Basic Apple OS X server questions

Hi here are My suggestions they are in bold,

First question, about the basic hardware. The server is on a 450 mhz PowerPC G4, 640mb ram with a 73 gig Seagate scsi hard drive (ST173404LW) running hfs+ filing system. The hard drive is 90% full. I'm betting I'll need to either add an additional hard drive or replace the current one and I'm all ears for the easiest way to do this. Is the 640 mb ram a problem and worth upgrading? I didn't write down the specs on the memory, but I'm guessing the memory is pretty standard and not that expensive?

yes you will need to add additional hd space soon. what version of os x server are you running?  you should be able to add additional drive to the system its self or you could add external sata arrays. what I have done in the past is , keep one drive for the os and its needed apps, and add aditional drives to deal with the services I need (eg. file sharing, image hosting etc). The memory for a 450 g4 is cheap these days. look up
www.memory-up.com to see what type of memery you will need and then shown at pricegrabber for a list of online retailors and their prices.


The student machines (22 of them) are 1.83 ghz, intel core duo, 512 mb 667 mhz DDR2 sdram with 120 gb hard drives. The machines are about two years old. The student machines are running OS X 10.4.10.

So a question about how upgrades work on Macs, is it worth it upgrading to 10.5 or 10.6 or probably not given the low tech stuff we're doing in the lab? I take it one has to pay for upgrades, it's not just a question of downloading them and installing?

The upgrades are not free, you can get an educational disccount but you must pay for the software.

So once I get either a new hard drive added in or the old drive replaced and a new bigger one installed, I need to set up a filing system where each class has a folder and inside each class folder, each student has a folder. Given that I'm working with k-5th grade students, I want to keep this reasonably simple (for them being able to save to the correct location), but I'd love to minimize kids messing around with or just screwing up other kids stuff. If there's any great how to info online for how to set up a directory system or its easy to explain (for someone who knows very little about Macs and Mac server), this is one of the major pieces.

you could look into ldap services via osx server. you could setup user accounts with login credentails. you can also assign them their oen storage space for their files via ldap services. the teachers can have admin rights so that they can view everyones files but the students wont have any rights except on their own files.

I'll be installing a pair of new printers and one of the issues the classes have had is an over zealous use of the print function. These kids print everything and are single-handedly going to raise the global temperature a degree or two :-) I'd like to have some easy way of authorizing print jobs rather than letting them print directly themselves (at least going this way in the beginning till I get the printing bug trained out of them).

with os x server acting as a print server you can setup print quotas per student. that way if they are overusing their printing previlages, it will keep track and inform you about it. ( Ldap has to be active to keep track of the users)

This leads to a next need, to be able to refer to each student computer by name. I need to know the name of each computer and if there's an easy way to assign a nickname or change the name to something meaningful to me (wall-1, door-2, etc. or just lab1- lab22). That would facilitate me letting a computer have access to the printer.

you could go into each computers sys preferences/sharing and enter a unique name in there. I would suggest getting apple remote desktop is you can afford it, it will make you job alot easier in teh long run

The last piece that seems a bit more difficult is that four of the machines in the lab don't have the same disk image that the other machines have. Most of the machines in the lab boot into a log in screen with three identities available and when they select student, it takes them to a screen saying Kaiser Mac Lab and has all their software lined up and a few general info messages. Four of the machines just boot straight to the operating system. Does Mac Server have built in software for copying a disk image from one of the machines that works and imprinting that image onto a machine on the network? Is it something beyond the scope of this already large question, is there an easy link to instructions for how to do it or if it's not too bad, I need to get it taken care of.

OSX server consists of a utility called System image Utility. with this you can create an image from a model computer, and then give it a various options such as add user account, give it a unique name etc. you can create what they call a work flow and save it so that you can used it over again if you need to. and again using os x server you can deploy your images over your existing lan.

