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It’s official, Apple has announced that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server will be available this Friday, August 28th. Pricing on Unlimited-Client is now $499 and 10-Client appears to have gone the way of the Dodo.
Now that the ship-date has been set, you won’t be able to get it free with a new enrollment to the Apple Maintenance Program for Mac OS X Server, as mentioned regarding pre-ordering, but if you already have an AMP enrollment then you should get the upgrade shipped to you. Of course, if you purchased a qualifying Xserve on or after June 8th then you can get it for $9.95 via the Up-to-Date Program.
Apple released Security Update 2009-004 yesterday to fix an issue with the DNS Service:
By sending a maliciously crafted update message to the BIND DNS server, a remote attacker may be able to interrupt the BIND service. The issue affects servers which are masters for one or more zones, regardless of whether they accept updates[...] This update addresses the issue by properly rejecting messages with a record of type ‘ANY’ where an assertion would previously have been raised.
BIND is disabled by default in Mac OS X & Server, but if you’ve got the DNS Service enabled you’ll want to apply this update. Grab it for Leopard or Tiger Server (Universal) or pick it up via Software Update. It’s also available for Mac OS X client.
[Via Topicdesk]
Amazon has Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) Server
Of course, there are actually three ways to get Snow Leopard Server:
* – AMP itself costs either $499 or $999 for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Server 10-Client or Unlimited Client enrollments, respectively, but provides all OS updates (including major updates such as Snow Leopard Server) for 36 months.
Apple has the following updates for Mac OS X Server:
Mac OS X Server 10.5.8 Updater
This update includes the following improvements:
Further details available in this knowledge base article. Full and Combo updaters are available.
Security Update 2009-003
This Security Update is for Mac OS X Server 10.4.11 and coincides with the security updates found in Mac OS X Server 10.5.8. Full details are available in this knowledge base article.
While both PowerPC & Intel-specific updaters are also available, we’re linking to Security Update 2009-003 (Server Tiger Universal).
Let us know how you fare with either of these updates.
Update: Topicdesk has noted in their Newsletters and on Twitter that these updates can overwrite files related to custom installations of Apache, PHP, and GD, esp. those garnered through many of their tutorials. Performing the custom installation again after applying one of the aforementioned updates should do the trick.
Found this floating around in my Inbox this morning:
G5 xserve 2Ghz 3GB RAM, 80GB/500GB,
Rack mount APC 1500VA
Anthro 12U rack with 2 tap rails
Asking $1000, call Scott at Calais Design (Eight Zero Two-999-8914) and you’re more then welcome to say we referred you.
We previously wrote about some RAID rebuilding issues we were having and that the way around it was to reboot your computer into the OS X Installer disks, open up Terminal and enter in a string of commands.
Fortunately Apple has fixed an issue within the Disk Utility application that allows it to work as intended. Now you can simply drag new disks into a RAID set and click on the Rebuild button and it’ll work properly!
I just tried it out this weekend and it successfully rebuilt a degraded mirror RAID set!
Last week one of our database servers notified me that the main OS drive had less then 5% storage space. I loaded up one of my favorite tools, Grand Perspective to see what was taking up so much space. Sure enough, I had about 5-6GBs of space left, and there were about 20-25 files each 1-2GBs in-size. Each file was a log file for MySQL. These were each binary log files.
Following the same article on the MySQL website, I found out that it was possible to delete the log files without screwing anything up. Running the PURGE BINARY LOGS did so. Now it is possible to set log sizes, but since I really have no use for them I just stopped the logging all together.
You can do this by editing the following file:
/etc/my.cnf
Locate the following lines and then comment it out.
# Replication Master Server (default)
# binary logging is required for replication
#log-bin=mysql-bin
The next edition of Mac OS X Server, dubbed “Mac OS X Snow Leopard”, will include a few major enhancements and additions. I for one am hoping the Address Book server & the iCal server will become more group-ware based. The iCal server right now is, and I lightly say, TERRIBLE. It’s definitely a step in the right direction but I think it’s implemented poorly. How about you, what new feature in Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server are you most looking forward too?
iCal Server 2
iCal Server, a calendaring and scheduling service based on open standards, was the first commercial CalDAV calendar server. Snow Leopard Server follows up with the next major release of iCal Server, which includes group and shared calendars, push notifications, the ability to send email invitations to non-iCal Server users, and a browser-based application that lets users access their calendars on the web when they’re away from their Mac.
Collaboration
Leopard Server provided businesses with the power of online group collaboration through the use of wikis, blogs, mailing lists, and RSS feeds. Snow Leopard Server furthers collaboration with wiki and blog templates optimized for viewing on iPhone; content searching across multiple wikis; and attachment viewing in Quick Look. It also introduces My Page, which gives users one convenient place to access their web applications, receive notifications, and view activity streams.
Remote Access
Secure remote access to your business network has never been more critical than in today’s ncreasingly mobile world. Snow Leopard Server delivers push notifications to mobile users outside your firewall, and a proxy service gives them secure remote access to email, address book contacts, calendars, and select internal websites.
