• Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Mass Deployment,  Network Infrastructure,  Unix,  Windows Server

    "Don't Go Near There": Sponsored Top Level Domain Names

    October 25, 2011

    Any time I think of something you’re not supposed to do with network architecture, I always think of Good Morning Vietnam. When Robin Williams says: “Don’t go near there!” But Betty! “Don’t go near there…get away from the river! Stay away from there!” One of the things you’re not supposed to do on networks is have conflicting DNS information. One example is to use a www record on one DNS server and a different one on another DNS server. This introduces a potential problem when some users end up with one DNS server and others end up with another. IP, DNS and other conflicts are usually a bad thing. Another…

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  • Business,  Mac OS X Server

    Active Announcement in the Morning!

    January 30, 2011

    For those who haven’t yet seen it, or who almost forgot due to crossing too many time zones, Active Storage, the makers of the Active RAID will be announcing their new product tomorrow morning. From what you see on the web site it looks to be some sort of rack mount device. Given their fantastic development work in the past, it’s sure to be a good addition to the bat-belts of the MacIT crowd. 9am Eastern, see ya’ there! http://www.activestorage.com

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  • Mac OS X Server,  Ubuntu,  Unix

    QuickTime Streaming Server on Ubuntu 10

    November 20, 2010

    OK, so you don’t necessarily call rtsp on Ubuntu QuickTime Streaming Server. Instead, you call it Darwin Streaming Server (DSS). But the end result is basically what you have exposed in Mac OS X Server, but running on Linux. You don’t have the same functionality in Server Admin, but it does work. And the key to what it does is use the rtsp protocol to stream supported files from the server to clients. It is a little tougher than just clicking on the start button, but too much tougher provided you follow these directions (thanks to the good folks of the DSS list that I’ve been a member of for…

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  • Ubuntu,  Unix

    Server Admin on Linux

    November 7, 2010

    Apple recently announced the end of the Apple Xserve. The data center is a funny thing, and being such rack space is critical to most who spend a lot of time there. Many of the previous Xserve customers will continue to buy Mac Pro’s and use them in racks as tall Xserves. Others will purchase Mac Mini’s and use them for certain situations. But many will move on to using the same iron in the data center that they use for everything else, finding a way to duplicate or replace the functionality that was previously in the Xserve with something else. Server Admin is not going to run on Linux.…

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  • Business,  Final Cut Server,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Mac Security,  Xsan

    The Xserve Has Been Discontinued

    November 5, 2010

    The Xserve has officially been discontinued by Apple and will no longer be sold after January, 2011. Mac OS X Server will still be available on Mac Mini and Mac Pro (which will be the only option for Metadata Controllers on Mac OS X). Apple has produced a transition guide, available here. I do like the Mac Mini server, I just can’t seem to fit a fibre channel card into them. Before the Xserve, we used to buy Marathon rack mount kits for G3 and G4 systems. I would anticipate that a new business will spring up that takes the place of the Xserve, putting Apple logic boards and CPUs…

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  • Mac OS X Server

    Disable Xserve Keyboard Locking

    June 20, 2009

    When you use the key to lock an Xserve the keyboard and drive modules are locked into place.  But in a number of environments only the drive modules should be locked and the keyboard itself should still be active.  In order to disable this feature you can use the systemsetup command, leveraging the getdisablekeyboardwhenenclosurelockisengaged option (which by the way is one of the longest I’ve seen).  If you run the following command and the keyboard locks when you lock the server then you should get a simple output of Yes systemsetup getdisablekeyboardwhenenclosurelockisengaged But if you swap the g with an s you have the option to alter the setting with a…

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  • Mac OS X Server

    New Xserve LOM Firmware Update

    May 8, 2009

    There is a new Lights Out Management (LOM) firmware available for the Xserve.  This update requires Mac OS X 10.5.6 and will take about two to three minutes in addition to a quick reboot.  While I cannot look at the files and other items it changes (it’s firmware and doesn’t get picked up by snapshoting tools, I would recommend running it when possible.  For more information, see the Apple KB article on the update.

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  • Business,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server

    More on the Nehalem Xserve

    April 11, 2009

    I don’t often wax poetically on technical forums (and it’s my first time doing so on macenterprise.org), nor do I actually post any more overall given how persnickety *some* people are about how you go about posting (*some* of which btw is very understandable). But I like the new Xserve, and after seeing a number of posts on a list that were, well, knocking the new Nehalem Xserves, I had to pipe up on the wtf question about the new microprocessor, Nehalem, and why Apple would have chosen a seemingly desktop CPU for its only server product being offered: While it is correct that the i7/microprocessor architecture is going to…

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  • Mac OS X Server,  Xsan

    Keyspan Serial Adapter

    August 1, 2008

    When you’re doing Xsan deployments you often run into situations where a serial adapter comes in handy.  It might be the serial port on an Xserve, a Promise Vtrak, an Xserve RAID, a managed switch, a Fibre Channel switch or a UPS but it seems like it’s just a super useful little thing to have.  Now, since the MacBook and MacBook pro do not have serial ports that leaves you hanging a little.  So, this little guy comes in pretty handy: http://www.keyspan.com/products/usa19hs/

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