Last question, does anyone have a favorite OS X server book they think is well written and helpful for basic questions like these?
I have to get back to you on this, I have a book that will help you alot, I need to go and get the name of it. its an apple certification book, but its written in simple english and anyone can understand it so long as they have some knowledge of computers.
cheers
J

The mini for sure and even if it does install the nightmares will be like the Lewis Carol quote" ...and thick and fast they came at last and more and more and more." My quad g5 (which did suffer board failure under apple care)  ran os x Tiger server unlimited client and could ping every machine, net bios would run as well as other services but he could not ever run a successful net-install on an intel Leopard lab. Didn't work until I upgraded server to Leapard and then worked flawlessly. Leopard is only five hundred bucks from The apple store. Now that Snow leopard is out Ebay prices will drop to about 250 or so for regular Leopard.
As far as g5 boards go
 http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8575315
http://www.apple.com/support/powermac/powersupply/repairextension/  if the power supply blows it takes board and or cpu with it.
check out these g5 trouble shooting steps: Step 1: Do simple maintenance first. Run Disk First Aid from your install CD to check drive and repair permissions. Use a utility like Xupport, Cocktail or Onyx to clean user/system cache, logs, memory swap files, etc. We would also suggest using DiskWarrior or Tech Tool Pro 4 to rebuild directories.

Step 2: Disconnect any external devices except mouse and keyboard. Try a different keyboard and/or mouse if you have one. Also, you might try hooking up another monitor if you have one.

Step 3: Pull your stock RAM out and reseat it. Remove any third-party RAM you installed. Just use the RAM that came with computer or install new "known good" RAM.

Step 4: Pull your video card out and reseat it.

Step 5: Run your hardware tester that came with your computer on extended mode. If all checks ok, proceed to next step.

Step 6: Reset your PMU and NVRAM.

Step 7: Create another User account and run computer under that user. This will help determine if the problem is software related and localized to your Home (Library) folder or your root System.

Step 8: Start and run computer in Safe Mode. This is equivalent to running OS 9 with extensions turned off.

Step 9: Do an Archive and Install.Run the computer for an extended period of time without adding anything back from your Previous System folder.

Step 10: Reformat your drive using "Zero all data" option with your Disk Utility and install a fresh OS X off your install disk.

Step 11: Reinstall your applications one at a time.

Step 12: If you're still experiencing problems after going through the steps above, at this point, your video card, logic board and/or processor(s) may need to be replaced. Take unit to an Apple Service Center. NOTE: You can contact Apple and see if they will send you a video card to try. It's a user serviceable part.

Particularly note 12: almost every entry in the actual
apple service diagnostic software ends up at 12 which is always worth more than the machine is worth.

http://search.conduit.com/ResultsExt.aspx?ctid=CT1609479&SearchSource=3&q=g5+logic+board+failure+rates  wade through this and you will see patterns.   This one is hosted by macworld which should tell you something.
You can argue relatively few people are complaining here but their are clear patterns and stong support for some darn good guesses at what the problems are.
Macintouch published this: http://www.macintouch.com/reliability/pmg5.html  expand the chart after you read it. The first year failure rates alone are way over any preceding Mac model other than the ibook fiasco. So again G5 failure rates even in the first few years are higher than anything since the ibook nonsense. I have had three g5's . one my quad tahnk god failed just inside apple care so i can hope for htree more years. Two others a g5 dual 2.0 pci-e model is working but is in the process of losing the board to a memory eating memory controller that you will see detailed if you read the long thread. Just out of apple care and no dice on any help. the other a dual 2.0 pci-x died with the pop of a bad power supply that took the board with it just after apple care, Again no help from Apple. So again i have multiple g4 towers clicking along without a hitch so if you have to take the ppc gamble because of price go quicksilver 1.25 dual: super reliable and power supplies are swapable out of earlier agp models.

All that being said  a mac mini with a discounted leopard server from ebay after snow leopard server drives the prices down. You can still your your 10.3.9 server as a media server distribution.