With Yosemite in beta, it'south worth mentioning that older versions of OS X Server are still available on the app store, if you lot just know where to look. You can access and purchase other versions using these links: Server iv:https://itunes.apple tree.com/us/app/bone-x-server/id883878097?mt=12 Server three:https://itunes.apple tree.com/united states/app/bone-ten-server-3.2.2/id714547929?mt=12 Server 2:https://itunes.apple tree.com/united states/app/bone-10-server-2.2.5/id537441259?mt=12 Server 1: If y'all already own OS Ten King of beasts Server from the app store and so you can however access it under Purchases. Screen Shot 2014-11-14 at 10.30.22 PM

Now that we've looked at what you get and what you lot don't get in Mountain Lion Server, let's take a little while to look at what the upgrade path itself looks like. Earlier we start, let'due south just say that upgrading to Mountain Lion Server is probably 1 of the fastest, easiest and virtually boring upgrades yous'll e'er become to do. And I say this more to the credit of the engineers that fabricated the process and so uncomplicated. Apparently in that location are bonuses to your Server merely being an app. There is a catch, some of the services are gone. Another catch, you lot're gonna' need to accept a organization that meets the following specs:

  • Capable of booting a 64-bit kernel, means a 64-bit Intel Core 2 Duo or meliorate
  • The graphics only keep getting meliorate, so you'll need an Advanced GPU chipset
  • The more memory the better, although 2GB is the bare minimum
  • The more than CPU the better, although 8GB of infinite is required
  • An Cyberspace connectedness, or a cached Install Mac OS 10 Mount Lion, Server app and Server packet – much easier to just take a connexion to the Internet…
  • You should program on using an Apple ID, although if you don't supply it at install time, the server can still run
  • The source estimator needs ten.six.8 or 10.vii.x

Apple'south official specs are here, outlining the models that Mount Lion can run on. If Mountain Panthera leo can run, Bone X Server can run on it. Next, brand a clone of your computer. I utilize Carbon Copy Cloner, similar most sane people, but YMMV with other tools that you may be in dearest with. Once your clone is done, I personally like to practice both an annal and an consign of user accounts from Workgroup Director equally a final safety net. Yous should also have a book. Preferably one of mine, although given that the merging of two such boring topics tin can create a black hole of boringness (which is like to turning a bag of belongings within out, btw), you might choose to bring something a bit livelier than either of the two, like some Dostoyevsky or the Chem 111 textbook I used in college. Next, let's become to the App Store. Search for Mount Lion or Os X and and then click the Install button for the Mountain Lion app. The push will then say Downloading, as follows:

Buy OS X Mountain Lion from the App Store
Buy OS X Mountain Lion from the App Store

In one case downloaded, brand sure your users won't chase after you with pitchforks for beingness downward for a couple of hours and then run the installer, following the defaults until the download begins and the organisation reboots. The installation volition take a little while. From the time you start the download to the time that the files are unpacked and replaced on the system can be about an hour or two. This is a good time to grab that book, a handbag of Doritos and a Dr. Pepper. In one case the Doritos are gone, wash your easily and check the progress of the installation. Read some more. One time that'south done, check the progress again. If you think most a second pocketbook of Doritos, stop – information technology's non worth it… A second Dr. Pepper is fine though, I hear it helps you write articles about upgrading to Mountain Panthera leo Server in a way that makes optimal sense. Once the system reboots over again, you should be set up to open up Server app. Except for the fact that it isn't there, which is obvious by the fact that it's got a large annoying white circle over it in the Dock. Remove the Server app (and Workgroup Manager or Server Admin if they're in there) and then it's fourth dimension to install Server itself. Become back to the App Shop and search for & purchase Mountain Lion Server (or install these from Purchases if you've already purchased them). Once installed, Server appears in the Dock. Use the following command to verify that the IP address and hostname match: sudo /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/sbin/changeip -checkhostname Provided that the name of the server checks out make clean, click on the Server app in the Dock to be guided through the installation process.

Set Up Your Server Screen When Installing Mountain Lion Server
Prepare Up Your Server Screen When Installing Mountain Lion Server

At the Setup Your Server screen, click on Keep.

Agree to the Mountain Lion Server Licensing Agreement
Agree to the Mountain Lion Server Licensing Agreement

Agree to the licensing terms (assuming you do concur) by clicking on the Agree button.

Provide Administrative Credentials When Installing Mountain Lion Server
Provide Administrative Credentials When Installing Mountain King of beasts Server

Provide the administrative username and password to give Server and services permission upon installation and then click on the Allow push button.

Configure The AppleID for Push Notifications
Configure The AppleID for Button Notifications

At the Apple tree Push Notifications screen, provide the Apple tree ID and password for a valid Apple tree ID so click on the Proceed button.

Congrats, You're A SysAdmin!
Congrats, Y'all're A SysAdmin!

