The OS X Server Book for Take Control is posted! Hope you find it useful! The book is available at https://www.takecontrolbooks.com/osx-server. 🙂 Thanks to Tony Williams  for pointing out that it’s available. Hope you enjoy!
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Disable Automatic Updates On OS X Servers
By default, OS X now updates apps that are distributed through the Mac App Store (MAS). OS X Server is really just the Server app, sitting on the App Store. If the Server app is upgraded automatically, you will potentially experience some adverse side effects, especially if the app is running on a Metadata Controller for Xsan, runs Open Directory, or a major release of the Server app ships. Therefore, in this article we’re going to disable this otherwise sweet feature of OS X. To get started, first open the System Preferences. From there, click on the App Store System Preference pane. From the App Store System Preference pane, uncheck the…
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Setup FTP in OS X Server 5 for El Capitan and Yosemite
OS XÂ Server 5 (for El Capitan and Yosemite) sees little change with the FTP Service. Instead of sharing out each directory the new incantation of the FTP service allows administrators to share a single directory out. This directory can be any share that has previously been configured in the File Sharing service or a website configured in the Websites service. To setup FTP, first open the Server app and then click on the FTP service. Once open, use the Share: drop-down list to select a share that already exists (output of sharing -l basically) and click on one of the shares or Custom to create a new share for FTP.…
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Setup DNS Server Running OS X Server 5
Under the hood, OS X Server has a number of substantial changes; however, at first the Server app (Server 5) appears to have had very few changes. The changes in the Server app were far more substantial in the El Capitan version (and Yosemite for that matter) of OS X Server. All of the options from OS X are still there and using the new command line interface for managing the service, there are far more options than ever before. The DNS service in OS X Server, as with previous versions, is based on bind 9 (BIND 9.9.7-P2 to be exact). This is very much compatible with practically every DNS server in…
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Ask serveradmin If an Open Directory Certificate Authority is Available
The serveradmin command has an option to run commands. I’ve talked about these in past articles, for doing tasks like asking how many concurrent NFS connections are open on a host. Well, here’s another, and it’s a simple command. Here, we’re going to look at whether the Open Directory server has a CA. To do so, we’ll use the serveradmin command, along with the command verb. Then, we’ll add the certs option, followed by command= and then the payload of the command. In this case that’s isODCAPresent: sudo serveradmin command certs:command = isODCAPresent This is a simple, informational command, similar to the web:command of getSites or the mail:command of getConnectedUsers.…
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Yosemite Server Guide/Page Live
A blog is a great way to communicate information. But pedagogy, yo… Blogs are not great ways to teach in a guided manner. But they can be. So with a little Table of Contents, or a Guide of sorts, you can easily communicate in a fashion similar to a book. And this makes the third annual OS X Server Guide that I’m publishing in this manner; the guides for Mavericks and Mountain Lion are  still available. I doubt I’ll ever actually bother to take them down. I’ve been working on getting the annual guide up for a few weeks and while there are still some posts remaining, but it’s basically done (some articles…
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Reset the Server App in Yosemite Server
The Server 3 app that comes with Yosemite (aka Yosemite Server if you’re a Yosemite Sam fan) is great. But when you go making changes to some things, you’re just going to cause problems, sometimes something as simple as just upgrading to the latest and greatest version of Server… 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… And upgrades that use a migration wizard… Um, when it works it’s a thing of beauty. But…
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Configure SSH, ARD and SNMP In OS X Yosemite Server
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. SNMP allows for remote monitoring of a server. You can also connect to a server using the Server app running on a client computer. To enable all of these except SNMP, open the Server app (Server 3), 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…
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Use The Time Machine Service In OS X Yosemite Server
The Time Machine service in Yosemite Server hasn’t changed much from the service in previous operating systems. 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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Running A Web Server On OS X Yosemite 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…