Posts Tagged ‘Server’

Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.5.8

Friday, August 7th, 2009

Apple have released the final update to Leopard before the release of Snow Leopard. Mac OS X 10.5.8. Both client and server versions are available.

The fix list includes:

  • Upgrades Safari to version 4.0.2.
  • Improves the accuracy of full history search in Safari 4.
  • Resolves an issue in which certain resolutions might not appear in the Display pane in System Preferences.
  • Dragging an Aperture image into Automator now invokes an Aperture action instead of incorrectly invoking an iPhoto action.
  • Resolves an issue that could prevent importing of large photo and movie files from digital cameras.
  • Improves overall Bluetooth reliability with external devices, USB webcams and printers.
  • Addresses an issue that could cause extended startup times.
  • Improves iCal reliability with MobileMe Sync and CalDav.
  • Addresses data reliability issues with iDisk and MobileMe.
  • Improves overall reliability with AFP.
  • Improves overall reliability with Managed Client.
  • Improves compatibility and reliability for joining AirPort networks.
  • Improves Sync Service reliability.
  • Includes additional RAW image support for several third-party cameras.
  • Improves compatibility with some external USB hard drives.
  • Includes latest security fixes.

and on the server:

AFP Server

  • Fixes an issue that could cause the AppleFileServer process to keep the server’s processor busy even when no users are connected.

AFP Client

  • Fixes an issue that could cause an AFP client to indefinitely repeat unsuccessful attempts to reconnect to an AFP server after waking from sleep.

Managed Client

  • Fixes an issue that could prevent managed users from logging in on a PowerPC-based Mac after installing the Mac OS X v10.5.7 Update.
  • Improves reliability of synchronizing files from a portable home directory to a network home hosted on an SMB server.
  • Login Items stored in a user’s network home directory will now run properly at login.
  • Simultaneous login is now correctly disallowed if the “Allow simultaneous login” setting is unchecked.

Server Admin

  • Fixes an issue that could cause Server Admin to stop responding when propagating permissions.
  • Adds NetBoot/NetInstall model filters for Macs introduced in June 2009.

System Image Utility

  • Adds NetBoot/NetInstall model filters for Macs introduced in June 2009.

Addtional improvements

  • Improves Mac OS X Server security. For more information about the security content of Mac OS X Server v10.5.8 see this article.

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Apple Unveils Mac OS X Snow Leopard and Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Apple unveils Mac OS X Snow Leopard, a powerful new version of the world’s most advanced operating system that includes hundreds of refinements, new core technologies, out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange and new accessibility features. Snow Leopard will ship as an upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard users in September 2009. Apple also unveiled a Developer Preview of Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard, a full 64-bit UNIX server operating system based on open standards that is up to twice as fast as its predecessor

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Kerio Mailserver 6.7 released

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

following up on my 99.7% of all messages are now spam post, Kerio Technologies have announced a major update to their popular Mailserver product.

New features include:

- support for Global Address Lists (GALS) which will sync with your Microsoft Active Directory, or Apple Open directory infrastructure.

- Microsoft Entourage 2004/2008 auto configuration

- Private events in Apple iCal

- Spam Filter improvements

- Updated Mcafee anti virus engine

- Over the air push syncronisation to blackberry devices without the need for middleware

- IMAP migration tool, taking the pain out of migrating from older IMAP email servers.

This product just seems to get better and better. feel free to contact us, one of Kerio specialists will be happy to answer any questions on how our Kerio Mailserver solutions can provide you with a stable, secure platform that can handle all your email, contacts and calendaring needs.

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Apple release Mac OS 10.5.7 Update

Wednesday, May 13th, 2009

Apple have released the long awaited 10.5.7 update. This s more than likely going to be the last major update before the realease of Mac OS 10.6 (Snow Leopard) later this summer.

