OS X Server for Yosemite: Managing Setup and SSL Certificates

This chapter is from the book

Managing Apple Devices: Deploying and Maintaining iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite Devices, 2nd Edition

Learn More Buy

This chapter is from the book

This chapter is from the book 

Managing Apple Devices: Deploying and Maintaining iOS 8 and OS X Yosemite Devices, 2nd Edition

Learn More Buy

Exercise 4.1 Prepare Your Mac for OS X Server for Yosemite

In this exercise, you will configure your server computer in preparation for installing OS X Server on it.

You’ll use one of two options to configure a local administrator account, depending on whether you are performing these exercises independently or are in an instructor-led environment with a Mac computer that has already been set up.

In both situations, you’ll use System Preferences to configure Network and Sharing preferences. You will also download the student materials that you’ll use throughout this class. Finally, you will apply any necessary system software updates.

Challenge

Set up your server computer with a unique computer name. Download the student materials.

Considerations

The exercises in this guide are written so that the individual reader and the student in the instructor-led environment have a similar experience.

In a production environment, it is best practice to use your server’s fully qualified domain name. However, to make the exercises possible for those who cannot provide appropriate DNS records to computers and devices on their test network, the exercises in this guide use your server’s Bonjour .local name instead of a fully qualified domain name.

Solution

Use Your Client Computer to Confirm Lack of PTR Records

Before you configure your server Mac, use your client Mac to confirm that your DNS service does not provide a PTR record defining a host name for the primary IPv4 address your server will use.

1. On your client Mac, press Command–Space bar (or click the Spotlight icon in the upper-right corner of the screen) to reveal the Spotlight Search field.
2. In the Spotlight Search field, enter Network Utility.

3. Confirm that Network Utility is listed in the Top Hit section of the search results, and then press Return to open it.

   

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4. Click the Lookup tab.

5. In the “Enter an internet address to lookup” field, enter 10.0.0.n1 (where n is your student number; for example, student1 uses 10.0.0.11, student 6 uses 10.0.0.61, and student 15 uses 10.0.0.151).

   

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6. Click Lookup.

7. If the result field contains the text “The operation couldn’t be completed,” there is no PTR record for your server’s primary IPv4 address. You can continue with the next section, “Configure OS X on Your Server Computer.”

   

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8. If the result field contains a DNS name such as “servern.pretendco.com” (where n is your student number), the DNS server that you are using provides PTR records for your server’s primary IPv4 address, and you need to take additional actions before continuing with this exercise.

   

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   For best results when you perform the exercises on your test network, the DNS service for your server computer, your client computer, and your iOS device should not provide a PTR record for your server’s primary IPv4 address. If the DNS service does provide a PTR record for your server’s primary IPv4 address, here are two options you might try before continuing with the exercises in this guide:

• Configure your internal DNS server to not offer a PTR record for your server’s primary IPv4 address.
• Configure your test network’s DHCP service to use an external DNS service that does not offer a PTR record for your server’s primary IPv4 addresses.

• After you make one of the suggested changes, perform the previous step 5 again.

  If you cannot perform either of the previous options, perform the following to configure your server to use a .local Bonjour name even though there is a PTR record available for its primary IPv4 address:

• After you install OS X Server, select your server in the Server app sidebar, click the Overview tab, click Edit next to the Host Name field, click Next to start the Change Host Name assistant, and select Local Network in the Accessing Your Server pane. Click Next, enter server n .local in the Host Name field, and then click Finish.

  For experienced administrators, if you must use your server’s fully qualified domain name instead of its Bonjour .local name, replace every instance of a Bonjour .local name with your server’s fully qualified domain name throughout all of the exercises in this guide.

Configure OS X on Your Server Computer

Starting with a fresh installation of OS X is most convenient. If your Mac is at the Welcome pane when you turn it on, you can use the Option 1 section that follows. If you need to use an existing OS X system, skip to Option 2 so your Mac will be configured as expected for the rest of the exercises.

Option 1: Configure OS X on Your Server Computer with Setup Assistant

This option is necessary if your server computer has not already been set up, which is the situation in an instructor-led environment. If you are using a Mac with existing accounts, perform the steps in “Option 2: Configure an Existing OS X System for Your Server Computer” instead.

