When I took over doing support while we look for someone to replace our network admin, I was excited, for a moment, about playing with Mac OS X Server. For a quick moment. The first thing I know, I get a phone call from a remote user who cannot reach the server with ftp. I fire up Workgroup Manager and Server Admin to make sure the user’s account is active, and that ftp is in fact running, and that the firewall is not blocking any of the ftp ports. Everything is a go. I reset the password, and think that was the problem. I ask the user (on the phone) to try and log in, but no luck. I then bust out Cyberduck (my new favorite FTP client..thanks Ken!) and try to connect. No go. “Server shut down” Wild. I stop and start the service a few times, look at the logs…everything looks fine. I start to remember how much I love Mac OS X Server. Don’t worry, I am sure “it will be fixed in 10.4″. Right.
At this point I decided to look at other ftp servers out there, but then I realize how much of a pain it will be to add 50+ users, and I am not one to let Mac OS X Server to win so I forge on. I do a search at Apple’s support web site in seach for an answer to why the ftp process is not running, but Server Admin says it is. Not too much in the mailing lists (for once) nor google, so I head off to my last resort, the Apple Discussions before I write into the macosx-server list. Thankfully I found someone with the exact problem, and a solution which also fixes my problem. I still cannot figure out the miscommunication between Server Admin and the actual process, but at least it is working.
Again with my refrain…how do you screw something up like that when ftp (like httpd) is so straightforward in Mac OS X Client?
All Posts Categorized: ‘Mac OS X Server’
ftp with Mac OS X Server? I’ll pass.
Mac OS, UNIX, and Web Development Training
I have been looking for good Mac (not MAC) OS and UNIX training opportunities and think I finally came up with the missing piece, Big Nerd Ranch. Over the years, I have looked for good training for Mac OS X/Mac OS X Server, Apache, PHP, and other web technologies, but have often come up empty handed or less than satisfied. So if you are looking for some decent training, here is what I would recommend:
- Hands on training for Mac OS client or Mac OS X Server and want to get certified: http://training.apple.com/
- Hands on training for UNIX or advanced Mac OS X:http://www.bignerdranch.com/
- Web based UNIX/Linux training: http://oreilly.useractive.com/courses/sysadmin.php3
- Web tutorials on HTML, XML, SOAP, XSL, SQL, etc: W3Schools (where I learned XTHML and CSS)
unix/linux certification.
I have finally reached the point in my career where I need certification. Back in the Mac OS 7-9 days there was no certification programs for us Mac geeks, but now we face job competition with all the UNIX geeks too. Apple now offers certification, but after taking a class on Mac OS X Server for 5 days, I left feeling pretty let down. I know how to add users, and I am pretty comfortable to all the services. What I needed was something more in-depth. That was 3 years ago. Now I am working to get my "Linux/Unix System Administration Certificate" from O'Reilly/the University of Illinois. As technical as I am, I was not sure how much I would like taking classes via the web, but the more time I put in, the more I enjoy it.
O'Reilly and the U of I offer a few certifications that I would recommend anyone who like me, has the skills, but no certification to "prove" it.
[tags]UNIX, Linux, certification, O'Reilly[/tags]
geek tool.
Thanks to a friend that is always pointing out cool apps...I recently started using GeekTool. There are 3 modes to GeekTool...file mode, shell mode, and image mode. I use GeekTool for a few things...file mode to tail my web acces log on my web server, and image mode to load the gauge graphic for XGrid@Stanford. You can also use shell mode to run scripts or UNIX commands to monitor processes or get information on your computers/servers. It is definately a cool tool and I recommend it!
Apple knowledge base changes.
I like to keep my finger on the pulse with Apple products as well as with their documentation. Apple makes this easy with offering mailing lists that are dedicated to all their products. If you want to keep up specifically with all new and changed documentation, Apple has a great list for you: Daily Knowledge Base changes.
Apple's description of the list:
"The Daily Knowledge Base changes mailing list announces new and modified documents in the AppleCare Knowledge Base. Each e-mail contains the titles of new and modified documents with links to them. E-mail from this list may also contain hints and tips to get the most out of your Apple products with links to Apple Discussions, Customer Installable Parts, custom support pages, and more."
So if you want to make sure you keep up to date, subscribe to the list, it is low volume and very helpful!
ht://dig 3.1.6 installation/configuration
So you need to install a search engine on your site. Keeping with my open source solutions, I have decided to go with ht://Dig. As soon as Apple decided to go with UNIX as a back end to their OS, I was excited because I could finally use ht://Dig (and another classic program called Mailman) I will always be grateful to both communities (ht://Dig and Mailman) because I learned so much about compiling and not to be afraid of source files. I have used ht://Dig for a few years with minimal complaints. You will need to compile ht://Dig, so make sure you have Apple's Development Package (Xcode).
No need to re-create the wheel, so to compile/install ht://Dig, follow these directions. Before you actually compile everything, you will need to apply a patch that came out since the instructions were made. download the patch: ftp://ftp.ccsf.org/htdig-patches/3.1.6/htnotifyNull.0 and change the actual ntnotify source file with the corrected variables. After you have applied the patch, you can then complile the source while following the directions from the link above.
To customize the result pages, you can edit the html files in the /common folder so the search pages look seemless with your web site.
If you are going to use ht://Dig on multiple sites (your Virtual Hosts), simply create multiple conf files and multiple db directories, one for each site so that all of your site indexing is separate.
You are also able to add multiple attributes into each conf file to further customize your install. A comprehensive list of all the attrributes for the conf file can be found on ht://Dig's web site.
So if you want to use a tried and true search engine, give ht://Dig a shot. A new version should be coming soon!
