In OS X you’ve always had this weird shroud of the “Classic” environment. This type of environment was used to facilitate running things in the previous incarnation of Apple’s operating systems. Many of these have disappeared over the years. In Mavericks we see yet another go away in a very small an almost noticeable binary, bless. While this command conjures fears of getting excommunicated by a Borgia for many, for those of us in the Apple community, the bless command is used to define a folder to mount to boot to. In 10.8 and below, there was an option to bless –folder9, used to define a OS 9/Classic system folder.…
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Configure Open Directory Replicas In Mavericks Server
Yesterday we looked at setting up an Open Directory Master in OS X Mountain Lion Server. An Open Directory Replica keeps a copy of the Open Directory database available for users even when the Master goes offline. But it can also take a part of the load from the Open Directory Master and when using the new Locales feature, balance network traffic. To get started with an Open Directory Replica, first enable SSH, now disabled by default. Next, use the changeip to check the host name. While the Server app is cool, it caches stuff and I’ve seen it let things go threat shouldn’t be let go. Therefore, in order…
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Use Wikis and WebDAV in OS X Mavericks 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 Mavericks Server (OS X Server 3, running on 10.9). 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…
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Setting Up And Using Web Services in OS X Mavericks Server
Web Services in Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, Linux and most versions of Unix are provided by Apache, an Open Source project that much of the Internet owes its origins to. Apache owes its name to the fact that it’s “a patchy” service. These patches are often mods, or modules. Configuring web services is as easy in OS X Mavericks Server (10.9) as it has ever been. To set up the default web portal, simply open the Server app, click on the Websites service and click on the ON button. After a time, the service will start. Once running, click on the View Server Website link at the bottom…
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Configure Mavericks Server To Be An Open Directory Master
Open Directory has never been so easy to setup for a basic environment as it is in OS X Mavericks Server (OS X 10.9, Server app 3). It’s also never been so annoyingly simple to use that to do anything cool requires a bunch of command line foo. No offense to the developers, but this whole idea that the screens that were being continually refined for a decade just need to be thrown out and started fresh seems to have led to a few babies thrown out along with them. Not often as I’m kinda’ digging most of the new config screens in OS X Mavericks Server, but with Open…
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Use Time Machine Server In Mavericks Server To Backup Macs
The Time Machine service in Mountain Lion Server hasn’t changed much from the service in Lion Server. To enable the Time Machine service, open the Server app, click on Time Machine in the SERVICES sidebar. If the service hasn’t been enabled to date, the ON/OFF switch will be in the OFF position and no “Backup destination” will be shown in the Settings pane. Click on the ON button to see the New Destination screen, used to configure a list of volumes as a destinations for Time Machine backups. The selection volume should be large enough to have space for all of the users that can potentially use the Time Machine…
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Use NetInstall In Mavericks Server for System Imaging
The NetBoot service allows administrators of OS X computers to leverage images hosted on a server to boot computers to a central location and put a new image on them, upgrade them and perform automations based on upgrades and images. Since the very first versions of OS X, the service has been called NetBoot. In the Server app, Apple provides a number of options surrounding the NetInstall service, based on Automator-style actions, now calling the service NetInstall. The first step to configuring the NetInstall service is to decide what you want the service to do. There are three options available in System Image Utility (available under the Tools menu of…
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Encrypt Mavericks and Mavericks Server
Encrypting a volume in OS X Mavericks couldn’t be easier. In this article, we will look at three ways to encrypt OS X Mavericks volumes. The reason there are three ways is that booted volumes and non-booted volumes have different methods for enabling encryption. Encrypting Attached Storage For non-boot volumes, just control-click or right-click on them and then click on Encrypt “VOLUMENAME” where the name of the volume is in quotes. When prompted, provide an encryption password for the volume, verify that password and if you so choose, provide a hint. Once the encryption process has begun, the entry previously clicked on says Encrypting “VOLUMENAME” where the name of the…
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Xsan Command Line Options In Mavericks Server
Before I get started, I just want to point out that the old commands all still work. There are some newer things, but nothing earth shattering. Let’s start out with what’s actually available in the Server Admin CLI: serveradmin. The serveradmin command, followed by settings, followed by san shows a few pieces of information: bash-3.2# serveradmin settings san san:computers = _empty_array san:primaryController = "95C99FB1-80F2-5016-B9C3-BE3916E6E5DC" san:ownerEmail = "krypted@me.com" san:sanName = "krypted" san:desiredSearchPolicy:_array_index:0 = "" san:serialNumbers = _empty_array san:dsType = 0 san:ownerName = "Charles Edge" san:managePrivateNetwork = yes san:metadataNetwork = "10.0.0.0/24" san:numberOfFibreChannelPorts = 2 san:role = "CONTROLLER" Here, we see the metadata network, the GUID of the primary (active) MDC, the name…
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Configure Xsan in Mavericks Server
The first thing you should do when installing Xsan in any OS, much less Mavericks, is make sure your hostnames are awesome. Forward, reverse, views if you use them, etc. You have to have a dedicated metadata Ethernet network, so you should have a zone entry for both your primary and metadata network interfaces. You should also have fibre channel and storage configured and ready to use. Given that a lot of storage arrays take a long time to configure these days, I like to actually start that and then do my server setups while my LUNs/arrays are baking. Setting Up Xsan Once you have DNS entries, storage and fibre…