Ensure that you have OS X Yosemite installed on your server computer. If it isn’t already installed, install it now using the App Store, the Recovery HD, or a method specified by your instructor, and then continue when you reach the Welcome pane.

In this section, you’ll step through the OS X Setup Assistant for the initial system configuration of your server computer.

1. Ensure that your computer is connected to a valid network connection, unless you plan to use Wi-Fi as your primary network connection.
2. If necessary, turn on the Mac that will run OS X Server.
3. At the Welcome screen, select the appropriate region, and click Continue.

4. Select the appropriate keyboard layout, and click Continue.

   Setup Assistant evaluates your network environment and tries to determine whether you are connected to the Internet. This can take a few moments.

5. If you plan to use Ethernet for your primary network connection and are not asked about your Internet connection, your computer’s network settings have already been configured via DHCP, and you may skip to step 8.

   If you plan to use Wi-Fi for your primary network connection and are at the Select Your Wi-Fi Network screen, select an appropriate Wi-Fi network, provide the Wi-Fi network’s password if necessary, click Continue, and skip to step 8.

6. If you are at the How Do You Connect screen, select Local network (Ethernet), and click Continue.

7. If you are at the Your Internet Connection screen, leave the settings at their defaults, and click Continue.

   NOTE

   If no DHCP service is available or your network is not connected to the Internet, you will see the warning message “Your Mac isn’t connected to the internet.” In this case, click Try Again, configure your router to provide DHCP service, and make sure your network is connected to the Internet. Then click Continue in the Your Internet Connection pane. For advanced users on a network without DHCP, you can set your TCP/IP connection type to Manually, configure settings appropriate for your network, and then click Continue in the Your Internet Connection pane.

8. When asked about transferring information to this Mac, select “Don’t transfer any information now,” and click Continue.

9. At the Sign in with Your Apple ID screen, select “Don’t sign in,” click Continue, and then click Skip to confirm that you want to skip signing in with an Apple ID.

   Note that if you do provide Apple ID credentials, some figures in upcoming exercises may look slightly different, and there may be extra steps. In an instructor-led environment, entering an Apple ID at this time is not recommended.

10. At the Terms and Conditions screen, when you have finished reading, click Agree.
11. In the OS X Software License Agreement confirmation dialog, click Agree.

Create your local administrator account.

1. In the Create Your Computer Account pane, enter the following information:

   • Full Name: Local Admin
   • Account Name: ladmin
   • Password: ladminpw
   • (verify field): ladminpw
   • Hint: Leave blank.
   • Deselect the checkbox “Set time zone based on current location.”

   If you are performing the exercises independently and if your server is accessible from the Internet, you can select a more secure password for the Local Admin account. Be sure to remember the password you have chosen because you will need to reenter it periodically as you use this computer.

   If you are performing the exercises independently, you may provide a password hint if you want.

   If you entered your Apple ID, you can select or deselect the checkbox “Allow my Apple ID to reset this user’s password”; it does not have a major effect on the exercises.

   NOTE

   In a production environment, always use a strong password.

2. Click Continue to create the local administrator account.
3. At the Select Time Zone screen, click your time zone in the map or choose the nearest location in the Closest City pop-up menu, and then click Continue.
4. At the Diagnostics & Usage screen, leave selected “Send diagnostics & usage data to Apple” and “Share crash data with app developers,” and then click Continue.

Please skip the Option 2 section, and continue at the section “Set the Computer Name and Turn On Remote Management.”

Option 2: Configure an Existing OS X System for Your Server Computer

This option is designed only for those who are performing the exercises independently and who have a computer that is already set up with an existing administrator account.

If your computer has not been set up (that is, if the initial administrator account has not been created), perform the steps in “Option 1: Configure OS X on Your Server Computer with Setup Assistant” instead.

Create a new administrator account in System Preferences.

1. If necessary, log in with your existing administrator account.
2. Open System Preferences.
3. In System Preferences, open Users & Groups.
4. In the lower-left corner, click the lock icon.
5. In the dialog that appears, enter the password for your existing administrator account, and then click Unlock.
6. Click the Add (+) button under the user list.

7. In the dialog that appears, use the following settings:

   NOTE

   Make sure you create this account as specified here. If you do not, future exercises may not work as written. If you already have an account named Local Admin or ladmin, you will have to use a different name here and then remember to use your substitute name throughout the rest of the exercises. Highlighted text is used throughout this guide to indicate text you should enter exactly as shown.