After a time, y'all should see a Congratulations screen. Click on Finish and the Server app should automatically open (or the process fails but Server opens anyway, merely without some of the stuff working out of the gate). At this betoken, y'all should come across the services that were running prior to the upgrade running. Check the logs to verify that there'southward nothing out of the ordinary. If you lot were running a firewall then the rules will be migrated and continue running. To disable if you're going to motion your rules to pf, so use the post-obit command to disable the rules and reboot: sudo mv /etc/ipfilter /etc/ipfilter.OLD You don't need to disable these immediately, although a lack of control over them might cause you to desire to… Next, install Workgroup Manager, available athttp://support.apple.com/kb/DL1567. You've now got a functional server, provided that the entire process went smoothly. In my experience so far (there hasn't been a ton of this at this point), the service migration is far smoother than from within the Lion Server point releases (e.g. 10.7.ii to 10.7.iii, etc). Profile Manager, for example, worked like a charm on upgrade, as did Agenda and Contacts services, which had been a bit persnickety at times previously. At present, y'all tin can go back to that book and instead of a 3rd Dr. Pepper, switch to Jägermeister!

Co-ordinate to Wikipedia, fsevents is an API from Apple that allows applications to register for notifications of changes to a given directory tree. This ways that when something changes, an application (or daemon/agent) can run across the change and take action or rail what happened. For Linux, there'due south a like tool in iNotify. This time of the year, a lot of imaging and packaging is going on at schools and companies around the world. A lot of people are likewise moving various settings out of images and into either post-flight packages, automations or managed preferences of some sort. In Bone 10, it'due south easy to make a change on a figurer and then isolate what files the alter touched. Therefore, you can rapidly and easily figure out what changes to make (e.g. to a property list via a management profile if you're getting away from Managed Preferences or even to a configuration file). One tool that tin can help yous discover what files were changed on a system is fseventer. This small donateware app is piece of cake to use and quickly informative. To use information technology, but open and click on the play button at the empty screen. Once the tool starts running it will testify yous what's changing in the background on the calculator. Now make the changes that you demand to make and click on the suspension button. Click on the middle button abreast the play/break button and you'll also Looking at the files changed then tells you what the changes are. Toggling changes dorsum and forth and looking at the impact on the file results in knowing the changes to script/automate/profile manage for each. You will encounter tons of apps that write generated keys here and there rather than easy to find settings such as what yous see to a higher place. In those cases there are about always command line interfaces specifically adult for changing a setting. For example, networksetup should be used to change settings that would otherwise be configured in the Network Organisation Preference pane. This is only one of most 1,000,000,000 ways I've seen to do this. Happy to invite others to comment on their favorite way to runway what's irresolute and script it in OS X and other platforms besides.

Panthera leo brings with it a few challenges for administrators. One such is migrating the wiki service into the new format. When doing an upgrade in place, the Wiki service is pretty straight forward to upgrade, but in many cases, due to crumbling hardware, wiki services are moving from an older computer to a newer reckoner. This tin be done in ane of two ways. The first is to "migrate" the information by copying the Collaboration folder onto the new organization. The second is to "consign" and "import" the data. I usually recommend doing a drift where possible, so we'll start with that method. Notation: Earlier getting started, make sure that the directory services side of things is good. If a user or group lookup for an object that owns, edits or has commented on a wiki fails then that wiki probably shouldn't be migrated. Use the dscl or id commands to confirm that lookups are functioning equally intended. To migrate wikis from 1 server to another, first re-create the Collaboration directory to the new server. In this example, the directory has been dropped onto the desktop of the currently logged in user. To migrate the information one time copied, use the wikiadmin control, along with the migration option. The option requires the path to the Collaboration binder, defined with -r, every bit follows: sudo wikiadmin migrate -r ~/Desktop/Collaboration When moving wikis, you can take the opportunity to go rid of a few yous don't want (such every bit that test wiki from manner back when). Or administrators may just cull to move a unmarried wiki to a new server in order to split the load across multiple hosts. When doing then, use the same command as before, along with the proper name of each wiki that is being moved, along with the -g pick. For case, if moving the Legal wiki: sudo wikiadmin migrate -r ~/Desktop/Collaboration -g Legal The second way of moving wikis around is to export so import them. To do and then, starting time export wikis on the old server, using the wikiadmin command along with the export selection, which requires an –exportPath option and needs to be done, on a wiki-by-wiki footing. So to export that Legal wiki to a file called LegalWikiTMP on the desktop: sudo wikiadmin export -g Legal --exportPath ~/Desktop/LegalWikiTMP Next, copy the wiki to the new server and import it, using the import pick forth with –importPath to identify where the file being imported is located. Using the same location, the command would so be: sudo wikiadmin import -g Legal --importPath ~/Desktop/LegalWikiTMP Note: The ability to import a wiki also allows for an API of sorts, as you can programmatically create wikis from other sources. The ability to export also provides a mode to move into another wiki tool if you happen to outgrow the options provided in OS X Server and demand to move to something more robust. There is another way to move wikis, using pg_dump, copying the data and then using pg_restore to import the data once you've created the tables.  This style is, in my opinion, the terminal resort if the standard wikiadmin commands aren't working. In my experience, if I'thou doing the migration this way then I've got other, bigger issues that I need to deal with also. These commands work best when the wiki service has been started so that the databases are fully built out. To commencement the wiki service from the command line, apply the serveradmin command instead of the wikiadmin command. The serveradmin command is used with the showtime selection and and then wiki is used to bespeak the wiki service, as follows: sudo serveradmin start wiki The service can too be stopped, swapping out the start choice with a stop selection: sudo serveradmin stop wiki Finally, in a few cases (this is the principal reason I'm writing this commodity), the attachments to wikis don't come up over during a migration. To drift the files that are used for QuickLook, downloading attachments, etc, use the serveradmin command to locate the directory that these objects are stored in: sudo serveradmin settings wiki:FileDataPath The output identifies the directory where these objects are stored. Placing the contents in the same relative path as they are to the output of the aforementioned command on the target server ordinarily results in restoring them. One time moved, employ the fixPermissions option to repair the permissions of any files from the source (if whatever changes to account IDs are encountered such as an export/import rather than an annal/restore in OD this tin can pb to odd issues: sudo wikiadmin fixPermissions As well use the rebuildSearchIndex pick with the wikiadmin command to fix whatsoever indexing, once the permissions have been repaired: sudo wikiadmin rebuildSearchIndex And finally apply resetQuicklooks to clear any cached Quicklook representations of objects that accept been inserted into a wiki and might not display properly using Quicklook (you know you lot might need to do this if they look fine when downloaded but look bad with Quicklook even though QuickLook on the server can view the files simply fine): sudo wikiadmin resetQuicklooks When done properly the migration can take awhile. Keep in mind that every tag, every article, every edit to every commodity and basically everything else is tracked inside the tables that yous're moving. While there might not be a ton of data in the Collaboration directory or in an export, all of the data needs to become to the correct location. This tin take a little time in environments that have a lot of articles, even if they're actually short articles…

