Initial Setup of Snow Leopard Server

[hawkgx]

Looking to get a Snow Leopard Server machine up & running for our small business, but we're on a limited budget right now so professional consultants aren't an option at the moment. Here's some basic info about our current situation:
1. High-speed cable service; with a static external IP
2. Netgear VPN router/switch for our internal network; setup to do DHCP
3. We already use the router to do port forwarding for various services
4. the Mac server has been assigned a static IP on our internal network
5. currently use ZoneEdit for all of our DNS management tasks

Here's what we want to accomplish, at a minimum, with our SL server (basically in order of our priority):
1. Host 1-3 small websites, very light traffic, basic HTML... no backend
scripts, PHP needs, etc at this time
2. Host our own email services - small to medium amount of load
3. Use iCal Server and Address Book Server to allow employees to
access shared calendars & contacts (at least over the LAN, if not from
outside the network as well)
4. Enable basic FTP service - light load, light traffic

Our previous server "experience" (from 3 years ago):
1. Windows NT 4.0 server running IIS - hosting 2-4 small sites
2. Used Merak Mail Server for hosting email service
3. Used FTP Serv-U for basic FTP service

We have long-time familiarity with Mac OS, but so far our initial attempts at figuring out the SL Server setup has become an exercise in frustration. Anyone with suggestions for books/videos/website resources that could be helpful in teaching us the basics of setting up these services?

 

[TheCoupe]

SL Setup

Hi,

first question, do you need multi-domain email?

As that is really the only thing that should take a little extra time in the setup.

The websites are easy... just make sure you've added the correct records to your DNS internally, so that your server recognises them, then add the sites under 'Web' in Server admin. When doing this... only put the primary domain in when adding them, ie, domain.com, then add an alias for http://www.domain.com or whatever subdomains you wish it to respond to. Then just create folders in /Library/WebServer/Documents/ for each site, and link each domain to the relevent folder.

If, on the initial setup of the server, you wish for your internal users to have access, simply tick the boxes to activate the iCal / Address book servers.

If the client machines are also on Snow Leopard, once the server is live... they should be prompted to have the server setup their computer for the services they have been given access to... all they have to do, when prompted, is enter their server based username and password, and the rest is history... their address book and iCal... and if required... their server email accounts will all be added.

I haven't as yet looked into how well the ftp server performs in Snow Leopard, but if you get stuck, give me a shout and I will look into it for you.

The main thing to get right is the intial domain, as this is what is generally used for the Kerberos Realm etc for authentication... mess this up, and you might as well start over.

If you get stuck with anything else... I'll do my best to offer any further advice.

 

[hawkgx]

Setup of Snow Leopard Server

TheCoupe,
Thanks for the reply. Here's a little more clarification on our situation based on the information in your post:

1. For now, the SL server will only be handling email for a single domain

2. Our internal users won't be on a true server/client setup... ie, each user
is accessing only files/applications on their local computer... so the users
login under their local/computer user accounts (not sure how that will
affects users' ability to access iCal Server and Address Book Server???)

I think I have a decent grasp on the DNS/domain record handling end of things, along with the concept of the adding aliases for the domains.

So I feel my biggest hangup at the moment is making iCal and Address Book services work in an environment where our individual users login locally on their own computer, rather than using a network/server login account.

 

[bubbles8]

Trying to solve the same problem.

Wanted to host my site as well with virtually no understanding of snow leopard server. I am setting up without using static ip. so im using zone edit and dyndns. though im at the point of installing my software and im at the network screens and i havent set the zone and dns settings yet. can i do this after i setup the server or should i do it before on a different comp. hen enter in settings? preciate any help in advance.

 

[svenwillmann]

TheCoupe,

2. Our internal users won't be on a true server/client setup... ie, each user
is accessing only files/applications on their local computer... so the users
login under their local/computer user accounts (not sure how that will
affects users' ability to access iCal Server and Address Book Server???)

This works, you need to setup a user on the server that uses the services and use this one to login on your local iCal & Address Book
Don't forget to allow the user to use the service on the server (e.g. Server Preferences > Users > Services)