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2013-05-07T16:45:38+00:00

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Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server -> ML-phpPgAdmin

2013-04-25T20:33:45+00:00

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server -> Install phpPgAdmin Mountain Lion

Install phpPgAdmin

phpPgAdmin is the rough equivalent of phpMyAdmin for PostgreSQL. Use these steps to install phpPgAdmin:

Download the most recent version of phpPgAdmin
Move the phpPgAdmin directory to /Library/Server/Web/Data/Sites/Default/
Open a terminal session and enter the following:

cd /Libary/Server/Web/Data/Sites/Default
sudo chown -R _www phpPgAdmin
sudo chgrp -R _www phpPgAdmin
sudo chmod -R 755 phpPgAdmin

In your text editor of choice, edit the /Library/Server/PostgreSQL/Config/org.postgresql.postgres.plist file:

Change the listen_address= line to listen_address=127.0.0.1

In the terminal session, enter:

sudo serveradmin fullstatus postgres
sudo serveradmin stop postgres
sudo serveradmin start postgres

Point your browser to your Mac OS X 10.8.x/OS X Server (using either an IP address or fully-qualified domain name) and enter your credentials in the appropriate fields:

By default, the username is “_postgres” (without the quotes)
By default, the password is your user account with administration privileges password

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server -> ML-StatusNet

2013-04-25T20:31:54+00:00

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server -> Install and configure StatusNet Mountain Lion

Install and configure StatusNet

Twitter was built in 2006 by Jack Dorsey as an internal communications mechanism for Odeo, the podcast company. It was originally designed for short messages between members of a small group. Traction didn’t really come until the 2007 South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) conference when Twitter’s daily traffic tripled.

Twitter originally had a marvelous open application programming interface (API) for realtime services—or at least one that everyone mistakenly took to be open—but it was reeled back in as Twitter tried to regain control of its platform.

In 2010, Twitter bought the popular Tweetie iOS client and warned developers away from developing third-party apps for the microblogging service.

In 2011, Twitter updated its developer terms and shut down several of third-party developer UberMedia’s apps and began buying up Twitter clients as fast as it could.

In 2012, Twitter disappeared the account and writings of Independent journalist Guy Adams. Adams had been highly critical of NBC’s handling of the Olympics; Twitter had recently gotten under the corporate sheets with NBC and started banging boots in a partnership to cover the 2012 Olympics.

As Twitter gets less and less useful and more and more restrictive as a microblogging platform, and in keeping with our prime directive of owning/hosting our own data, we’re looking closely at StatusNet as an alternative.

Use these steps to install StatusNet:

Examine your phpinfo() results to ensure that you have the following installed:

PHP 5.2.3 or later with the following extensions:

apc
curl
xmlwriter
gd
mbstring
memcache

MySQL

Download the most recent version of the StatusNet distribution archive and extract it in the document root directory of your webserver (most likely /Library/Server/Web/Data/Sites/Default)
Open a terminal session and issue the following commands:

sudo chown -R _www:_www statusnet
sudo cp statusnet/htaccess.sample statusnet/.htaccess
sudo chmod -R g+w statusnet
sudo chmod -R a+w statusnet/avatar
sudo chmod -R a+w statusnet/background
sudo chmod -R a+w statusnet/file

In your text editor of choice, edit the statusnet/.htaccess file as appropriate for your server and installation
Using phpMyAdmin, create a database for your StatusNet installation
Point your web browser to your StatusNet installation install script (/statusnet/install.php) and follow the on-screen instructions

Upgrade StatusNet

Use these steps to upgrade StatusNet:

Download the most recent version of the StatusNet distribution archive
Replace the contents of your StatusNet instance with the new files, leaving the /avatar/, /background/, /file/, and /local/ directories and .htaccess and config.php files intact to preserve your data, user accounts, and settings
Open a terminal session and issue the following commands:

sudo chown -R _www:_www statusnet
cd statusnet
php ./scripts/upgrade.php

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server

2012-11-02T13:12:11+00:00

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server

Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server

Apple’s basic Mac Mini Server (mid 2010) configuration is one of the best deals going in tech. Mac OS X Server v10.6 Snow Leopard with an unlimited client license (the only option) costs US$499 on its own—the Mac Mini Server with Snow Leopard Server is US$999. Think of it as paying US$500 for the software and US$500 for the hardware. It’s a tiny, quiet, and relatively cheap solution for a small business, a small workgroup, a home media and file server, or a co-located server providing internet services. Best of all, it’s adequately powerful and only draws about 14 watts of power when idle.

