wazmac || Wazza's 10.9 (Mavericks) Server Setup Notes

With 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.

	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
	Installing Mavericks Server	Installing server software; Configuring initial setup options; Installing WorkGroup Manager
	Configuring DNS	Adjusting default configuration; Adding zone machines; Checking hostname; Setting up forwarders; Testing Domain Name Service lookup.
	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.
	Configuring Open Directory	Creating a network directory for your network users and shared folders.
	Creating Home Folder Directories	Creating and designating folders that will contain network users’ Home Folders.
	Creating Shared Group Folders	Creating a Groups Folder; Adding sub-folders for student and teacher groups to share resources.
	Creating Groups	Creating Groups for user management and resource sharing; Mounting the Groups folder at login.
	Group Folder Permissions	Setting folder access permissions on sub-folders in the Groups folders.
	Adding Users	Creating network users; Allocating users’ network Home folders; Organising users into Groups.
10.9 Open Directory – Client login
	Configuring network computers for OD access	OS X 10.9 clients See also: 10.7 Client Config 10.6 Client Config 10.5 Client Config
	Managing Preferences	Setting up a common desktop environment for students and teachers.