Using Mac OS X Lion Server

Chapter 3. Sharing and Backing Up Files

Once a server has been installed, it’s time to start setting up the service or services that run on it. And sharing files is the most important aspect of most servers. File sharing is used to provide a centralized repository for any type of file, whether a presentation, homework, a spreadsheet used to track bills, or even a shopping list to help you remember the milk. You can then control who can open, edit, or delete files to keep each user from having inappropriate access to files and folders that are shared from the server.

There are two aspects of file sharing that are important to consider. The first is controlling access to who can do what by managing the permissions on the files. We will cover permissions first, as files do not need to be shared until the appropriate permissions have been set. The second aspect of sharing files is actually enabling the file shares and configuring settings specific to those shares.

Once we have covered setting up the server itself, we’ll move on to connecting to the server from client systems. These systems include Mac OS X (Lion), iOS (iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch), and even Windows. Each of the supported platforms uses a different protocol (by default) to connect to the server. Windows uses SMB (Samba), Mac OS X uses AFP (Apple File Protocol), and iOS uses WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning), which is based on the classic HTTP protocol so heavily used for web traffic. Finally, we’ll ...