read information from LDAP and display that information in the Contacts client, which is in a way similar to how the Global…
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Using The Messages Service In macOS Server 5.4 On High Sierra
Getting started with Messages Server couldn’t really be easier. Messages Server in the macOS Server 5.4 version of the Server app uses the open source jabber project as the back-end code base. The jabber binary is located at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/private/var/jabberd directory and the autobuddy binary is at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/bin/jabber_autobuddy. The actual jabberd binary is also stored at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/libexec/jabberd, where there are a couple of perl scripts used to migrate the service between various versions as well. Setting up the Messages service is simple. Open the Server app and click on Messages in the Server app sidebar.  Click on the Edit… button for the Permissions. Here, define which users and interfaces are allowed to…
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Reset Unresponsive macOS Server 5.4
The Server app that installs on High Sierra is great. But sometimes a change doesn’t get committed properly or has a mismatch with a certificate, and the server doesn’t respond properly… 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 if you’re running Open Directory, Profile Manager, or a few other services… When it works it’s a thing of beauty. But when it doesn’t, you might be restoring some stuff from backup. But just before you…
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Use SSH, ARD, SNMP, And The Server App Remotely on Server 5.4
SSH allows administrators to connect to another computer using a secure shell, or command line environment. ARD (Apple Remote Desktop) allows screen sharing, remote scripts and other administrative goodness. You can also connect to a server using the Server app running on a client computer. To enable any or all of these, open the Server app (Server 5.4 for High Sierra), click on the name of the server, click the Settings tab and then click on the checkbox for what you’d like to enter. All of these can be enabled and managed from the command line as well. The traditional way to enable Apple Remote Desktop is using the kickstart…
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Show The Software Update Service In Server 5.4 for macOS High Sierra
By default, the Software Update Service, long a part of macOS Server, is hidden. This indicates the service is not likely to be long for this world. However, many an organization still likes to leverage cooling off periods for their Mac fleet, as they should given a certain scale. To see the service, once you’ve installed the Server app, open the Server app and then from the View menu, select Software Update. You’ll then see the Software Update service. If you click off of the service and close the app, it will be hidden again. If you enable the service, you will then see it each time you open the Server app.…
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Manage The Software Update Service In macOS Server 5.4
The software patching configuration built into most operating systems is configured so all that a user has to do is open a box at home, join the network and start using the computer right away. As environments grow from homes to small offices and then small offices grow into enterprises, at some point software updates and patches need to be managed centrally. macOS heavily leverages the App Store. This allows administrators to pretty much be hands off when it comes to managing updates. But some environments need to control the flow of updates anyway. Apple has had this ability since the early days of OS X and in macOS, you…
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Setup Profile Manager On macOS Server 5.4
Profile Manager first appeared in OS X Lion Server as the Apple-provided tool for managing Apple devices, including Mobile Device Management (MDM) for iOS based devices as well as Profile management for macOS based computers, including MacBooks, MacBook Airs, Mac Minis, Mac Pros and iMacs running Mac OS X 10.7 and up. Profile Manager has seen a few more updates over the years, primarily in integrating new MDM options provided by Apple and keeping up with the rapidly changing MDM landscape. Apple has added DEP functionality, content distribution, VPP, and other features over the years. In macOS Server 5.4, there are plenty of new options, including the ability to deploy VPP…
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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…