Managing Users on an Apple Network

jank

Hi.

Im looking for some help regarding an IT solution I have to devise up. We have around 10 Apple Mac's in our office. All OSX.3 to .4.

What I want to know that is there software out there that can manage users from a central location.

I know I can create accounts on an induvidual Mac, create permissions etc etc like on a workgroup but is there a way to do this from a central location, much like Active Directory in Windows. I know there is some Server Software out there for Mac OSX but im looking for the cheaper option as i dont want to buy a server.

Also im looking for something that can regulate internet access aswell from a central location. i know there are loads of solution that are windows based but can you tell me of a few that are mac based.
Can i turn one of my macs into a proxy and install whatever software i need there?

Edit:Stop the press! can the following be installed on your average emac or imac so then i can do all what i wanted above?
http://cgi.ebay.com/MAC-OS-X-SERVER-10-3-4-TEN-CLIENT-EDITION-M9235Z-OSX_W0QQitemZ170081030456QQihZ007QQcategoryZ11231QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

WizZard

I've seen Mac Minis being offered on eBay with OS X Server on them, so I presume so...

jank

Thats the job!

One thing though. Does anybody know the difference between Mac OS X Server Power PC versions and Universal versions?

They stated quite regularly on ebay so it must be important.

Jank

Oriel

There are the same thing, however one is for Apple machine with an IBM PowerPC chip, and the Universal is for the new Intel x86 machines.
You need to make sure you have the right vesion or else you won't be able to install it.

jank

OK cheers mate.

I presume this only applies to the server itself and not the clients that may be connected onto the network.

WizZard

Yes, it's a hardware dependency for the server OS.

tonyboy247

No what you seen on ebay there is a poo pile for your needs ...sounds like you have a mixed bag of systems so OSX server min of ten universal tiger is what you need...anything else will be grief...although VX can see V9 over the network it breaks down the other way around. I fail to see why/ who the heck would want server on a mini may as well partition your own HD and run it all blind.

jank

Hmmm interesting.

I considered just installing it on an iMac we have but we will then lose one client.
So is it possible to run osx server on one partition and osx tiger on another together at the same time?

ld50

jank wrote:

Hmmm interesting.

I considered just installing it on an iMac we have but we will then lose one client.
So is it possible to run osx server on one partition and osx tiger on another together at the same time?

You could run server on one partition and tiger on another, but you couldn't run them and the same time.

Getting server running on an older mac or a mini to just do account management would work for a small amount of users. If you want file serving or anything like that you should think of investing in a server.

mh

SouperComputer

The mini will be fine as a server in terms of peformance for 10 users, but it is missing some key features:

Redundancy and or fault tolerance
Scalability

If this is going to be a mission-critcal machine, then perhaps consider buying an older g4 tower and at least have a RAID 1 (Mirrored) drive setup. This gives you some fault tolerance, but is NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR A BACKUP!

Of course you need to consider backups too.

Incidentally, I have an unused version of OS X server for PPC here if you are interested.