May 9, 2014 ~ Network Services

Summary In this chapter, you learned about the various client- and server-related topics for four main network operating systems: Windows, NetWare, UNIX, and the Mac OS. For each, you learned about client support, interoperability, authentication, file and print services, application support, and security. First, you learned about Windows...

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Security The Mac OS offers reliable security. Mac OS X has local user account security built in as part of the OS. Network security has also been taken into account. Many services that would be susceptible to a hack are turned off by default, so a Mac is more secure than other OSes right out of the box. Additionally, there are many...

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Application Support Mac OS X has a unique position as far as application support is concerned. It can run older Mac OS applications as well as those written specifically for Mac OS X. Plus, it can run some UNIX and X Window System applications, provided they support the Mac OS kernel. The Mac OS X platform, because of its UNIX underpinnings,...

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File and Print Services The Mac OS can perform many functions on a network. In addition to being a client, a Macintosh can be a file and print server using AppleShare (Apple’s proprietary networking software) as well as an Internet server using various Apple and third-party software. The advantage of having a Macintosh as a server is that...

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Authentication Authentication for Mac OS X is handled through the Kerberos authentication mechanism, which makes Mac OS X ideal in a networked environment. Additionally, Mac OS X includes a feature known as the keychain. The keychain is a storage location for all the passwords you might use on the Internet (website passwords, FTP passwords,...

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Interoperability As a server platform, the Mac OS is reliable and fairly scalable. It really can’t compete with the largest UNIX and high-end server platforms in the enterprise, but it makes for a good workgroup web server platform. In that respect, the Mac OS is compatible with many different clients. As a client, though, there is one...

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Client Support The Mac OS on the whole as a server platform is only somewhat limited in its client support. As you would expect, the Mac OS X Server supports Mac clients but, with its latest versions, includes Samba so that Windows clients can authenticate to a Mac OS X Server. Also, the Mac OS X Server can function beautifully as an Internet...

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Summary
In this chapter, you learned about the various client- and server-related topics for four main network operating systems: Windows, NetWare, UNIX, and the Mac OS. For each, you learned
about client support, interoperability, authentication, file and print services, application support, and security.
First, you learned about Windows Server and its prevalent use as an application server platform. You learned of its extreme ease of administration and shallow learning curve. Next, you
learned about Novell NetWare and its former dominance in the networking market. You learned of its flexibility in client support, ease of administration (using eDirectory), and scalability. Then
you learned that UNIX (and Linux) has great power but more complex administration. You also learned of its different flavors and their main applications. Finally, you learned about the Mac OS
X and its ease of use as well as its presence in the networking arena. Although it is easy to use, the enterprise has not yet adopted it as a standard client platform.

Security
The Mac OS offers reliable security. Mac OS X has local user account security built in as part of the OS. Network security has also been taken into account. Many services that would be susceptible to a hack are turned off by default, so a Mac is more secure than other OSes right out of the box. Additionally, there are many third-party security products (including some that
implement Kerberos security, which is the type used by Windows 2000) that can make the Mac OS extremely secure over the network.

AppleShare IP: History

No discussion of Mac OS X Server would be complete without at least a brief discussion of
AppleShare IP. AppleShare IP is basically the file and printer services of AppleShare (which traditionally ran over AppleTalk) configured to run over TCP/IP for cross-platform file sharing. It was released with AppleTalk version 5 and was developed as a response to the networking and computer industries’ move toward TCP/IP as the standard networking protocol and away from NOS-specific protocols like IPX/SPX and AppleTalk. AppleShare IP has been upgraded several times and has now been incorporated into Mac OS X Server

Application Support
Mac OS X has a unique position as far as application support is concerned. It can run older Mac OS applications as well as those written specifically for Mac OS X. Plus, it can run some UNIX
and X Window System applications, provided they support the Mac OS kernel. The Mac OS X platform, because of its UNIX underpinnings, makes for a very reliable workgroup
and small business server. Therefore, many application developers are making small business suite packages for Mac OS X Server. In addition, Mac OS X Server comes with the Apache web server and MySQL 4, a very powerful open source web platform for developing databasedriven websites.

File and Print Services
The Mac OS can perform many functions on a network. In addition to being a client, a Macintosh can be a file and print server using AppleShare (Apple’s proprietary networking software)
as well as an Internet server using various Apple and third-party software. The advantage of having a Macintosh as a server is that it is extremely easy to administer. It is so easy, in fact, that many first-time users have no problems networking Macs and making them into file (or other) servers. Also, in small companies where there isn’t a budget for an IT staff or money for outsourced support, a Mac OS server can be managed by existing staff.

Authentication
Authentication for Mac OS X is handled through the Kerberos authentication mechanism, which makes Mac OS X ideal in a networked environment. Additionally, Mac OS X includes
a feature known as the keychain. The keychain is a storage location for all the passwords you might use on the Internet (website passwords, FTP passwords, etc.) or anywhere. When a user
authenticates to the system, that procedure unlocks the keychain. From then on, any time the user revisits a location that has credentials stored in the keychain, the keychain will automatically
provide them on behalf of the user. In addition to Kerberos and the keychain, Mac OS X and newer versions include support for
Apple’s Open Directory. Open Directory is a directory much like Microsoft’s Active Directory and Novell’s eDirectory. It allows all users to authenticate to a central database of users so a user has to authenticate only once to the Directory. From then on, the security settings stored in the Directory for that user dictate what parts of the network can be accessed and under which conditions.

Interoperability
As a server platform, the Mac OS is reliable and fairly scalable. It really can’t compete with the largest UNIX and high-end server platforms in the enterprise, but it makes for a good workgroup
web server platform. In that respect, the Mac OS is compatible with many different clients. As a client, though, there is one major problem with the Mac OS: The predominant business client platform is the Windows platform. As such, most business applications are written for that platform, and translations of all those applications for the Mac OS are few and far between. Still, there are

translations of the most popular business applications (e.g., Microsoft Word) for the Mac OS that make it viable to use in the workplace. Another compatibility and interoperability benefit is the support of other server operating systems for Mac OS clients. Windows NT and 2000 have built-in support for Mac OS clients.
In fact, the support is so good that Mac OS clients can’t tell the difference between a Windows server with Mac OS file and print support and an actual Macintosh server. Novell NetWare has

similar support for Mac OS clients, as previously mentioned in this chapter.

Client Support
The Mac OS on the whole as a server platform is only somewhat limited in its client support. As you would expect, the Mac OS X Server supports Mac clients but, with its latest versions,
includes Samba so that Windows clients can authenticate to a Mac OS X Server. Also, the Mac OS X Server can function beautifully as an Internet server because the core of Mac OS X is UNIX. And, as you might well expect, a UNIX server of any kind makes an excellent Internet server because of the close ties with TCP/IP.

Friday, May 9, 2014

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