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Server Admin Tools for OS X Server 10.8

Tell me where to download the Server Admin Tools for OS X Server 10.8 or if it is not yet available?

OS X Server

Posted on Jul 26, 2012 3:03 AM

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19 replies

Jul 28, 2012 6:29 AM in response to Vinogradov V.S

I've poked the command line version (skip to the bold bit) to see what it's like... but first;


Wanna hear a really disgusting failed workaround?


..of sorts..


I'm getting my Lion (10.7.4) server, with it's working copy of Server Admin, to administer my Mountain Lion server. It connects, it just doesn't let me change settings ...yet. I have yet to restart but I doubt that'll change it.


Care to? Well, no. It's not happening. I mean I'd love to read someone else has tried it and gotten somewhere, but here; very no.


I mention this because:

It used to work to some extent, previous versions generally had considerable administrative ability over newer Server OS'. You shouldn't do it, sometimes it was risky particularly WorkGroup Manager, but sometimes you could. This is one of those occasions when you would and frankly we're pressed for options but to wait patiently.


I haven't checked for Mountain Lion but for previous server versions, one of the training courses has always been command line administration. In theory, as a server admin, "there's always the command line or manually editing .conf files" and for years I've had to do that for certain parts of most setups until about 10.4.


After reading one of the threads on the right (out of curiosity - the one about backing up the directory which I rant about in a moment) I read where to find a command line version of Server Admin which is included in the 'Server' app.

In case it is of any assistance to you, I got stuck into it and found almost all of the things I know I want Server Admin for. The only one I haven't yet found is DHCP but that's just because I ran out of interest and there isn't a listing for it nor BootpD.


Should you feel that adventurous, you don't need to wait for Server Admin to be published. It's at:

/Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/sbin/serveradmin


... and lists, for your configuring pleasure, the following:

accounts

addressbook

afp

bonjour

calendar

certs

config

devicemgr

dirserv

dns

filebrowser

ftp

info

jabber

mail

netboot

network

nfs

postgres

radius

san

sharing

signaler

smb

swupdate

vpn

web

wiki






For what it's worth, in case anyone's interested, some observations from someone who's used each version of OSX Server except for 10.0 (including 1.2):



Note that DNS and NetInstall have moved from Server Admin to the Server App. Part of a tide which started before Lion server.


I don't care if they do move it all and eliminate Server Admin so long as they really do move it all and eliminate nothing. Above all, I need my NetBoot and need my whole directory exporting, and it's hard to take it seriously if it doesn't have a DHCP service, isn't it. I read someone else complaining that Webmail was missing which is also pretty dire.

There's alot of configuring that you can't do in the "Friendly, simple, app of the people" Server App.


They're moving only enough to not baffle intrepid newbies. They're not moving enough for people who know more of what they're doing.


The built-in help guides you to using Server Admin which is as yet unavailable but you know that.


Last of all, as far back as the late days of 10.6 server, when we had Apple run a presentation to our customers on the Mac Mini Server, I noticed that they seemed to consider an AirPort Extreme basestation as an assumed part of your network. Given DHCP is the first thing I'm reaching to Server Admin for I couldn't help noticing that the help talks about the Server App managing your AirPort. It doesn't appear in the devices section in my copy for some reason, but apparently it's supposed to. I do happen to currently use it for DHCP at home but I'd prefer to return to using the server.


Like I said, it's hard to take it seriously if it doesn't have a DHCP service, isn't it?

Jul 28, 2012 8:07 AM in response to Vinogradov V.S

I don't know what Apple is thinking when it comes to server administration. Server Admin was good in Snow Leopard Server, dissapointing in Lion Server and now it seems to have been abandoned entirely in Mountain Lion Server. It's hard to take OS X Server seriously for business or professional use without serious server admin tools. It looks like they're just after the home server market (a.k.a. the botnet market).

Jul 30, 2012 8:03 AM in response to capaho

It might have been disappointing but it was, at least, there in entirety plus new features. A lot of them were good features too.


SAMBA guest access wasn't but I think they fixed that eventually.


The only thing disappointing was that you had to download the server admin tools separately and, in my case, it took a while to realize that you had to and that all the features were there once you had.


To that end I find Lion Server capable of all I've ever needed previous versions to do but then with some very nice new features, such as logging in remotely to a different account without disturbing what's on the screen.


Now they've made one of the two tools you need available and the documentation suggests the other one (Server Admin) is forthcoming. Then it will be a complete and good product.

Jul 30, 2012 8:31 AM in response to vance.corkery

If I may correct you, Richard and Vance..


ML is an integrated server OS every bit as much as every OSX Server OS before.


The services are low level components and work even if you delete server.app.


Server.app turns a non-server installation into a server installation in much the same way that you could actually do with, for example, the Tiger server disc. Didn't know that?


The fact is that the pieces of software which provide the services are built into most Unix and Linux environments. Given enough time in terminal, you can actually get a non-server OS doing a lot of things you would rightly buy the server OS for.


That actually includes DHCP and many others.


The software providing the services are inextricably integrated into OSX.


The difference is in the GUI administration and almost nowhere else. Those services are down there, just not used until an admin program invites you to.


The services are not mere add-ons at all, Apple just makes it look that way. They are integrated and give you a purpose built operating system as pure as any, only with complete client OS components next to it.





