How to access MAC server & general MAC help!

[Hunsel]

Hello

Just started a new NM job in a school which has very little documentation on anything ....

The school has a MAC server and about 10 IMacs in their music room, I know very little about MACs having come from mainly a Windows Network environment. I do have some MAC admin passwords, these were found on on a scrap piece of paper in a draw! However these passwords don’t appear to work on the iMacs if I need to make any changes or delete apps or software etc please note the standard AD student/staff network logons work on the iMacs (the same as the windows desktops)

 

A few newbie questions ..,.

How do you actually access the MAC server? I have a server name and IP, and it’s a physical box in the server room

Does a MAC server authenticate and authorise users? Or just deploy and update Apple devices? What sort of integration with AD does a standard MAC server have on a network?

 

Any advice or starting points would be appreciated!

Thanks

Hunsel

[Sibrows]

A few newbie questions ..,.

How do you actually access the MAC server? I have a server name and IP, and it’s a physical box in the server room

Easiest way would be to plug a screen keyboard and mouse. Longer term, assuming your not using a Mac, would be to use VNC to remotely administer it.

Does a MAC server authenticate and authorise users? Or just deploy and update Apple devices?

It can authenticate users but probably isn’t if integrated with AD.

It’s probably just being used to push out settings to the iMacs. Updates and software could be via Apple Remote Desktop (an app running on the server).

What sort of integration with AD does a standard MAC server have on a network?

Pretty much just user authentication.

 

As ever most of this is a guess based on the way I’ve seen it setup in different places. That doesn’t mean to say that it’s setup like that.

 

Best of luck 🤨

[XiJ]

Yep VNC would be your best bet assuming no other macs available.

 

I’m known as apple fan-boi but I took user auth (open directory) off even for the Mac’s. it was a pita. I use AppleScript for user auth and login. I can get away with it with number of macs and in a primary though.

[Stevecee]

Easiest way would be to plug a screen keyboard and mouse. Longer term, assuming your not using a Mac, would be to use VNC to remotely administer it.

 

Yes this would be the simplest and quickest way to get access, then you can find out what roles the server is running.

 

A lot will depend on what OS you are running (on both the server and clients), older versions of Mac OS server could send settings/restrictions in parallel with AD, in recent years Mac OS server has been changed significantly, current versions come with "Profile Manager" which is in effect an in-house MDM solution which will set permissions, roll out software etc. with 10 clients this might be used in your situation?

 

If you have access to a Mac there is a "server" app, this will allow you to manage the server remotely (last time I looked it was about £13 in the App Store)

 

Apple Remote Desktop is an invaluable tool for not only fault finding but installing packages that can't be sent by MDM.

 

So I would:

 

Plug in a monitor / keyboard and see if you get access.

 

Open the server app and see what services the Mac server is running.

 

check what OS you are running (both server and client)

 

take a breath (do not under any circumstances at this stage think about updating OS - as Apple have trimmed the server OS so much recently you might well break something)

 

I don't think it will take long to find your way around one you know what you are dealing with you can ask for more help

 

Are you anywhere the West Midlands? always happy for you to pop in and see how we run things, also feel free to PM!

 

HTH

 

Steve

[Hunsel]

Thank you for your replies.

Update 14/12

Managed to plug a monitor/keyboard in but all I see is a white screen.

Physically rebooting the server seems to make no difference either, still a white screen.

The server is clearly on, anyone come across this?

Cannot RDP to the Mac server from my Windows Pc, so will try VNC next week ( as I believe VNC & RDP differ slightly in how they connect)

Thanks

[richmackie]

Sorry to hijack your thread but I've found myself in the same position. How have you got on so far?

[Sonic007]

Sounds like the mac server may be being just used for updates then and the iMacs have just been joined to the Windows Domain.

You can check this by logging on to a mac as an adimnistrator, system preferences (which is the mac version of Control panel), select Users and Groups, and then Login Options.

See if it is attached to your network there.