   • New Account: Choose Administrator.
   • Full Name: Local Admin
   • Account Name: ladmin
8. Select “Use separate password.”

9. If your server is not accessible from the Internet, enter ladminpw in the Password and Verify fields.

   If you are performing the exercises independently, you can select a more secure password for the Local Admin account. Be sure to remember the password you have chosen because you will need to reenter it periodically as you use this computer.

   You may provide a password hint if you want.

   If you entered your Apple ID, you can select or deselect the checkbox “Allow my Apple ID to reset this user’s password”; it does not have a major effect on the exercises.

   NOTE

   In a production environment, always use a strong password.

10. Click Create User.
11. At the bottom of the user list, click Login Options.
12. If an account is selected for Automatic Login, use the pop-up menu to switch it to Off.
13. Quit System Preferences, and log out.
14. At the login screen, select the Local Admin account, and enter its password (ladminpw, or whatever you specified earlier).
15. Press Return to log in.

This is the end of Option 2; everyone should continue with the next section.

Set the Computer Name

You will specify a computer name associated with your student number. If you are performing the exercises independently, you can choose to skip this section.

1. Open System Preferences.
2. Open Sharing.

3. Set Computer Name to server n, replacing n with your student number.

   For example, if your student number is 17, the computer name should be server17 (all lowercase and no spaces).

   

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4. Press Return.

   Notice that the name listed under the Computer Name field, which is the local host name, updates to match your new computer name.

Turn On Remote Management

Enable Remote Management, which will allow the instructor to observe your computer, control your keyboard and mouse, gather information, copy items to your computer, and otherwise help you if necessary.

1. Click somewhere over the phrase “Remote Management,” but don’t select the checkbox yet.
2. For “Allow Access for,” select “Only these users.”
3. Click the Add (+) button, select Local Admin, and click Select.
4. In the dialog that appears, hold down the Option key while selecting the Observe checkbox, which selects all the checkboxes.
5. Click OK.
6. Select the checkbox Remote Management.
7. Confirm that the Sharing pane displays the text “Remote Management: On” and displays a green status indicator next to the text.
8. Click Show All (looks like a grid) to return to the main System Preferences pane.

Configure Network Interfaces

It is best practice to configure your network settings before you initially install and configure OS X Server. To keep the setup as simple as possible for all situations, for this course your Apple devices will access your server’s services via Bonjour, rather than via DNS names.

1. In System Preferences, click Network.

2. In the instructor-led environment, configure your Mac computer’s built-in Ethernet port (or its Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter port) to be the only active network service.

   NOTE

   You may leave your Wi-Fi network interface turned on, but not joined to any network, to use AirDrop.

   If you are performing the exercises independently, you may leave additional interfaces active, but be aware that this may cause differences between the way the exercises describe the windows and what you actually see.

   In the list of network interfaces, select each network interface that you will not use in the exercise (which should be all interfaces except one Ethernet port), click the Action (gear icon) pop-up menu, and choose Make Service Inactive.

3. If you will use multiple network interfaces, click the Action (gear icon) pop-up menu, choose Set Service Order, drag the services to an appropriate order so that your primary interface is at the top of the list, and click OK.
4. Select the active Ethernet interface.
5. Click Advanced.
6. Click the TCP/IP tab.
7. In the Configure IPv4 pop-up menu, choose Manually.

8. In the instructor-led environment, enter the following information to manually configure the Ethernet interface (IPv4) for the classroom environment:

   • IP Address: 10.0.0. n 1 (where n is your student number; for example, student1 uses 10.0.0.11, student 6 uses 10.0.0.61, and student 15 uses 10.0.0.151)
   • Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

   • Router: 10.0.0.1

     

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   If you are performing the exercises independently and choose to use different network settings, see the “Exercise Setup” section in Lesson 1.

9. Click the DNS tab.
10. Even though you just switched Configure IPv4 from DHCP to Manually, you did not yet apply the change, so values assigned by DHCP are listed, but once you click Apply, those values will not remain unless you deliberately add them.
11. In the DNS Servers field, click Add (+).

12. In the instructor-led environment, enter 10.0.0.1.

    If you are performing the exercises independently, enter the value or values appropriate for your environment.

