Apple Networks

Another information filled day.  This morning was spent working with Brian Wiegand, server administrator for the Macintosh computers in MPS.  A former teacher, he worked in a Mac Lab for many years before landing at the Technology Support Center on Capitol Drive in Milwaukee.

There are 34 Mac servers in Milwaukee.  Sadly, the format is being faded out, and eventually all of MPS will be run on Dells and Windows servers.  Immediate cost is the main reason.  The district can get into a customized Dell for about $700.  A basic iMac runs about $1300.  There are long term cons to this situation.  Experience tells the technicians that Macs last an average of 2 years longer, in the educational system.  The Macs just run smoother, for a longer period of time, for a variety of  technical reasons.  One other interesting note that was made was the simple fact that most universities are moving to a dual boot Mac system.  AND most students entering universities are also going Mac, with the dual boot option.  But MPS is looking at the immediate bottom line.

The Mac servers are used for student accounts and work.  They are backed up once per week. 

The major piece of software we worked in was Workgroup manager.  This is server management software, capable of viewing the entire network of Apple servers.  Work groups, such as teacher, student, admin, and so-forth, can be set up with basic level user preferences in place.  When a user logs in, individual preferences are set in the user directory, and remembered.  This is good for 2 reasons. 

1. It allows the applications to run off the power of the computer, locally. 
2. It cuts down on network traffic.  Even though files are saved to a network directory, the main program is running locally.

Some other small management tips:
Whatsize is a program that allows the administrator to see how big folders on the server are, and who owns the folder.  You can check for unnecessary files that may be clogging up the server this way.

Cocktail is a piece of software that will clean out the cache at a set time every day.  The administrator sets the run time.  The cache and other temporary files are cleared out, keeping the computer running cleaner.

You can purchase print server software inexpensively that will clear the print que every night, to keep the que cleaned up and uncluttered.

Passenger is software that allows you to import users from a simple .txt file.  After you import a list from a work group, you create the fields, and passenger will create a clean list which will allow you to import into work group manager, and set specific passwords.  This is very useful for setting some security on "generic login" accounts, when you are using multimedia authoring software at the local level.

He monitors network activity closely, and has many policies in place to keep the network running smoothly, or at least fix-able quickly as the need occurs.