Highlights in this update are:

- Improves performance of video playback and cursor movements for recent Macs with NVIDIA graphics.
- Improves Finder search results for network volumes that may not support Spotlight searching
- Includes several improvements to Directory Service and Client Management.

for a full list of updates visit: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3397

Direct Downloads:

10.5.7 update ( Requires 10.5.6) here

10.5.7. combo update (updates any 10.5.x) here

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Parallels Desktop 4.0 Build 3844 released

Wednesday, May 6th, 2009

Parallels annouced today an update to their excellent Parallels Desktop Software. This software enables you to run multiple virtual machines on your Intel powered Mac. This has been great for training or lab testing environments, previously we’d have several machines, such as a Mac OS X Server, a Windows 2003 Server Windows XP/ Vista client and Mac OS Client all setup. Now we just need to deploy a single machine with that can run all these Operating systems simultaneously. & using the Template deployment ro snapshotting feature its easy to reset for the next class, or revert back to a previous system state when somethings gone wrong.

Parallels also has a Server product meaning you can run multiple Server OS’s on a single Mac OS based computer, this is really useful when there is a windows server requirment within a Mac environment.

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Group Logic ExtremeZ-IP 6.0 A propper AFP server on Windows

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

Group Logic announces the release of ExtremeZ-IP 6.0 an AFP server for Windows Servers.

Extreme-Z IP is a high performance AFP Fileserver that bridges the gap that Windows native SFM (Services for Macintosh) and Mac OS X’s native SMB/ CIFS client and create.

the 3 massive selling points for me are:

  • Performance – its way quicker than SFM & SMB/ CIFS which is justification for some alone
  • Full Microsoft DFS (Distributed File System) support
  • Mac OS X Spotlight support

for a full SFM comparison click here

for SMB/ CIFS please click here

Also please note the SFM has been removed from Windows Server 2008.

Mach One have been recommending Extreme-Z IP for many years & have always found it a very reliable product with excellent technical support. Extreme-Z IP is easy to install and configure and is a product we have used time and again when consulting on Macintosh integrating with Microsoft Active Directory, Network Home Directories and managed client environments. Please do contact us if you would like any advice or help on the above we can be emailed here

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Apple Updates Xserves with Nehalem Processors

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

As predicted, Apple has updated its Xserve range with the Nehalem processor. This brings the range upto date with the recent new Mac Pro Range.

Aside from a considerable increase in performance, Apple have also engineered this new Xserve to be far less power hungry, meaning its better for the environment and will potentially cut your hosting bills too. This can be further enhanced by the optional 128GB Solid State Hard disk as a boot drive. This drive only consumes around 1 Watt of power where as the traditional SATA drive consumes 12-18 Watts. it also does not take up one of the 3 SATA drive bays meaning you can have upto 3TB of dedicated storage.

The new Xserve is available in Quad and 8 core models with either 6 (quad core) or 12 (8 core) RAM slots and options of 2.26GHz, 2.66GHz or 2.93GHz processor speeds

On interesting thing I’ve picked up on the tech specs page is the quote:

System supports up to 32GB in Mac OS X Server v10.5

Presumably 32Gb is a limit on 10.5, maybe snow leopard, 10.6 will offer full support for upto 48Gb RAM.

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CrushFTP 4.9.5 Released

Friday, March 27th, 2009

an update an old Mach One favorite Crush FTP has been released today.

Crush FTP is a cheap feature rich FTP server that supports many other protocols including FTP, SFTP, FTPS, HTTP, HTTPS, and WebDAV

for full details of whats included in this update visit:

http://www.crushftp.com/changes.html

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United Digital PCIe RAID first Look

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

So last week we took delivery of our first United Digital 9116 PCIe RAID.

Unlike traditional RAIDs that connect via either a SCSI or Fibre card the United Digital 91xx series connect directly to the PCIe bus of the host Mac. This pretty much eliminates bottlenecks caused by traditional connectivity methods.

I like the design of this raid. it has a very simple easy to use web management console, easy to set-up email notifications for if things go wrong.

The system I was testing was a 9116 a 16 bay subsystem comprising of 8 x 750Gb SATA Hard Disks. This was connected to a 2.8GHz Quad Core Mac Pro running Mac OS 10.5.6 & 6Gb RAM.

Using Xbench the results were astounding: I was getting a sustained read speed of 669 MB/sec & sustained write speed of 470 MB/sec. I compared this against an Xserve RAID (7 x 250Gb HDD @ RAID 5) which could only muster read/ write speeds of around 140Mb/sec.

With performance figures like these, couple this with 10Gb Ethernet we could potentially have a serious lower cost rival to Xsan systems.

United Digital 9116 PCIe RAID & Apple Mac Pro

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