Pre purchasing Questions

supanatral · #1 April 11th, 2008, 02:55 PM

Our company is using a freeBSD computer right now and I'm doing research to see if we can switch to windows because windows is easier to manage and operate however I had another thought, how about a mac server? A mac server would be as stable and secure as freebsd but have the usability of windows. The biggest issue is that I've never touched a mac server so I don't know what programs comes with the server os and what doesn't.

The server will need to:
be a mail-gate and pass the email onto an exchange server
host websites
host FTP

Also, we have active directory installed on our main server, how would mac os x server do in that kind of environment? it wouldn't happen to be able to be a backup active directory server would it? I don't think it would but i thought I might as well ask. Also, my last question is what kind of hardware do I need? can osx leopard server work on any any mac or is there a server that i need to buy that the mac server will work on?

Go3iverson · #2 April 11th, 2008, 10:47 PM

Mac OS X Server can provide many of those services for you. Many folks use Mac OS X Server's Mail service as a great filtering, virus checking and spam blocking solution in front of another Mail server (like Exchange). It can be used on its own, too.

Leopard ships with Apache 1 and 2, with 2 running as the default. It also has a built in FTP service. There are no additional fees for any of these services or any service built into OS X Server.

Leopard is able to be bound into AD as a full domain member. You can leverage the user accounts for authentication and perform a full integration of OS X into the AD Kerberos Realm. It cannot be a backup AD server.

The Server OS can be put on many different types of hardware. Your best bet is to get an Xserve. That will include the hardware and the full Unlimited OS license in the price. It's a great 1U server with 8-core processing and server grade parts.

You can read more about Leopard Server at: http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/
You can read up on Xserve hardware at: http://www.apple.com/xserve/

If you are unfamiliar with the system, which it sounds like you are, you should get in contact with Apple and get an account team to work with. They can arrange resources like briefings on using the OS and possibly try and buy on the hardware to be sure it meets your needs.

Let me know if you have any further questions. I work with OS X Server all day.

Michael

supanatral · #3 April 11th, 2008, 10:52 PM

Thank you for taking the time to reply. I have only one more question just for clarification. the mail services you talked about in the first paragraph, does that come bundled with mac os x server? or are you talking about 3rd party software?

Go3iverson · #4 April 11th, 2008, 10:55 PM

As as many questions as you like.

Yes, Mail comes bundles in Mac OS X Server. It includes the antivirus engine and the junk mail filtering services as well.

Michael

Satcomer · #5 April 12th, 2008, 01:21 PM

Well check out my post on 10.5 server Guides. Plus there is the Apple Mac OS X Server Feature Features page that might answer some of your questions.

thoule · #6 May 14th, 2008, 03:30 PM

Mac takes a lot of open-source software and puts a fancy GUI on it. It uses PostFix and Cyrus for the mail server and even includes Squirrel Mail for end users. It is using Samba for SMB connection.

If you are familiar with Linux, you'll do fine. You can either rely on the GUI, or ignore the GUI and edit the conf files directly. Don't try to mix them though as the GUI will sometimes overwrite the conf files.

Also, note that the 10 user limited version only applies to Mac File Sharing. Unless you are serving files to more than 10 mac users at a time, the limited version is fine.