For any of these solutions there’s no need for a monitor, keyboard, or mouse. You can run your Mac Mini Server(s) naked, like I do. Just order the Mac Mini Server from the Apple store. Be sure to order the basic configuration; Apple’s RAM prices are notoriously high and at the time of this writing the 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with two 500GB 7200-rpm drives and NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics is the only option.

At the same time you place your order for the Mac Mini Server click on over to Crucial and order two 4GB 204-pin 1066MHz DDR3 PC3-8500 memory modules. As of this writing that’ll set you back about US$125 with shipping (compared to Apple’s US$400).

While you’re waiting for your memory upgrade to arrive, go ahead and install the Admin Tools CD that came with your Mac Mini Server on the Mac(s) you’ll be using to remotely administer your server(s).

Mac OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard Server procedures

Mac OS X 10.7.x Lion Server procedures

Mac OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion Server procedures

Apple released Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and its Server component on 25 July 2012. We’re working on determining what works, what needs updating, and all the rest.

Update: Friday, 3 August 2012 1:45PM CDT: Following its familiar pattern, Apple’s release of Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion/OS X Server was perhaps a little premature. We’re running into all sorts of small, nit-picky problems. These problems are enough to make backing off on any major updates here for a while longer seem worthwhile.

Update: Saturday, 4 August 2012 2:10PM CDT: I should have known better. I’ve been using Macs since 1984 and I’ve never, ever been able to install a major operating system upgrade (e.g., OS X 10.7x to OS X 10.8) in-line. Each time I’ve tried there seems to be no end of small (and sometimes large) issues. I’m going to have to reformat and reinstall everything—both our MacBook Pros and the Mac Mini Server—from the bare metal up, as usual. Thanks loads, Apple.

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server -> Wiki-Analytics

2012-10-25T21:57:26+00:00

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server -> Add Google Analytics tracking code to wiki

Add Google Analytics tracking code to wiki

Apple’s wiki is an effective communication tool for both internal and external workgroups. It’s the easiest to use wiki system available as users need not know a lick of HTML, CSS, or WikiCode. If your users can use a word processor, they already know how to use Apple’s wiki.

A downside of Apple’s simplistic and easy to use approach to its wiki product is a tradeoff between that simplicity and ease of use and features. While emailed update notifications are available there is no support for RSS, for example. Additionally, the templates for the wiki pages are fairly well hidden from the average user.

Use these steps to add your Google Analytics tracking code to your wiki pages:

In your text editor of choice, edit the /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr/share/collabd /coreclient/app/views/layouts/application.html.erb file
- My preference is to open a Virtual Network Computing (VNC) session to the server, open a Terminal session within the VNC session (on the remote server) and enter the following command:
  - sudo bbedit /Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/usr /share/collabd/coreclient/app/views/layouts/application.html.erb
Insert your Google Analytics tracking code
- In general, as closely to the bottom of the code for rendering the page the better
- My preference is to add the Google Analytics code just below the
  section of the template within similar comment code:
  ...

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server -> Email

2012-10-25T21:57:05+00:00

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server -> Configure external email service

Configure external email service

Like Mr. Natural, one of the heroes of my youth, I firmly believe in using the right tool for the job. For a lot of reasons, I prefer to use Google Apps for Business, including Gmail, for our email services. For small businesses of up to 10 users, Google Apps are free of charge with each user getting 10GB of email storage and 5GB of Google Drive storage.

Why bother with the hassle of rooting out spam when Google has found a way that works better than anything I’ve seen.

