Troubleshooting push notification communications between OS X Server and Apple’s Push Notification can be a challenge. Especially with Profile Manager. One great tip I’ve learned over the years is that the APNS daemon, apsd, has a debug mode. To enable APNS debug logging, run these commands: defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.apsd APSLogLevel -int 7 defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.apsd APSWriteLogs -bool TRUE killall apsd Then use tail -f to watch the apsd.log file at /Library/Logs/apsd.log. Be wary, as this can fill up your system. So to disable, use these commands: defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.apsd APSWriteLogs -bool FALSE defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.apsd APSLogLevel killall apsd
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My Take Control Of OS X Server Book Now Available!
Thanks to all the awesome work from Adam and Tanya Engst, Tidbits announced today that my Take Control of OS X Server is now available! To quote some of the Tidbits writeup: Some projects turn out to be harder than expected, and while Charles Edge’s “Take Control of OS X Server” was one of them, we’re extremely pleased to announce that the full 235-page book is now available in PDF, EPUB, and Mobipocket versions to help anyone in a home or small office environment looking to get started with Apple’s OS X Server. As you’ll likely remember, we published this book chapter by chapter for TidBITS members, finishing it in early…
- Mac OS X, Mac OS X Server, Mac Security, Mass Deployment, Network Infrastructure, sites, Ubuntu, Unix
Manage Apex Domains In OS X
OS X Server supports running a traditional bind implementation of DNS. You can define a record for most any name, including google.com, www.google.com, www.www.google.com, etc. You can use this to redirect subdomains. In this example, we’ll create an A Record to point www.google.com to 127.0.0.1 without breaking other google.com subdomains. To get started, let’s use the DNS service in the Server app to create test.www.google.com. The reason for this is that OS X will then create a zone file for www.google.com. If we created www.google.com instead, then OS X would automatically create google.com, which would break the other subdomains. To do so, open Server app and click on the DNS Service. Then…
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Chapter 5 of Take Control of OS X Server Now Available
Chapter 5 of my next book is now available from TidBits.com for members at http://tidbits.com/article/14840. While much of the chapter ended up on the cutting room floor, it’s worth mentioning that it is tailored to the audience. I think I learned a valuable lesson here, in reviewing too much vs. too little vs. just enough. Thanks again to Adam and Tanya for their infinite patience and wisdom!
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Obtain Old Versions of OS X Server
With Yosemite in beta, it’s worth mentioning that older versions of OS X Server are still available on the app store, if you just know where to look. You can access and purchase other versions using these links: Server 4: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-server/id883878097?mt=12 Server 3: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-server-3.2.2/id714547929?mt=12 Server 2: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/os-x-server-2.2.5/id537441259?mt=12 Server 1: If you already own OS X Lion Server from the app store then you can still access it under Purchases.
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Using the Help Options in OS X Server
Open Server, click Help, then click Server Help. You can then search and browse for information about things you’d like to accomplish using the Help Center. Now, click the arrow for each service for information about configuring that service. You will see an arrow for each service. Click the arrow for more information on that specific service.
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AFP IS NOT GONE!!!
Sorry for shouting. I keep hearing people mention that they can’t upgrade to OS X Mavericks, or Mavericks Server because they need AFP. Well, the change that came in Mavericks isn’t that AFP was deprecated. Maybe it doesn’t get to call shotgun any more when running out to the car, but it’s still there. The sharing output, which shows afp: List of Share Points name: Charles Edge’s Public Folder path: /Users/krypted/Public afp: { name: Charles Edge’s Public Folder shared: 1 guest access: 1 inherit perms: 0 } The Connect to Server over afp: SMB is now the default protocol. Therefore, if you open a Connect to Server dialog and don’t…
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The Official Apple Mavericks Server 3 Documentation
I’ve written plenty about Mavericks Server 3 here on https://krypted.com/ but way more effort went into the official documentation. There’s lots of nuggets here at: http://help.apple.com/advancedserveradmin/mac/3.0/ Enjoy!
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Provide VPN Services Using Mavericks Server
OS X Server has long had a VPN service that can be run. The server is capable of running the two most commonly used VPN protocols: PPTP and L2TP. The L2TP protocol is always in use, but the server can run both concurrently. You should use L2TP when at all possible. Sure, “All the great themes have been used up and turned into theme parks.” But security is a theme that it never hurts to keep in the forefront of your mind. If you were thinking of exposing the other services in Mavericks Server to the Internet without having users connect to a VPN service then you should think again,…
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Configure the Mail Service in Mavericks 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 Mavericks 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 every…