Essential Mac OS X Panther Server Administration

Chapter 1. Designing Your Server Environment

Installation seems like such a benign thing, and traditionally, in the Mac OS world, it has been: sit down in front of the server, insert the install CD, format the drive, install, and repeat. Largely unchanged since the word CD replaced floppy, server installation is a process most administrators and technical staff are familiar with, and if nothing else it seems like a logical—if also a very boring—way to begin a book. Unix administrators, however, have long had a number of other options: possibly still boring, but in any case much more powerful and flexible from a systems management standpoint. With Mac OS X, and especially with Mac OS X Server, many of these options make their way to the Mac world, often with Apple’s characteristic ease of use.

A second and very important aspect of this process is planning. Technology vendors—particularly Apple—endeavor to remove complexity from the computing experience, in many cases very successfully. Integration into heterogeneous environments, though, is still a complex issue with a number of facets. Good planning can go a long way towards reducing the number of headaches and unexpected speed bumps that administrators experience. Unfortunately, planning is a little-documented and often-neglected part of deployment. This chapter examines that pre-installation process, starting with purchasing and policy decisions and traveling down several feasible installation and configuration routes.

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