Mac OS X Server Version 10.4 Technology Overview August 2006 Technology Overview Mac OS X Server 2 Contents Page 3 Page 5 Page 7 Introduction New in Version 10.4 Operating System Fundamentals UNIX-Based Foundation 64-Bit Computing Advanced BSD Networking Architecture Robust Security Directory Integration High Availability Integrated Management Tools Server Admin Workgroup Manager Service Deployment and Administration Open Directory Server File and Print Services Mail Services Web Hosting Enterprise Applications Media Streaming iChat Server Software Update Server NetBoot and NetInstall Networking and VPN Distributed Computing Product Details Open Source Projects Additional Resources Page 10 Page 14 Page 29 Page 31 Page 35 Technology Overview Mac OS X Server 3 Introduction Mac OS X Server version 10.4 Tiger gives you everything you need to manage servers in a mixed-platform environment and to congure, deploy, and manage powerful network services. Featuring the renowned Mac OS X interface, Mac OS X Server streamlines your management tasks with applications and utilities that are robust yet easy to use. Apple's award-winning server software brings people and data together in innovative ways. Whether you want to empower users with instant messaging and blogging, gain greater control over email, reduce the cost and hassle of updating software, or build your own distributed supercomputer, Mac OS X Server v10.4 has the tools you need. The Universal release of Mac OS X Server runs on both Intel- and PowerPC-based Mac desktop and Xserve systems. The power and simplicity of Mac OS X Server are a reection of Apple's operating system strategy--one that favors open industry standards over proprietary technologies. It begins with a UNIX-based foundation built around the Mach microkernel and the latest advances from the open source BSD community. This foundation provides Mac OS X Server with a stable, high-performance, 64-bit computing platform for deploying server-based applications and services. Open source made easy Tiger Server is the fth major release of Mac OS X Server, providing standards-based workgroup and Internet services without the complexity of Linux or the cost inherent in other UNIX-based solutions. Instead of developing proprietary server technologies, Apple has built on the best open source projects: Samba 3, OpenLDAP, Kerberos, Postx, Apache, Jabber, SpamAssassin, and more. Mac OS X Server integrates these robust technologies and enhances them with a unied, consistent management interface. Powerful administrative tools permit novices to congure and maintain core network services, while providing the advanced features and functionality required by experienced IT professionals. Because it is built on open standards, Mac OS X Server is compatible with existing network and computing infrastructures. It uses native protocols to deliver directory services, le and printer sharing, and secure network access to Mac, Windows, and Linux clients. A standards-based directory services architecture o!ers centralized management of network resources using any LDAP server--even proprietary servers such as Microsoft Active Directory. The open source UNIX-based foundation makes it easy to port and deploy existing tools to Mac OS X Server. Technology Overview Mac OS X Server 4 Best of all, Mac OS X Server ts easily into IT budgets everywhere. A complete suite of workgroup and Internet services is included in the box, so network administrators can get started right away. Mac OS X Server is available in 10-client and unlimited-client editions. The unlimited-client edition does not require additional per-seat fees for connecting more users, making it an a!ordable solution for organizations of any size. Mac OS X Server: for supporting Mac and Windows workgroups, deploying powerful Internet services, and hosting enterprise applications--all with an ease of use that is uniquely Mac. Technology Overview Mac OS X Server 5 New in Version 10.4 Mac OS X Server v10.4 continues the Mac OS X tradition by delivering a world-class UNIX-based server solution that's easy to deploy and easy to manage. This latest release incorporates more than 100 open source projects and o!ers more than 200 new features. The key new features include: 64-bit applications. Mac OS X Server v10.4 brings the power of 64-bit computing to mainstream servers. Its 64-bit addressing o!ers access to massive amounts of memory, and its 64-bit optimized math libraries provide high-performance, extremely accurate mathematical calculations. These capabilities make Mac OS X Server the ideal platform for the most demanding databases and scientic, technical, and creative computing tasks. Access control lists. To provide greater le sharing exibility in mixed-platform workows, Apple has added support for access control lists (ACLs). With le system ACLs, any le object can be assigned multiple users and groups, including groups within groups. Each le object can also be assigned both allow and deny permissions, as well as a granular set of permissions for administrative control, read, write, and delete operations. For added security, Mac OS X Server v10.4 supports a le permission inheritance model, ensuring that user permissions are inherited when les are moved to the server and rewritten when les are copied to the server. Software Update Server. Now you can decide whether the users in your organization are notied of new Apple software updates. This gives administrators control over which updates and patches users install. By hosting your own Apple software update proxy/cache server, you will also save on network costs. Instead of each client computer having to download an update from Apple, all your clients can obtain updates from a single copy cached on your software update server. iChat Server. Mac OS X Server v10.4 includes a new iChat Server for secure instant messaging--designed for organizations that need to keep internal communication private. Your organization can dene its own namespace and use SSL encryption to ensure privacy. iChat Server works with Apple's popular iChat conferencing in Mac OS X client software, and it is compatible with open source Jabber clients available for Windows and Linux systems and popular PDAs. Weblog Server. With the emergence of weblogs, organizations now have a quick and easy way to share information. Weblog Server, included in Mac OS X Server v10.4, makes it simple to publish and syndicate these online