Recently , I had a chance to pose down with a few common people from Apple who give me a maneuver tour of Apple ’s approaching server operating organization , which is slate for release sometime in the leaping of 2007 . Mac OS X Server 10.5 , or Leopard , will be the 7th freeing of the host operating system of rules since 2000 and the 2nd adaptation to run natively on Intel processors .
Since the release of thenew maneuver systemis not too far around the turning point , be indisputable to purchase server sustenance , which provides 36 months of upgrades for $ 999 . give the release chronicle , that could tun into three upgrade for the price of one — a very good muckle .
Overview
Leopard server is a 64 - bit operating system that can seamlessly run 32 - bit app and extension . Unlike other operating systems , there is just one version of the software system , and any app and driver , be it 64- or 32 - routine , will pass natively and without penalty .
This iteration of the server operating system is not just Unix - based , but will be certified as UnixAE , intend that it can lean any Unix - certified lotion after being recompiled for the chopine and does not command any modification to software programming interfaces or other code . Included in Leopard Server will be 64 - scrap versions of MySQL 4 , MySQL 5 , Apache 2 and improved 64 - bit edition of Postfix and Cyrus for chain armour treatment .
Installation
The frame-up show that there are two core audiences : professional IT / datum centre workers and the little business / workgroup environment . you may choose to make the box as a unsubdivided digest - alone server that uses only the basic services , you may select to be in a workgroup environment where the host will mechanically desegregate with an existing directory server and ring mail system , or IT pros can choose advanced setup and customize the server build as they have always done .
A new feature called connection health check will question the address and ports expect for selected services and inform the administrator of availableness payoff prior to executing the build . As part of the resist - alone build for small and midsize businesses , the executive can define user news report during the build . The workgroup chassis permit the decision maker to spell drug user account from an existing directory service system , pointing to that account for assay-mark , not copy it . When node machines are built and connected to the server , their account selective information and configurations will mechanically be push out to the client auto , simplify apparatus and the overall administration operation .
Administration
Keeping with the two - user - community of interests theme , Leopard Server has two sets of administration shaft : Server Prefs and Server Admin .
Server Prefs are modeled after the system of rules preference ascendence system and have a specify set of choices and selection for controlling the server , providing only the truly necessary control for canonical governance . There is a simple way to deal user and group membership and a novel directory management program .
Server Admin is the full - featured organization puppet now included with the OS X server ; it admit a few new options that are in contrast with the added service provided in OS X Server 10.5 . Most notably , there is true tiered and distributed administration capability , which allows a crack administrator to distribute rights to servers , service and users — not just divine service and users as was the case in prior release .
Other feature of speech that Leopard Server users will value are a Dashboard widget for monitor the server at a glimpse and an adaptative firewall . That second one is a big deal . Firewall rules are notoriously complex for most administrator , and respond to attack while still furnish service can be quite a resourcefulness drainage . The adaptive firewall will activate the ports required for services that are dynamic on the server . It will also do thing like supervise authentication challenges and SSH attempts . If a door is extend to , the firewall will mechanically put a linguistic rule - blocking service on that port . After a set period , it will take away that rule and check for continued offending deportment . Furthermore , it will make log entries and alert an administrator .
This is a boon to anyone without extensive certificate resource — in other words , most of us — and is helpful to anyone who is not monitoring his web interface cards at some gunpoint in a 24 - hour period ( again — most of us ) .
Finally on the administration front is the most significant administrative instrument on any server : the backup system . Leopard Server will contain Apple ’s Time Machine computer software as its computer backup system , enabling an administrator to easily configure , backup and restore files . Moreover , it will include a backup feature of speech so that after a catastrophic bankruptcy involve the operating system drive , a backup can be touch on to the desired point in sentence during the lock system of rules anatomy outgrowth — not as a postbuild military action . That make restoration a less complex and time - consuming outgrowth , something any admin who is sweating his way through restoring a crashed organization will appreciate .
New services, odds and ends
One of the first major raise in services for Leopard Server is in the Spotlight service , which will preindex all server content — including attach private road — thus place less of a payload on the organization when queried . More significantly , Spotlight Server will now abide by access control lists so that when your user conduct hunting on your storage - area web loudness , they wo n’t get any answer that their permission degree prevent them from seeing .
There is also a Podcast Producer service that will allow an conclusion user to remotely record audio and video via a workflow engine . This same locomotive engine does H.264 encoding and is Xgrid aware , give up the production system to descale across many server . And of course , there is an auto publish feature that will integrate with the other collaboration servicing .
talk of quislingism armed service , Leopard waiter will have the weblogs and mail available in the current OS X server operating system , plus they are add a dim-witted listserver administration , a calendaring waiter and a wiki . There will also be musical accompaniment for postal service clump using an XSAN mass , something Apple has been unwilling to plunk for in its current version .
The Calendar server , iCal server , supports the CalDAV standard and will integrate with Mozilla , GroupWise and Outlook . The wiki is establish on Subversion and employ that back - end system with an Apple - write front end . This entail the end exploiter will not have to learn wiki tags and it will be driven by Asynchronous JavaScript and XML with drag - and - drop tagging .
The entire collaboration system will allow users and workgroups to easily post and share information .
The verdict (so far)
Leopard server promise to be an exciting release with many new features for both the enterprise and modest - business surroundings .
VisitComputerworld ’s Macintosh Knowledge Center .
