Apple Servers

Mac OS X Server provides advanced workgroup management tools for configuring and controlling your information infrastructure and your computing resources.

Workgroup Manager in Mac OS X Server simplifies system administration by providing centralized directory-based management of users, groups, and computers across your organization. Create standardized desktop configurations, set preferences and establish password policies, as well as control access to hardware, software and network resources. You can use any LDAP-based server to store these preferences, such as Apple’s Open Directory or Microsoft’s proprietary Active Directory.

Centralized Management

Workgroup Manager can enhance your Mac OS X users’ computing experience, at the same time as it gives you easier control. Create custom environments, complete with different applications, settings and permissions for each group, and then configure systems across an entire workgroup or classroom in seconds. Managed system settings allow your users to log into an environment that’s appropriate to their needs and consistent from one computer to the next. Users’ individual and group settings are immediately in effect and they have streamlined access to authorized resources — no matter where they log in. Settings are cached, so preferences remain in effect for mobile users, even when they disconnect from the network. New in Mac OS X Server v10.4, Preference Manifest allows you to set preferences applications and utilities not managed in Workgroup Manager.

Managed Network Views

With Mac OS X Server v10.4, you can control what users see on the network. A managed network view is one or more network neighborhoods, which appear as folders associated with the Network icon in the Finder. Each folder contains a list of resources available to an individual user or group — and you can create multiple views for different client computers. Because the views are stored in Open Directory, a computer’s network neighborhood is automatically available when a user logs in.

Network and Portable Home Directories

You can also use Workgroup Manager to provide network-based home directories, so users can access their own personalized desktop, applications and files from any computer on the network — or use them to back up their work. With Mac OS X Server v10.4, PowerBook and iBook users can now enjoy synchronized versions of home directory folders locally and on the network. When a user goes offline, her home directory goes with her, so she can continue to work just as if she would back at the office. When she reconnects to the network, Mac OS X automatically syncs up selected content in her local home directory with the one on the server.