journals. The predened blog themes and calendar navigation provide an intuitive interface for managing blogs. Individual users and groups can publish and access weblogs using only their normal browsers; no additional tools or technical expertise is required. That simplicity makes Weblog Server the perfect collaboration tool. Xserve and Xserve RAID Mac OS X Server unleashes the power of Xserve, Apple's rack-optimized server hardware. With phenomenal performance, massive storage capacity, high-bandwidth I/O, and integrated remote management tools, Xserve running Mac OS X Server is an unparalleled server solution for businesses, schools, and research centers. For even more storage, Xserve RAID o!ers a high-availability, high-performance storage solution in a 3U enclosure. Technology Overview Mac OS X Server 6 Xgrid. Mac OS X Server v10.4 includes Xgrid, the rst distributed computing architecture to be built into a desktop or server operating system. Xgrid makes it easy to turn an ad hoc group of Mac systems into a low-cost supercomputer by streamlining the process of assembling nodes, submitting jobs, and retrieving results. Scientists, animators, and digital content creators now have the opportunity to easily run a single job across multiple computers at once, dramatically improving performance and responsiveness. Ethernet link aggregation and network interface failover. Also known as IEEE 802.3ad, link aggregation allows you to congure multiple network interfaces to appear as a single interface, which can increase throughput and availability. First, link aggregation multiplies the potential I/O performance by the number of interfaces. For example, two 1-gigabit interfaces bonded together can provide up to 2 gigabits of aggregate network bandwidth, and four 1-gigabit interfaces can provide up to 4 gigabits. Second, link aggregation eliminates a potential single point of failure. If one interface fails, the remaining interface maintains the network connection. Gateway Setup Assistant. The new Gateway Setup Assistant helps you quickly and easily set up Mac OS X Server v10.4 to share a single Internet connection across a local network. The assistant eliminates the complexity of setting up network services by automating the process. All you have to do is make a few conguration choices when prompted. Adaptive junk mail ltering and virus detection. To protect your organization from unwanted mail and destructive viruses, Mac OS X Server v10.4 integrates two popular open source projects: SpamAssassin for adaptive junk mail ltering, and ClamAV for virus detection and quarantine. Technology Overview Mac OS X Server 7 Operating System Fundamentals Mac OS X Server has an open source, UNIX-based foundation that provides a stable, high-performance platform for deploying business-critical enterprise applications, services, and technologies. The core operating system at the heart of Mac OS X Server is known as Darwin. UNIX-Based Foundation Darwin provides Mac OS X Server with the stability, performance, and compatibility associated with UNIX. It's built around the Mach 3.0 microkernel, which is based on the OSF/mk project from the Open Software Foundation. The Mach kernel in Darwin provides services for memory management, thread control, hardware abstraction, and interprocess communication. It also brings advanced features critical to the operation of a server, including ne-grained multithreading, symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), protected memory, a unied bu!er cache, 64-bit kernel services, and system notications. Darwin also includes the latest technological advances from the open source BSD community. Originally developed at the University of California, Berkeley, BSD is the foundation of most UNIX implementations today. Darwin is based in large part on FreeBSD and includes the latest innovations from that development community. 64-Bit Computing 64-bit computing is the next big step in providing greater computing power to solve even the most challenging tasks. It gives scientists, engineers, and other power users the tools to address problems that are billions of times larger than the ones that can be solved with 32-bit systems. Mac OS X Server v10.4 brings the power of 64-bit computing to mainstream servers. Its 64-bit addressing o!ers access to massive amounts of memory, transcending the 4GB memory limitation of 32-bit systems. And its 64-bit optimized math libraries provide high-performance, extremely accurate mathematical calculations. These capabilities make Mac OS X Server the ideal platform for the most demanding databases and scientic, technical, and creative computing tasks. Technology Overview Mac OS X Server 8 Advanced BSD Networking Architecture Mac OS X Server incorporates industry-standard protocols and the latest in security standards to increase the performance and security of server deployments. Using the time-tested BSD sockets and TCP/IP stack, this advanced networking architecture ensures compatibility and integration with IP-based networks. The networking architecture in Mac OS X Server v10.4 includes advanced features critical to high-performance server operation and deployments. These include: · Multilink multihoming for hosting multiple IP addresses on one or more network interfaces · IPv6 to support the next generation of Internet addressing · IPSec for general-purpose protection of IP communications · IP over FireWire for ad hoc network deployments and system administration · Ethernet link aggregation and network interface failover (IEEE 802.3ad) for higher aggregated throughput and increased server availability · Virtual local area network (VLAN) tags that let you treat specied systems on di!erent physical LANs as though they were all on the same LAN · 802.1X network authentication for improved access security · Ethernet jumbo frames to increase network e"ciency and throughput Robust Security Mac OS X Server is built on a robust UNIX foundation that contains many security features in its core architecture. State-of-the-art, standards-based technologies protect your server, network, and data. These technologies include a built-in rewall with stateful packet analysis, strong encryption and authentication services, data security architectures, and support for access control lists (ACLs). Simple interfaces and conguration tools allow you to congure systems easily and securely. In fact, when you take an Apple server out of the box, it's a ...