Use these steps to setup Google Apps for Business:

Click the Pricing link in the top horizontal navigation menu
Click the Start Now link under the Google Apps for individuals and small teams section
Fill out the form with the appropriate information, read the terms and conditions, and click the I accept! Create my account button

Configure the settings appropriate for your organization using the Organization & users and Domain settings buttons
Click the Setup button to activate and configure the various Google services available

Pay special attention to the Set up your apps > Gmail > Help prevent spoofing settings

Be sure to carefully—very carefully—add Google’s five mail servers to the MX Records section of your DNS settings

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server -> DNS

2012-10-25T21:56:45+00:00

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server -> Configure external Domain Name Service DNS

Configure external Domain Name Service (DNS)

I prefer to use the best outside sources I can find for some of our network infrastructure (specifically DNS and email). For DNS, I host all of our domains at Network Solutions mainly because when farces.com was born—11 January 1993—the sole name registry (InterNIC, the Internet Network Information Center) was subsidized by the US government. In May 1993, the US government’s National Science Foundation (NSF) privatized it and paid Network Solutions almost US$6 million to administer it. In September 1995, Network Solutions instituted the first fee system for registering domains and in 2000, Network Solutions was acquired by VeriSign, Inc. It’s changed hands several times since. The point is that in mid-1993, the only option was what became Network Solutions.

If you host your domain(s) with Network Solutions, use these steps to host your DNS with it as well (other domain registries, hosts, and providers generally offer similar services):

You’ll be prompted to enter your User ID and Password. Be sure to select the Manage All Services option from the Log in to drop-down menu

In the My Domain Names section, select the domain to work on from the Select a Domain Name drop-down menu and click the Go button
In the Manage domain section, click the Change Where Domain Points button and select the Advanced DNS option and click the Continue button
Enter the IP Address (A Records) for the devices on your local network

If you’re using a www prefix for your webserver, be sure to add a www entry that points to the numeric IP address for your server
If you want all undefined host names to point to your server be sure to add entries for @ (None) and * (All Others) pointing to the numeric IP address for your server
Click the Save A Records button to save your settings

Contact your internet service provider (or the provider from whom you lease your static IP address block) and ask them to create RDNS/PTR records for the devices for which you’ve assigned IP addresses above. Just give them a list of the fully-qualified domain names and the IP address for each

In my case, this was Comcast Business Class and took less then a few hours

It will take up to 24 hours for these changes to propagate across the internet

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server -> SSL-Certificate

2012-10-25T21:56:15+00:00

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server -> Configure an SSL certificate

Configure an SSL certificate

An SSL certificate is used by your users to trust that you are who you say you are and encrypt network traffic to and from your server. An SSL certificate was created when you first installed Mac OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion and OS X Server 2.x but, because it’s not been signed by a Certificate Authority (CA) it is said to be untrusted. You may be sure you are who you say you are, but no one else is. Certificate signing uses public key infrastructure (PKI) and public and private keys. Data or traffic that is encrypted with one key may only be decrypted with its companion key to which it is mathematically linked. The public key is made publicly available while the private key is kept private and encrypted with a password.

A server’s identity is the combination of its private key, its companion public key, and a certificate. The certificate provides authentication and specifies permitted uses. Mac OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion and OS X Server 2.x include several root CAs that Apple has identified as trustworthy. Accordingly, any provided root CA and its intermediate CAs can be trusted.

View your server’s certificate

Use these steps to view your server’s certificate:

Open a screen-sharing session to your headless Mac Mini Server running Mac OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion/OS X Server 2.x
Open Keychain Access
In the Category column, click My Certificates to filter the displayed list to installed certificates
In the Keychains column, click System to filter the displayed list to system-wide certificates

At least two items will be listed:

com.apple.servermgrd is used for remote system administration via the Sever app
[server].[domain].com is your server’s certificate that was created during the installation process, where [server] is the name of your server and [domain] is your domain name

Double-click the [server].[domain].com certificate where [server] is the name of your server and [domain] is your domain name
Tip-down the Trust disclosure triangle
Tip-down the Details disclosure triangle

If you created a self-signed certificate during the installation process, “This certificate has not been verified by a third party” appears
If you have not yet created a self-signed certificate, “This root certificate is not trusted” appears. Good for you; not even your own server trusts your certificate

Create a self-signed certificate

In many cases, you will have created a self-signed certificate during the Mac OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion/OS X Server 2.x installation process. If not, use these steps to create a self-signed certificate:

