Mac OS X Server 1.x: Services FAQ, Part II

Note: This article pertains to Mac OS X Server versions 1.x, which were released prior to May 2001.

Questions answered in this article:

1. Is QuickTime streaming available with Mac OS X Server?
2. Is print spooling available with Mac OS X Server?
3. How many clients can Mac OS X Server support?
4. Can Mac OS X Server run all these services at the same time?
5. Do all these Mac OS X Server services use the same user and group information?

Question 1: Is QuickTime streaming available with Mac OS X Server?

Answer: A preview version of the QuickTime Streaming Server was included with Mac OS X Server. The final version of this software was released by Apple 19 April 1999 and is available for downloading from the Apple Software Updates Web site at http://www.apple.com/swupdates. QuickTime 4 is required to view movies streamed by QuickTime Streaming Server. QuickTime 4 Pro is required to created streaming movies.

Question 2: Is print spooling available with Mac OS X Server?

Answer: Yes. Macintosh customers can use the Desktop Printer Utility LPR support to connect to a Mac OS X Server print spooler. Mac OS X Server can spool files to any PostScript-capable network printer over either AppleTalk or TCP/IP. There are also a number of third-party print-spooling products available for the publishing industry

Question 3: How many clients can Mac OS X Server support?

Answer: The Macintosh Server G3 with Mac OS X Server configuration running a single service, if properly configured, can support:

• Millions of Web transactions a day
• Approximately 50 NetBoot clients
• Over a thousand AppleShare clients
• Thousands of Macintosh Manager clients

The actual number of clients supported depends on your network environment, usage scenarios, and hardware configuration.

Question 4: Can Mac OS X Server run all these services at the same time?

Answer: Not quite. Thanks to the power of preemptive multitasking, you can efficiently run multiple services on a single server. However, this requires more memory than running a single service, and it reduces the maximum load sustainable by any given service. The exact details depend strongly on your usage patterns. More information on optimal configurations will be available in Apple's Tech Info Library at til.info.apple.com.

Question 5: Do all these Mac OS X Server services use the same user and group information?

Answer: No. Apple file services (and NFS) use the native users and groups based on NetInfo, allowing the information to be shared among computers. Macintosh Manager maintains its own user and group information, as does Apache. WebObjects applications can be designed to work with Apache users and groups, but often verify against the underlying database used by the application.