DNS name

Hi

You can use .local. Just be aware of potential problems that can arise if clients are using the server to resolve their DNS. A good idea if you are considering Open Directory and iCal. I have noticed in Advanced Mode Leopard Server does have a problem properly promoting itself to an Open Directory Master. Kerberos has a tendency to stall if DNS is based around .local. There are workarounds when this happens. However of all the gazillions of words you can safely use why potentially hamstring yourself with the one word that can cause a problem?

The 'trick' with internal DNS services is to use something that gives the appearance of a 'real-world' domain name. My.myserver.mydomain.here, or .lan, .private, .city, .studio, .college, .business . . . the list is endless.

Clearly if you have a 'real-world' domain and there is a requirement for external access to your Calendar Service then it makes sense to use it.

Tony

.local is used quite a bit in Windows AD setups, as it does not conflict with anything else Windows does. DNS, on one level oesn't care what you use. It's only if you are using an internet FQDN that the name really matters. In other words, if you choose, say, google.com for your LAN's domain name, you're going to run into trouble. You could use yourdomain.com on your LAN, but if that name is a registered domain on the internet, you'll run into trouble.

If you see yourself using a registered domain name down the road, register it and use it on your LAN. Otherwise, follow Tony's advice and use .lan, .city, or .whatever, just not .local

Jeff

Hi Vince

You are welcome! Jeff as ever is spot on with his advice. To answer your last question - you are correct.

Tony

Hello,

Can I ask another question ?

How can I just change my mac 's fully qualified domain name.
For the moment I have mymac.local and I just want to change this to mymac.mydomain
It's a simple question but I have not yet seen an answer to it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

p.a

Hi

You should really start another thread but I'm surprised you could not find anything on these forums? There are lots of references to exactly what you're asking.

However launch Terminal and issue

man changeip

It will outline the options you can use with examples. Essentially there are two: one for the Server when it is not an Open Directory Master and one when it is.

Tony

Antonio- can you define what you mean by "Open Directory and iCal."
I am trying to do a standard install- the one time I got it close to working- iCal kept complaining-
(I'm sorry- that was so many error messages ago- I can't remember what it was).
Is Open Directory part of Standard?
Thanks

I had my server name switch on me one time to .local
which then broke everything.
We were configuring it as server.name.private and also calling the machine the same thing- which then went wonky- because server name apparently can't have periods in it.

Hi

I don't think I can help you? I don't really know anything worthwhile about Standard or Workgroup, I only ever use Advanced.

In previous incarnations of the server 'Advanced' - for want of a better word - was all there ever was.

As stated elsewhere most of the experienced contributors only use Advanced. This is unfortunate as those of you new to OSX Server are probably not getting the support/assistance they were probably hoping for when posting.

+". . . can you define what you mean by Open Directory and iCal? . ."+

The Calendar Server won't work unless your users and groups are defined in the LDAP node. How do you get an LDAP node? Your server has to be an Open Directory Master. How do you get an Open Directory Master? DNS has to be configured first and resolving correctly on both the forward and reverse pointers. Once you have that 'foundation' not only will your Server be stable (essential) but everything else will follow and what is more - work. Yes it's true. By the way Web Services need to be running with Wiki and Blog enabled. Client macs need to be using the Server for their DNS for the best experience.

The little I know regarding choosing Standard is everything gets configured for you by the Server Setup Assistant based on the answers you give to the questions it asks. DNS is configured as is Open Directory and anything else you have selected. From what I understand the client self-discovery aspect of this is probably quite good? However Workgroup Manager and Server Admin are not available and you are 'limited' to Server Preferences.

Having no experience of Server Preferences I'm not really sure if it is 'limited' or not?

At a deeper level Server Preferences seems to be writing its own config files that appear to be operating independently of most of the config files I'm familiar with. I think the other guys who only use Advanced would probably say the same?

I posted something when Leopard first came out that some have found useful? You could have a look at it and see what you make of it:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=7650358&#7650358

Finally you should have started another thread as you are in danger of thread-jacking. Don't worry! No real harm done. However in the future make sure you read the Forum's TOU.

Tony

Hi Antonin-
Thanks for the response-
however your link does not work.
I just got off a long call with a senior tech at Apple- where he had me try to configure the server in standard by attaching it to an unattached switch.
This didn't work.
He then took me into root- did all kinds of changes- and now I'm running updates- and he has me using server admin at the advanced level.
Had to set up Open Directory (in standard mode- you never see this).
Very frustrating still.
I'll know more once I've got the updates installed and have set up my users.

Hi

Strange? I've just tried the link and it works for me? If you still want to try it again.

Tony

I'd suggest working through Antonio's tutorial, elsewhere someone suggested the lynda.com tutorials - not free except maybe an initial trial period (not sure). I've seen one of them and it looked good for someone very new to the Apple server tools.

Something that can throw you off is, with the non-Advanced setups, some level of Open Directory configuration does occur -but silently.

An important tip to using the non-Advanced setups is to ensure you have another, separate, different - any - box providing DNS for your server-to-be's FQDN, as you do the install.
A tricky part of that is understanding DNS. It is often tempting to go with a fake TLD (.lan for example), and that can be "ok" but you need to fully understand the implications of that - for example how to easily receive email for your FQDN.com instead of .lan , with appropriate NAT & port forwarding at your router, and an expert at your ISP (or other provider) configuring your publicly available DNS to point to your public/external, static IP.

Here is a very good starting point for learning about DNS:
http://www.zytrax.com/books/dns/

But make sure to purchase "DNS & BIND" (O'Reilly press) by Paul Albitz & Cricket Liu
http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596001582

Cricket Liu's company (Men & Mice) has some DNS FAQ info here:
http://kbase.menandmice.com/kb/doku.php?id=kb:general:start