Jon Brown - Developer, entrepreneur, and Apple technologist

10.6.8 Installing SSL Certificates Correctly

I am well aware of how to install and setup SSL certificates in OSX Server but that was not always the case. I am writing this how to for those less experienced who may find this article helpful. There are two types of SSL certificates, that you can use on your OSX Server. Self Signed Certificates are ones that are created on the server and are not digitally verified by a third party service. You can use these certificates to encrypt or secure your servers services but you will ultimately...

Jul 16, 2011

mail-server osx-system-administration rants

10.6.8 Server high CPU usage, hwmond culprit

It seems no matter how careful Apple is each OS update (especially server updates) reveals its own challenges for the user, that leaves them wishing that they had not left their stable platform for the bug fixes that made that update so desirable. the 10.6.8 server update was no different it claimed to fix such long time bugs as Server Side Rules which has been a thorn in the side of OSX Server Administrators everywhere who use OSX Servers as their primary email server. So many of us including myself,...

Jul 10, 2011

Solr, WordPress & OSX Server

I have long been a fan of WordPress and not so much a fan of the search engine functionality that comes boxed with it. As an Apple Systems Admin I have several WordPress websites running on several OSX Servers. One of the sites that I administer finally got to the size to where the search capabilities of WordPress fell short of the clients desire and I was forced to look into other avenues for searching. I came across, solar. Solr is an open source enterprise search server based on the...

Jun 28, 2011

leter-to-the-editor

Karl: Letter to the Editor

Occasionally I get emails from folks who need feedback on a particular issue or have a question regarding something that I have discussed in my blog. I usually offer my help or advice when I can but sometimes I feel like the community of readers may have a more unique take on the issue and offer a broader scope of advice. This is my first Letter to the editor post and I hope you enjoy it, please take a read and lets see if we cant help out. Hello Jon,...

Jun 28, 2011

Backing up the OD Master

Open directory on the Mac OSX Server platform is a great directory platform using Kerberos and LDAP however I have found that there are two steps to a flawless directory experience. Since the directory is such a delicate system I find it necessary to create a backup of the OD Master at least once a day in the event that something goes south you can restore from any day in the past with ease. The other method is to use OD Replicas, and to use them often. A replica is...

Dec 20, 2010

mail-server

OSX Server Mailman Tricks

We have been using XServes as our primary mail servers at my organization for about two years now, we upgraded from an older Linux system and we could not be happier, since moving over to the 10.6 platform, we have enjoyed almost no email downtime, very easy to manage mail system and of course all the goodies that you would expect to run, some of which I have already mentioned (Squirrelmail) and also Mailman. Through my time configuring the server, migrating data and through other requests I have compiled a...

Oct 2, 2010

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