13. If there are any other values in the DNS Servers field, select another value, and then click Delete (–) to delete the value; do this until 10.0.0.1 (or your desired values if you are performing the exercises independently) is the only value in the DNS Servers field.
14. Click OK to save the change and return to the list of network interfaces.

15. Review the settings, and then click Apply to accept the network configuration.

    

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16. Click Show All (looks like a grid) to return to the main System Preferences pane.

Update Software

To take advantage of possible fixes and improvements, be sure that you’re running the most recent version of OS X. If a local Caching service is available, your Mac will automatically use it.

1. While still in System Preferences, open App Store preferences.
2. Select the checkbox “Install app updates.”
3. Select the checkbox “Install OS X updates.”

4. If the button at the bottom of the window is Check Now, click Check Now.

   If the button at the bottom of the window is Show Updates, click Show Updates.

5. If you are in an instructor-led environment, ask your instructor what updates are appropriate to install; otherwise, if there are any updates, click Update All.

   If there are no updates available, press Command-Q to quit the App Store, quit System Preferences, skip the rest of this section, and continue with the section “Download the Student Materials.”

6. If the “Some updates need to finish downloading before they are installed” dialog appears, click Download & Restart.

   If the Restarting Your Computer notification appears, click Restart; after your Mac restarts, you will be automatically logged back in.

7. Quit the App Store.
8. Quit System Preferences.

Download the Student Materials

Some files are necessary for the completion of some of the exercises. You have already downloaded them to your server computer, but you should also have them available on your client computer. If you are in an instructor-led environment, you can use the Option 1 section that follows. Otherwise, skip to Option 2.

Option 1: Download the Student Materials in the Instructor-Led Environment

If you are performing the exercises independently, skip to “Option 2: Download the Student Materials for the Independent Reader.”

If you are in an instructor-led environment, you will connect to the classroom server and download the student materials used for the course. To copy the files, you’ll drag the folder to your Documents folder.

1. In the Finder, choose File > New Finder Window (or press Command-N).

2. In the Finder window sidebar, click Mainserver.

   If Mainserver does not appear in the Finder sidebar, in the Shared list, click All, and then double-click the Mainserver icon in the Finder window.

   Because Mainserver allows guest access, your client computer logs in automatically as Guest and displays the available share points.

3. Open the Public folder.
4. Drag the StudentMaterials folder to the Documents folder in the sidebar.
5. Once the copy is complete, disconnect from Mainserver by clicking Eject next to the Mainserver listing.

Skip the Option 2 section that follows, and resume with the section “Install the Server App.”

Option 2: Download the Student Materials for the Independent Reader

If you are in the instructor-led environment, skip this section.

If you are performing the exercises independently, copy the student materials from your client or download the materials from Peachpit’s site, and place them in your Documents folder.

If both of your Mac systems have AirDrop enabled, you can use AirDrop to copy the StudentMaterials folder from your client to your server computer. Click AirDrop in a Finder window on each Mac. On your client computer, open a new Finder window, open your Documents folder, drag the StudentMaterials folder to the picture for your server computer in the AirDrop window, and then click Send. On your server computer, click Save. When the transfer has completed, open the Downloads folder, and drag StudentMaterials to your Documents folder in the Finder window sidebar. Finally, close the AirDrop window on your client computer and on your server computer.

Another option is to use a removable disk. If you have a USB, FireWire, or Thunderbolt disk, you can connect it to your client, copy the StudentMaterials folder from your local administrator’s Documents folder to the volume, eject the volume, connect the volume to your server computer, and drag the StudentMaterials folder to your Documents folder in the Finder window sidebar.

Alternatively, you can download the files from Peachpit again using the following steps:

1. Using Safari, open www.peachpit.com, and click the Account link or Account Sign In link at the top right of the home page to access your Peachpit account.
2. Click the Lesson & Update Files tab.
3. Click the lesson file links to download the appropriate files to your computer, which places the materials in your Downloads folder.
4. In the Finder, choose File > New Finder Window (or press Command-N).
5. Choose Go > Downloads.
6. Double-click the StudentMaterials.zip file to decompress the file.
7. Drag the StudentMaterials folder from your Downloads folder to your Documents folder in the sidebar.
8. Drag the StudentMaterials.zip file from your Downloads folder to the Trash in the Dock.

In this exercise, you used System Preferences and the Finder to configure OS X on your server computer in preparation for installing OS X Server.