Throughout the version history, the administrative applications have had different names and taken different parts of the administrative job. Most recently, Server Admin has done the nuts and bolts stuff. It even had File Sharing added to it in (from strained memory) 10.6, maybe 10.5 but I think 10.6. Before that it was in WorkGroup Manager.


In 10.7, Server.app came along which, like an OSX Server (tiger, for example) install DVD, can change a non-Server installation into a Server installation simply by changing some settings, prioritizing some processes differently, maybe adding some services but more than anything else, adding admin tools.


In Mountain Lion, services are added and they are added at a low level. Once this is done, converting the OS into a full and proper server OS, server.app only does administration. If you've configured your server and don't think you'll have to configure it again (yeah right) you could delete it and the services would still be provided.


In 10.6, Apple made something like a control panel which took some of the administration tasks that also appear in other admin tools, the point being that it was simpler. You could configure more if you wanted to, but if you didn't know what you were doing, you could just use the simple tool and generally get something up and running.


In 10.7, that was replaced by server.app but Apple then also removed some items from Server Admin, which hadn't happened on the last version, and didn't automatically send you Server Admin or WorkGroup Manager or some of the other tools such as XSan.


XSan is now built into Mountain Lion's server.app. ML's server.app is much more powerful than Lion's server.app.


System Image Utility is moved into CoreServices but still exists and you launch it from the Tools menu in Server.app as with Xsan admin and, one would one day hope to find, perhaps WorkGroup Manager and Server Admin. I'm not offended if Apple are stashing the contents of the 'Server' folder elsewhere as long as it's all there.


We just have to wait for Server Admin to be posted and then we'll have what we wanted, more configurable than it's predecessor though we might have to look in new places for familiar settings, or use newer technologies for some jobs.


Yes, it should be included with Server.app.


So should WorkGroup Manager.



There is only one thing I'm a bit bothered by, and there could be a couple of innocent reasons for it. I'll do my training and find out.

In Lion Server, when you selected the computer in server.app, you had the option of prioritizing Server processes.

Maybe when I install Mountain Lion Server on something more powerful than a 1.4GHz MacBook Air that'll come back.

Maybe it's gone because it's managed automatically in real time (in Lion, you had to restart to change it)


Apologies again for writing alot

Jul 30, 2012 8:52 AM in response to Steffan from Sydney-ish

Uh oh.


According to:


http://www.apple.com/osx/server/specs


DHCP is missing in the list of services. It is there, any Mac with Internet connection sharing uses bootpd to serve DHCP, you just can't administer it as you need to on respectable server.


...the materials I've been reading that say to download Server Admin and are linked to from the Mountain Lion Server page, are actually all for Lion Server.



Looks like there's a chance that Server Admin for Mountain Lion Server might not come!


The services it does offer are, like I said, not mere add-ons. They're built in, not bolted on to use Apple's official marketing slang, but it's hard to take any server OS seriously if it doesn't officially list DHCP as a service.


I did read something specific to 10.8 which guided you to editing bootpd.conf. Yay. That takes us back to the earliest days of OSX.


..and what about NetBoot other than NetInstall? You can make the images but can you serve them and administer their service?



I was thinking this was just from the half bakery, that Server Admin 10.8 will come, but now I'm worrying. I have yet to find anything missing in Lion server now that I have the admin tools, but it doesn't look good for Mountain Lion Server.

Jul 30, 2012 5:05 PM in response to Steffan from Sydney-ish

Steffan from Sydney-ish wrote:


Now they've made one of the two tools you need available and the documentation suggests the other one (Server Admin) is forthcoming. Then it will be a complete and good product.


I went digging through the Advanced Server Admin manual for 10.8 (ML), indeed there are references to the non-existant-in-10.8 Server Admin. You might like this page about DCHP. Not sure whether to regard that as forthcoming, or the editor for that manual for 10.8 missed something while "updataing" the 10.7 manual.


I'm one of those people with a Mini Server hooked up to an Airport Extreme for a home network, so I'm not missing that feature for my limited purposes. But I understand that's a big problem for enterprise.


DNS moved to Server.app, but I find it difficult to use compared to Server Admin (10.7) with a small window and lots of sheets.


FTP service is now in Server.app as apposed to CLI in Lion Server. You can only have one shared directory for FTP. That is good enough for me since Lion's and Mt Lion's SMB implementation don't play nice with my scanner. (Although I just learned from another thread it's best not to have spaces anywhere in the path to the share, e.g. don't put it in the "Shared Items" provided by default like I did without first renaming it without the space.)


Some other services that moved to 10.8 Server.app are Software Update and Open Directory.


Open Directory has an on/off switch and you can set the password restrictions. If you want to set an SSL cert for OD, then that's now in Server.app along with all the other certs. Note, you won't see it as an option until you set up OD. The thing I cannot find are the additional binding policies (block man-in-middle, disable clear text passwords, etc.), which were in Server Admin. I looked everywhere and drew a blank. Firgured out that they can still be read and set from the command line with slapconfig. Check the man page for details, in particular look for:

slapconfig -getmacosxodpolicy

slapconfig -setmacosxodpolicy

Server Admin Tools for OS X Server 10.8

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