Chapter 1: Installing and Configuring OS X Server - 14 Questions

Question 1

What are the minimum hardware requirements for installing OS X Lion Server?

Answer 1

The minimum requirements are:

• Mac with an Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, or Xeon processor
• 2 GB of RAM (more for high-demand servers running multiple services)
• 10 GB of available disk space

Question 2

What tool do you use to configure Lion Server if you have an unconfigured Lion Server?

Answer 2

You use the Server app to configure an unconfigured Lion Server.

Question 3

If you’re installing Lion Server on a Mac with Lion, what’s one configuration step you should take first?

Answer 3

You should configure your Mac with Lion to use a manually assigned IPv4 address.

Question 4

What are three kinds of names associated with your Lion Server, and what are they used for?

Answer 4

You can use the Server app to configure these three names:

• Computer Name: What appears in the Finder sidebar if your server offers file-sharing services.
• Bonjour name: Appended with .local and is used for services discovery.
• DNS host name: Computers and devices can access services offered by your Lion Server by using its DNS host name, even if they’re not on its local network, as long as the host name corresponds with an IPv4 address that is reachable and not blocked by firewalls.

Question 5

How can you install the Server app on an administrator computer?

Answer 5

You can use the Mac App Store to download the Server app to an administrator computer, or just copy the Server app to an administrator computer.

Question 6

What are three ways to keep Lion Server up to date with software?

Answer 6

You can:

• Log in to your Lion Server, and from the Apple menu, choose Software Update
• Use the Alerts section of the Server app to install available software updates
• Click Server Updates in the toolbar of Server Admin, select the update(s) to install, and then click Install

Question 7

What three applications can you use to display graphs of performance characteristics of your Lion Server?

Answer 7

The Server app, Server Admin, and the Server Status widget all display graphs.

Question 8

What’s the difference between a root certificate authority (CA) and an intermediate CA?

Answer 8

An intermediate CA’s public key certificate is signed by another CA. A root CA’s public key certificate is signed by itself. Note that there is a set of root CAs that Lion and Lion Server trust.

Question 9

What’s the problem with just using a self-signed SSL certificate?

Answer 9

Computers and devices that access services that use a self- signed SSL certificate will see a message that the SSL certificate is not trusted. It’s a security risk to teach users to just trust any SSL certificate that causes a warning.