Re-installing Snow Leopard Server Headless on Mac Mini Server for Podcast Producer
Reason for re-install.
After a day and a half of trying to get kerberos authentication working with Podcast Producer on a running server, it was time to give up, or try a last ditch effort.
This server has a dozen services running, and has been through many configuration changes since initial setup. The folks at podcastproducer.org promise that Podcast Producer will work. They recommend starting from a clean minimalist install of of Snow Leopard Server. Decided to test that theory as the last resort.
Goal
- A working Podcast Producer Server
Required for this example
- Snow Leopard Server Install DVD
- Product Key
- A Mac Mini Server with an Ethernet connection to a DSL router
- A Snow Leopard Mac connected to the same router with the Server Admin utility installed. Note that Server Admin is avaialble on the Snow Leopard Server Install DVD
Client Machine
- Macbook Pro with wifi connection to DSL router and Server Admin installed
Server Machine
- Mac Mini Snow Leopard Server connected via ethernet to DSL router
The re-install step by step
On the Client
- Open Server Admin, Open a Screen Sharing connection to the existing server and login
On the Server
- Connect an external DVD drive to the headless machine
- Put the Snow Leopard Server install DVD in the drive
On the Client
- When the Install Snow Leopard screen pops up, start the install. This will disconnect the current screen sharing and Server Admin.
- Five or 10 minutes later, re-launch Server Admin. Server Admin displays the server in the list as "Ready for install"
- Click "Ready for Install->10.6 and verify the ip and mac addresses listed to the right belong to the server you want to install. In this case, the ip address was automatically assigned from DHCP on the router. The server ultimately must run on a static ip address
- If more than one server, select the one to setup and Click the "Install.." button
- The ip address should autofill, then enter first 8 characters of machine serial number as prompted. Note: Tried the afp mac address and it will not accept the serial number, switched back to using ip address and it worked fine.
- Continue with a standard install, minimal services, DNS must be the only service running before enabling Podcast Producer
- In setup, when get to the Network tab, change to the ip address needed, in this case 192.168.1.5 was needed, 192.168.1.108 had been assigned by router DHCP
- At Users and Groups, choose Configure Manually and very important, skip the directory services stuff
- The idea is to not allow open directory to be setup at config time. It will automatically be set up by the wizard during Podcast Producer configuration.
- SLS Setup still creates a default DNS zone for the DHCP provided ip address of .108, even though it was changed to .5 at config time
- To fix this, using Server Admin, turn off DNS and completely wipe out the existing zones. Simply editing the existing zone will not work.
- Write a new zone to match the .5 static ip paired to a Fully Qualified Domain Name, in this case mini3.brethower.net. The domain is an intranet, but it still must be Fully Qualified.
- In DNS settings, be sure forwarder ip adresses are set to the addresses the router has been using for DNS. The router was formerly the DNS server, the Mac Mini Server must now become authoritative for DNS for this to work.
- Be sure to save the changes. Flip to another screen or setting to be doubly sure the settings are saved. A warning will appear if they have not been saved.
- Use the router admin screens (varies by router) to point the DSL router to use the Mini Server's 192.168.1.5 ip address for DNS. That way client machines will continue using the router for DHCP, yet use the Mini Server for DNS.
- Run Network Utility from this client machine to test that forward and reverse lookups, ip to hostname, hostname to ip. They should resolve to each other.
- Use screen sharing from Server Admin, then start the Terminal application on the server, or ssh to the server if you know how.
On the Server
- Run the command# changeip -checkhostname
- Matching forward and reverse lookups prove that 192.168.1.5=mini3.brethower.net in this particular case, ip=FQDN in a generic case.
On the Client
- In Server Admin, highlight the server in the list on the left side, click the Services icon at the top, checkmark the Podcast Producer service to enable it
- Podcast Producer joins DNS in the list of services in the left pane. DNS should be green, Podcast Producer grayed.
- Click Podcast Producer->Overview, the "Configure Podcast Producer.." button.
- Run the setup.
- Admin password works for diradmin unless somebody has changed something.
- NFS, Open Directory, and Xgrid are installed, enabled, and green lighted along with Podcast Producer in the services listing of Server Admin
With a big THANK YOU to the good folks at podcastproducer.org, Podcast Producer is now up and running great on the local Mini Server.
