Tiger burns bright

With OS X Server 10.4, Apple has eliminated performance-choking resource contention between processors in multiprocessor Macs. Users will see this as a substantial boost in file sharing performance, but it will also improve all Mac servers with heavy nonstreaming network and/or disk operations loads.

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The level of consistency and integration supplied by Apple’s management GUIs -- Server Admin and Workgroup Manager -- is remarkable. OS X Server 10.4 creates a genuine zero-effort server, replete with every Internet, intranet, and security service imaginable.

In the new server, starting configurations are more robust and additional configurability has been added. Support for new services -- including IM, Weblog, the Xgrid distributed workload manager and agents, and much stronger e-mail spam and virus guards -- are all wired into one interface, accessible both remotely and locally. For administrators who prefer or require it, OS X Server 10.4 enhances command-line administration tools, which were introduced late in the 10.3 lifecycle, with additional commands and documentation.

You needn’t understand how all of OS X Server 10.4’s services interact, how they are interdependent, how each is started and stopped, the location and format of their configuration files -- none of this is relevant to the server’s setup or operation. If you want an unaided, Real Unix experience for part or all of OS X Server 10.4, you have it.

I’ve got the chops to manage Unix by scripts and C code. Years ago, I’d have asserted my hardcore status by refusing to use idiot-level GUIs where command-line equivalents existed. I can manage OS X Server 10.4 the hard way, but I don’t do that just to prove I can. Still, there are times when my best connection to the Internet is through a Nokia Bluetooth phone, or when I need to script an operation to do more than once (I don’t have a library of Automator scripts built up yet), and the GUI is impractical. OS X 10.4 has command-line equivalents for every setting you can manipulate in Server admin, as well as some that aren’t available in the GUI.

As with all facilities in OS X Server 10.4, the command-line tools are implemented consistently, mostly through a command called serveradmin, without requiring familiarity with the way Apple configures a particular service.

File system security gets a boost from ACLs (access control lists), which attach an arbitrary list of users, groups, and associated permissions to folders. OS X Server 10.4 implements ACLs in a Windows-compatible manner. Unfortunately, the structure of the OS X file system precludes full compatibility with Unix ACLs; however, enough of the functionality is present to satisfy requirements and run most ACL-enabled Unix apps.

Apple’s directory services are based on LDAP, making them inherently compatible with all systems that browse and update directories through LDAP network interfaces. Apple added to OS X Server 10.4 the ability to masquerade as a Windows Server 2000 PDC (Primary Domain Controller) or BDC (Backup Domain Controller), making it a Windows server peer. It’s easier to enable than is a domain controller in Windows: In System Admin, I selected PDC as a role, typed in a Windows domain name, and after several seconds the domain appeared on my Windows XP and Windows 2003 machines, indistinguishable from native Windows.

The new Software Update Server asynchronously downloads fixes and point releases from Apple’s site and rehosts locally an administrator-determined collection of updates that clients receive automatically. OS X Server 10.4 simplifies the process of pushing updates, applications, and even new OS versions from the server to one or more clients without going near the client machine.

Roaring success
Tiger and OS X Server 10.4 have real value, not just in price but also in a shared principle: Professionals shouldn’t have to build, either from purchased or downloaded code, application platforms brick by brick. Users should start with a complete structure, ready to do real work, which they can enhance and take apart at will.

Trepidation about single-sourcing notwithstanding, BSD’s incomparable pedigree, Apple’s openness with its OS code, and its recognition that users, developers, and administrators get paid to work not to prepare to work will prove alluring to many. Seeing Tiger and OS X Server 10.4 as productivity platforms puts them in the proper, brilliant light.