Mac OS X Server 1.x: About Apple File Services

Browser compatibility issues

• Before logging in to Remote Server Administration from your browser, open Preferences and set the cache settings to Never (for NetscapeTM Navigator) or Always (for Internet Explorer).
• This version of Remote Server Administration is incompatible with Microsoft's JavaTM Virtual Machine in Microsoft Internet Explore, version 4.0.1 or earlier. Before using one of these versions of Internet Explorer with Remote Administration, open Preferences and set the Java virtual machine option to use Apple MRJ (Mac OS Runtime for Java). Make sure your computer has MRJ version 2.0 or later installed by checking the version of the MRJLib in the MRJ Libraries subfolder in your Extensions folder.
• Before using Remote Server Administration with European keyboards on non-localized Mac OS computers sold in the U.S., you must specify the appropriate font encoding settings in the Web browser preferences. For Internet Explorer, check the Language/Fonts settings in the Preferences. For a Netscape browser, check the Encoding settings.
• If you connect to your server through a proxy using Netscape Communicator, you may experience timeout problems and data may not be updated on the server. If you experience this problem, use a direct connection to the server. If you must use a proxy, talk to your proxy server administrator about enabling HTTP write access to the Mac OS X Server.
• If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer with Remote Administration, you should set the preferred size of memory to at least 12 MB.

Issues with using Remote Server Administration

• To log in to Remote Server Administration, your user account must exist in the NetInfo database on the same server as the Apple file services. All accounts created using Setup Assistant, NetworkManager, and Remote Server Administration are stored in the local NetInfo database.
• You can only use 7-bit characters for administrator and user passwords. These are the standard ASCII characters which include control characters, alphabetic and numeric characters, and standard keyboard characters.
• Due to a limitation in Netscape Java, the Caps Lock key is not recognized to enter uppercase letters in a password. To use uppercase letters in a password, press the Shift key.
• If you are using Netscape Navigator or Netscape Communicator with Remote Administration, do not click Reload. If you do, you will need to log in to Remote Administration again. You may also need to log in again if you resize the browser's window.
• Do not use the browser's Back button to return to a page in Remote Server Administration. If you do, settings you have made in the page may appear to be different.
• The server access log (AppleFileAccess) is not turned on automatically. To turn on access logging in Remote Administration, click File then click Server Settings, select the Log Server Access checkbox, and click Save.
• For Internet aliases and group names, you can use only lowercase letters, numbers, and the underscore character.

Issues with Apple file services

Do not give your server the same name as any other AppleShare or Apple file services server on the same zone of the network. Remote Administration does not warn you if you do. However, users trying to log in to the servers may be unable to log in to the server they want to use. Check the server error log (AppleFileError) for information about this problem.

You can't change access privileges for removable media. You can share folders on the removable media, but files are read-only for everyone.

If you define more than a few hundred sharepoints on the server, some sharepoint names will not appear in the client's Chooser.

Folders created by guest users are owned by "Unprivileged user" (nobody). To reassign privileges for these folders, log in to the server computer Administrator (root).

Local host information for your server computer may not be saved in the local NetInfo domain if you use Setup Assistant to choose a connection to a NetInfo parent server then turn off the connection, for example by using the Network settings panel, and you have configured DNS manually without any DNS server addresses being specified and TCP/IP to get the host name and default router automatically using Bootp. If NetInfo domain does not contain the local host name, Apple file services will not start and any applications that use the local host name will fail. If this happens, open Setup Assistant and make sure you do not have your network services configured in this way.

If Apple file services does not start when you start up your server computer or when you turn on the service using Remote Administration, check the server error log (AppleFileError) for information about startup errors.

Issue with AppleTalk configuration

If AppleTalk isn't configured correctly, it will fail when you start your Mac OS X Server but you will not receive a message about the problem. If this occurs, AppleShare clients will not be able to locate the server in the Chooser and Macintosh Manager clients will not be able to log in to the server.

Note: Because Apple file services can use TCP, Remote Administration will show that the server is running and NetBoot client computers will be able to start up

If you experience these problems, be sure AppleTalk is configured correctly using the Setup Assistant and Network Settings control panel.

If you configure more than one port on your server computer to use AppleTalk, each port must be connected to a network with an AppleTalk router. If your server computer is acting as the router, make sure it is configured correctly and does not conflict with other AppleTalk routers on the network.

Issue with the AppleShare client software

If AppleShare client computers have Mac OS 8.5 or later and AppleShare client version 3.8.1 installed, files may be corrupted in some cases when users copy files to server volumes. To prevent this, install AppleShare 3.8.2 on all the computers installed with Mac OS 8.5 or later. AppleShare 3.8.2 is provided with the Mac OS X Server software.