Multicore
More cores, not faster clock speeds, drive performance increases in today’s processors. Snow Leopard Server brings unrivaled support for multicore processors with “Grand Central,” a new set of built-in technologies that makes all of Mac OS X Server multicore aware and optimizes it for allocating tasks across multiple cores and processors. Grand Central also makes it much easier for developers to create programs that squeeze every last drop of power from multicore systems.
ZFS
For business-critical server deployments, Snow Leopard Server adds read and write support for the high-performance, 128-bit ZFS file system, which includes advanced features such as storage pooling, data redundancy, automatic error correction, dynamic volume expansion, and snapshots.
Podcast Producer 2
Podcast Producer 2, an end-to-end solution for encoding, publishing, and distributing high-quality podcasts, features an intuitive new workflow editor that leads you through all the key steps involved in creating a successful podcast. This includes everything from selecting videos, transitions, titles, and effects to adding watermarks and overlays to specifying encoding formats and target destinations — wiki, blog, iTunes U, Podcast Library — for your finished podcast. Support for dual-video source capture lets users record both a presenter and a presentation screen, allowing a picture-in-picture style ideal for podcasting lectures. Podcast Producer now includes Podcast Library, which lets you host locally stored podcasts and make them available for subscription by category via automatically generated Atom web feeds.
Mail Server
Mac OS X Server’s open standards-based mail service is the ideal server for small businesses or companies looking to bring email in-house. Snow Leopard Server dramatically increases its performance and scalability with an overhauled engine designed to handle thousands of simultaneous connections. Mail services have been enhanced to include server-side email rules and vacation messages.
Address Book Server
Introducing the first open standards-based Address Book Server, Snow Leopard Server makes it easier than ever to share contacts across multiple computers. Based on the emerging CardDAV specification, which uses WebDAV to exchange vCards, Address Book Server lets users share personal and group contacts across multiple computers and remotely access contact information without the schema limitations and security issues associated with LDAP.
64-bit
To accommodate the enormous amounts of memory being added to today’s servers, Snow Leopard Server uses 64-bit kernel technology to support breakthrough amounts of RAM — up to a theoretical 16TB, or 500 times what is possible today. More RAM makes server applications run faster and dramatically improves the total number of simultaneous network connections that can be made.
OpenCL
Another powerful Snow Leopard technology, OpenCL (Open Computing Language), makes it possible for developers to efficiently tap the vast gigaflops of computing power currently locked up in the graphics processing unit (GPU). With GPUs approaching processing speeds of a trillion operations a second, they’re capable of considerably more than just drawing pictures. OpenCL takes that power and redirects it for use in high-performance computing applications like genomics, video encoding, signal processing, and simulations of physical and financial models.
[Via Apple]
The past couple of days have seen a number of software updates related to Mac OS X Server, including Mac OS X Server 10.5.5 (combo):
- directory service reliability and authenticating new File Sharing connections
- binding and authentication in Active Directory environments
- editing Wiki content in Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer
- viewing Wikis and Blogs from an iPhone or iPod touch
- searching with Spotlight in the Finder and on the web
- sending ‘Welcome’ email messages to users in Server Preferences
- importing users and working with nested groups in Server Preferences
- randomization of DNS source ports and transaction IDs
- updating DNS information when server IP address changes occur
- hosting DHCP services
- supporting private events in iCal
- synchronizing Portable Home Directories
- enabling Software Update Server
- using SNMPv3 services
- hosting with WebObjects; update to version 5.4.3
- hosting mail services for users with long user names
- preventing mail server database corruption
- ensuring security of LDAP password hashes
- propagating password changes to Open Directory replicas
- creating and editing DNS records in Server Admin
- using System Image Utility to create NetBoot and NetInstall images
- creating augment directory records in Advanced server configuration
- using Managed Preferences when clients are bound to Active Directory
- providing RADIUS authentication to 802.11n-enabled AirPort Base Stations
And, of course, there’s the 10.5.5 Server Admin Tools to go with it:
Server Admin
- Server Admin can now correctly enable and show the status of RADIUS or Kerberos authentication for the PPTP VPN service.
- RADIUS service now reliably displays the primary IP address for 802.11n-enabled AirPort Base Stations.
- Server Admin can now sort by Value in the Zones tab of the DNS service.System Image Utility
- Fixes issues with certain options in the Apply System Configuration Settings action, including “Change ByHost settings”, “Apply Computer Name and Local Hostname”, and “Map clients to other directory servers”.
- The Add Packages and Post-Install Scripts action now works correctly when creating a NetInstall image from a volume.Workgroup Manager
- Improves browsing, adding, and removing computers to or from a computer group.
Last, but not least, Apple Remote Desktop Admin and client have been updated to version 3.2.2:
- Improved reliability with the Copy Items command.
- Upgrade Client Software command now uses unicast packets for improved reliability on some networks.
- Fixes to the Force Quit All Applications and Copy Items to Computer Automator actions.
Let us know any success or horror stories you may have related to these updates.