On a computer you use to administer your headless Mac Mini Server, launch the Server app
In the Hardware pane, select the Settings sub-pane
Next to the SSL Certificate item, click the Edit button and select the [server].[domain].com certificate where [server] is the name of your server and [domain] is your domain name
From the Gear drop-down menu, select the Manage Certificates… item
Tip-down the Details disclosure triangle for your server’s certificate

The Common Name field should contain [server].[domain].com where [server] is the name of your server and [domain] is your domain name
The Country field should contain the country in which your headless Mac Mini server is located
This is not enough information for a CA to sign your certificate, so let’s provide some more

From the Plus symbol drop-down menu, select the Create a Certificate Identity item

The name field should be automatically populated with [server].[domain].com where [server] is the name of your server and [domain] is your domain name

Ensure that Identity Type is Self Signed Root
Ensure that Certificate Type is SSL Server
Check the Let me override defaults checkbox
Click the Continue button
A warning about self-signed certificates appears; click the Continue button
Accept the defaults for Security Number and Validity Period and click the Continue button
Enter valid information in the following fields:

Email Address
Name (Common Name)
Organization
Organizational Unit
City (Locality)
State/Province (enter the full name, not an abbreviation)
Country

Click the Continue button
Accept the defaults for Key Size and Algorithm and click the Continue button
Accept the defaults on the Key Usage Extension panel and click the Continue button
Accept the defaults on the Extended Key Usage Extension panel, alternatively checking the Any checkbox, and click the Continue button
Accept the defaults on the Basic Constraints Extension panel and click the Continue button
In the Subject Alternate Name Extension pane, the dNSName field is automatically populated with [server].[domain].com where [server] is the name of your server, [domain] is your domain name and the iPAddress field is automatically populated with the IP address of your administration computer. Change the iPAddress field to the IP address of your headless Mac Mini Server and click the Continue button
The self-signed root certificate for your headless Mac Mini Server will be created; click the Done button
A window appears, asking if you want to allow Server access to export a key from your keychain; click the Allow button

The Server app will move the items from your personal login keychain to the System keychain and store the new certificate in /etc/certificates, making it available for other services

Create a Certificate Signing Request

With a self-signed certificate, users will be requested to accept the certificate. In order for your certificate to be useful without user intervention, it must be signed by a Certificate Authority (CA). Use these steps to create a Certificate Signing Request that you can email to a CA:

On a computer you use to administer your headless Mac Mini Server, launch the Server app
In the Hardware pane, select the Settings sub-pane
Next to the SSL Certificate item, click the Edit button and select the [server].[domain].com certificate where [server] is the name of your server and [domain] is your domain name
From the Gear drop-down menu, select the Generate Certificate Signing Request (CSR)... item
A window appears, containing the CSR; click the Save… button to save the CSR
Send the CSR to the appropriate CA of your choice, along with proof of your identity and the appropriate fee
The CA will return a signed certificate to you

Import the signed certificate

When you receive the signed certificate from the Certificate Authority (CA), use these steps to import the signed certificate, replacing the self-signed certificate you created earlier:

On a computer you use to administer your headless Mac Mini Server, launch the Server app
In the Hardware pane, select the Settings sub-pane
Next to the SSL Certificate item, click the Edit button and select the [server].[domain].com certificate where [server] is the name of your server and [domain] is your domain name
From the Gear drop-down menu, select the Manage Certificates… item
Select the self-signed certificate you created earlier
From the Gear drop-down menu, select the Replace Certificate with Signed or Renewed Certificate… item
Drag-and-drop the signed certificate you received from the CA into the Drag a file containing the new certificate here region of the window that appears

Ignore the warning about dragging the private key and click the Replace Certificate button

Configure services to use a certificate

You can configure the various services on your headless Mac Mini Server to use a self-signed certificate or a signed certificate you’ve received from a Certificate Authority (CA). Additionally, all of the services can be configured to use the same certificate or you can assign different certificates to different services or to not use SSL at all.

