MavericksWith the advent of cloud services for schools, the need for a full-bottle local web server has declined. However, if you do need a server in your school these notes may provide some assistance in setting up an OS X Server to provide the basic services required by K-12 schools.

The 10.9 notes below are not prescriptive, nor do they cover all the features that are available in OS X Server. These notes describe a ‘base’ configuration of OS X Server for schools, where the server is likely to be managed by a teacher without a deep technical support background.

 Alert Please note: As local schools move to cloud-based file services, such as Google Drive, the need for a local file-server is diminishing. For this reason the notes below are no longer being actively updated. It may be that all a school needs on the local network these days is a DHCP server and caching server?
   
OS X 10.9 Server – Install & Configure
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Installing Mavericks Server

  • Installing server software;
  • Configuring initial setup options;
  • Installing WorkGroup Manager
PDF Configuring DNS
  • Adjusting default configuration;
  • Adding zone machines;
  • Checking hostname;
  • Setting up forwarders;
  • Testing Domain Name Service lookup.
PDF Configuring DHCP
  • Configuring your server to provide a Dynamic Host Control Protocol service (automatic IP addresses) to computers and mobile devices on your local network.
PDF Configuring Open Directory
  • Creating a network directory for your network users and shared folders.
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Creating Home Folder Directories

  • Creating and designating folders that will contain network users’ Home Folders.
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Creating Shared Group Folders

  • Creating a Groups Folder;
  • Adding sub-folders for student and teacher groups to share resources.
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Creating Groups

  • Creating Groups for user management and resource sharing;
  • Mounting the Groups folder at login.
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Group Folder Permissions

  • Setting folder access permissions on sub-folders in the Groups folders.
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Adding Users

  • Creating network users;
  • Allocating users’ network Home folders;
  • Organising users into Groups.
10.9 Open Directory – Client login
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Configuring network computers for OD access

  • OS X 10.9 clients

See also:

PDF Managing Preferences
  • Setting up a common desktop environment for students and teachers.
wazmacWazza’s OS X Server Setup Notes – 10.9