• Mac OS X Server

    Install OS X Server

    Installing Mavericks Server is about as easy as installing Keynote. First, open the Mac App Store and search for OS X Server. Then, click the button to buy the software, or if you’ve already purchased the software click on the Install button. The Server app downloads to your /Applications directory which you can watch happen by watching the status in LaunchPad. Once the download is finished, click on the Server app in LaunchPad or open the Server app to start the initial configuration wizard. When you first click on the Server app, you will be prompted to setup your server. Click Continue. Agree to the licensing agreement by clicking Agree.…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Configure Messages Server in Mavericks Server

    Getting started with Messages Server couldn’t really be easier. Messages Server in Mavericks Server uses the open source jabber project as their back-end code base (and going back, OS X has used jabber since the inception of iChat Server all the way through Server 3). The jabberd binary is located at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/private/var/jabberd and the autobuddy binary is at /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/bin/jabber_autobuddy. Given the importance of having multiple binaries that do the same thing, another 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. Note that the man page says it’s in /etc. But I digress. Setting…

  • Mac OS X Server,  Mass Deployment

    Cascade Software Update Servers in Mavericks Server

    The swupd.plist file used to daisy chain multiple servers so they act as a cascade of software update servers. The new path for the property list is /Library/Server/Software Update/Config/swupd.plist. Here, the metaIndexURL key is sill the location that points to an internal Software Update Server that the server you are editing should look to for updates. To set a server to look at another internal server for software updates, edit the metaIndexURL key in the /Library/Server/Software Update/Config/swupd.plist file to include the path to the new server. The path should always have /content/meta/mirror-config-1.plist after the FQDN of the host name. So if your internal software update server was called daneel.foundation.lan the…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Obtain Information About OS X Server Using serverinfo in Mavericks Server

    OS X Mavericks Server (Server 3) comes with the /usr/sbin/serverinfo command (introduced in Mountain Lion Server). The serverinfo command is useful when programmatically obtaining information about the very basic state of an Apple Server. The first option indicates whether the Server app has been downloaded from the app store, which is the –software option: serverinfo --software When used, this option reports the following if the Server.app can be found: This system has server software installed. Or if the software cannot be found, the following is indicated: This system does NOT have server software installed. The –productname option determines the name of the software app: serverinfo --productname If you change the…

  • Mac OS X Server

    Changing the Xcode Server Log Path in OS X 10.9 Mavericks Server

    The logs in Xcode Server (Server 3) by default point to /Library/Server/XcodeLogs/credserver.log. This takes all of the output from xcscredd and xcscredhandler. If you’re doing a lot of debugging then logs can be pointed to another location, such as another drive. The path to the logs is defined in the /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/System/Library/LogConfiguration directory. The file to edit is a standard property list, XCSCredentialServer.plist. Once open, look for a key called logPath. Change that to the desired path, such as /Volumes/MyDrive/Logs/credserver.log and then restart the service: serveradmin stop xcode; serveradmin start xcode