JAMF has announced the 2012 rendition of their National User Conference. Having been to two of these, I can say that if you use any JAMF products that it is a cracking event to attend. It is a lot of very specific information about integrating, mass deploying, mass managing, mass document distributing and mass 3rd partying for Apple products. The National User Briefing will be held Oct 23-25 2012, 8:00 am – 5:00 pm in beautiful Minneapolis, Minnesota (where all the cool kids alive). The venue is i of the all-time briefing spots I've seen in the Guthrie theater, overlooking the stone arch bridge. In previous years, there have been announcements, new versions, people discussing their specific integrations, etc. I would as well think that if you use another product that you might detect the conference helpful, as yous get to encounter whether the grass really is greener on the other side! Anyhow, I recommend coming out to Minneapolis for this one if you can. And if y'all practice, let me know!

Thanks to Tedd Kidd for the post-obit commodity, on automatically managing administrative privileges based on Active Directory groups!

This is a quick and easy style to assign any user to the local admin group in Bone X based on their group membership in your Active Directory. This should also work with Open Directory or eDirectory groups if your workstations are bound to those directory services. You'll need to include this lawmaking in the workstation login script and then that it runs as root but uses the $@ variable to determine the user that is logging in. #!/bin/bash # Fix group name to check confronting groupname="domain admins" if [ "`/usr/bin/dsmemberutil checkmembership -U $@ -1000 $groupname`" == "user is a fellow member of the group" ]; then /usr/bin/dscl . merge /Groups/admin GroupMembership $@ fi This works in both Snow Leopard and Lion. If you work for a school (like me) the groupname variable could be inverse to staff or teachers, which would allow whatever staff member or instructor to take admin rights if run on student workstations.

Thanks to Duong Nguyen for the 2d user-submitted mail service on Changing Roundcube Max Attachment Size in Lion Server! By default, King of beasts Server's webmail (Roundcube) has a 5MB max attachment size. The max attachment size is read from php'southward "upload_max_filesize" and "post_max_size". Nosotros don't need to edit php.ini because Lion Server created a .htaccess in Roundcube's directory that overrides php.ini's settings. Delight only do this if y'all are comfortable with the terminal! I outset by SSHing to my server as root (or you can open a root terminal). ane. # cd /usr 2. # cd share 3. # cd webmail 4. # half-dozen .htaccess 5. Apply your arrow keys to navigate to the finish of the 9th and tenth line ("upload_max_filesize" and "post_max_size" respectively) 6. Use your arrow key to highlight the number before Grand (i.due east. 5M) 7. Printing i eight. Type 20 (or however large y'all want) and printing delete to remove the 5 9. Press Esc ten. Press : 11. Type x Now nosotros're washed with the final! Restart the Web Server through Server.app, and enjoy your new attachment size!