Use these steps to configure services to use a certificate:

On a computer you use to administer your headless Mac Mini Server, launch the Server app
In the Hardware pane, select the Settings sub-pane
Next to the SSL Certificate item, click the Edit button and select the [server].[domain].com certificate where [server] is the name of your server and [domain] is your domain name
Click the OK button

This configures most of the OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion/OS X Server 2.x services to use the selected certificate

Address Book
Calendar
Mail (IMAP, POP, and SMTP)
Messages
Web

Click the Custom button in the previous step if you want to use a different certificate or not use SSL

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server -> ML-phpMyAdmin

2012-10-12T16:32:22+00:00

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server -> Install phpMyAdmin Mountain Lion

Install phpMyAdmin

Use these steps to install phpMyAdmin:

Download the most recent version of phpMyAdmin
Move the phpMyAdmin directory to /Library/Server/Web/Data/Sites/Default/
Open a terminal session and enter cd /Libary/Server/Web/Data/Sites/Default
Enter sudo chown -R _www phpMyAdmin
Enter sudo chgrp -R _www phpMyAdmin
Enter sudo chmod -R 755 phpMyAdmin
Enter cd phpMyAdmin
Enter sudo mkdir config
Enter sudo chmod -R 777 config
Enter sudo cp config.sample.inc.php config.inc.php
With your text editor of choice, edit the config.inc.php file as follows:

Change $cfg[‘Servers’][$i][‘host’] = ‘localhost’; to $cfg[‘Servers’][$i][‘host’] = ‘127.0.0.1’;
Change $cfg[‘blowfish_secret’] = ‘’; to a string of your choice within the single quotes
Save the config.inc.php file

Open a browser and navigate to http://server.domain.com/phpMyAdmin/setup and adjust the settings appropriately
Open a terminal session and enter sudo rm -rf /Libary/Server/Data/Sites/Default/phpMyAdmin/config

Upgrade phpMyAdmin

Use these steps to upgrade phpMyAdmin:

Download the most recent version of the phpMyAdmin distribution archive and extract it somewhere other than the directory of your existing phpMyAdmin installation
Delete all of the files and directories in your existing phpMyAdmin installation, most likely /Library/Server/Web/Data/Sites/Default/[phpMyAdmin] where [phpMyAdmin] is the directory of your phpMyAdmin installation, except the config.inc.php file
Copy all of the files and directories from the new distribution archive to your existing phpMyAdmin installation, most likely /Library/Server/Web/Data/Sites/Default/[phpMyAdmin] where [phpMyAdmin] is the directory of your phpMyAdmin installation, except the config.inc.php file
Open a terminal session and enter the following:

cd /Libary/Server/Data/Sites/Default
sudo chown -R _www:_www phpMyAdmin

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server -> ML-WordPress

2012-10-11T08:34:41+00:00

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server -> Install and configure WordPress Mountain Lion

Install and configure WordPress

We use WordPress for a few projects, but it is not our content management system (CMS) of choice. Nonetheless, we keep it installed and up-to-date for the benefit of a handful of clients.

Use these steps to install and configure WordPress:

Examine your phpinfo() results to ensure that you have the following installed:

PHP 5.2.4 or later
MySQL 5.0 or later

Download the most recent version of the WordPress distribution archive and extract it in the document root directory of your webserver (most likely /Library/Server/Web/Data/Sites/Default)
Using phpMyAdmin, create a database for your Wordpress installation
Open a terminal session and issue the following commands:

cd /Library/Server/Web/Data/Sites/Default/[wordpress] where [wordpress] is the directory of your WordPress installation
cp wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php
cd ..
sudo chown -R _www:_www wordpress

In your text editor of choice, open the wp-config.php file and edit to reflect your installation’s settings
Point your web browser to your WordPress installation ([wordpress]/wp-admin/install.php) and follow the on-screen instructions

Install plugins

We have a core set of plugins that we add to each of our WordPress installations:

Askimet
Edit Flow
Efficient Related Posts
Google Analyticator
Google XML Sitemaps
iWPhone
Jetpack
MailChimp Widget
Newsletter
NextGEN Gallery
Twitter Widget Pro
WooCommerce
WordPress Editorial Calendar
WP-Optimize
WP-PageNavi
WP-Polls
WP Super Cache

Upgrade WordPress

I deeply wish more developers would support an integrated updating/upgrading system similar to that used by WordPress.

Use these steps to update or upgrade your WordPress installation:

Login to the administration control panel of your WordPress installation
Click Dashboard > Updates

WordPress will deliver three reports of the version status of WordPress itself, the installed plugins, and the installed themes