Essential Mac OS X Panther Server Administration

Chapter 26. Managing Classic Mac OS Workstations Using Mac Manager

The classic Mac OS was not designed as a network operating system. Perhaps the most significant lack is that of a built-in directory services architecture, something that is fundamental to Mac OS X. This lack poses the question: how do you leverage the power of Open Directory to create a unified infrastructure when working with an operating system that doesn’t include a directory service architecture? The answer is Mac Manager.

Mac Manager consists of a server component that is installed with Mac OS X Server (though it is not enabled by default) and a client component that is installed on Classic Mac OS workstations. The current Mac Manager server component requires that the Mac Manager client software be the most recent version (2.2.2). This most recent version of the Mac Manager client requires Mac OS 9.1 or higher as a workstation operating system, as this was the first Mac OS version to offer full support for multiple users. Earlier Mac Manager versions enabled the support of both Mac OS 8 and 9 clients. In this chapter, we’ll examine the individual Mac Manager components and how they operate.

Mac Manager and Open Directory

Although Mac OS 9 has no built-in way to access Open Directory, it does include support for multiple local users, each with a local home folder that functions much like a Mac OS X home directory (local or network). The Mac OS 9 multiple users feature also includes the ability to created limited ...