Which server: Standard or Advancd

[tkunger]

I’m about to install Leopard server and have a few questions. First, a little background. I’ve bought a new disk and will do a clean install then migrate data from Tiger server. This is a home server that runs mail, web, VPN, and file services. I’m familiar with unix/linux, and used to run linux as my server until things got too complicated for me to keep up with. I switched to the Apple server in the hopes that they had wrapped the complex configuration files with nice GUI. This mostly worked out except that I did go edit the config files to get a few things to work. I never got FTP working right. I hope that Leopard will go a little better.

Apple’s documentation shows that the Standard server does everything I want EXCEPT for FTP server. I’m tempted to go with that because I want a simple server. But I’m concerned that I may find the Standard server makes some simplifying assumption that does not work for me and then want the advanced server. Apple’s documentation says that I can switch to advanced server, but I’ve read comments on the web that this does not really work.

I do want FTP. I’m thinking that maybe I can manually configure that outside of the Standard server. Or maybe run some 3rd part FTP server. Or, I could do the initial setup as Standard then switch to Advanced and configure FTP.

What advice do you have? Will the Standard server be sufficient? It is feasible to start with that then switch to advanced? Or should I just go with full advanced server?

Thanks,

tom

[samoir]

Standard Server installation gives you a simple control panel and the option to convert the Standard Server setup to the Advanced setup using a built in feature/utility (after install). The Standard Server panel is similar in appearance to the System Prefs panel. My skill level with OS X Server 10.5.1 is beginner-intermediate, but in saying that i found the Standard Server setup basis and too simple. I actually reinstalled the OS rather than converting to Advanced Server (to avoid any conversion issues that may or may not have happened). I had FTP, MySQL, Web, Wiki, Screen Sharing etc setup – in under 5 mins using the Advanced Interface and found it gave good usability for my current skill level. I hope this is some help to you.

[tkunger]

Thanks. I read that as a suggestion to use Advanced – that it is not all that difficult.

[Maurits]

You can use advanced, or stick to standard plus add FTP using server admin.

The ‘secret’ trick is that for those items NOT in standard, you can use Server Admin and Workgroup Manager .
You will get a question if you want to upgrade to advanded, just click no, and continue.

This works fine but DON’T change any settings that is supposed to be managed by Server Preferences.

The advantage or standard mode, is that a lot of settings are set to default values, and if you use the ‘advanced’ tools, you have to specify everything yourself. The standard mode (at inital setup) works fine, AS LONG AS YOU HAVE DNS CONFIGURED FOR YOUR SERVER IP ADDRESS. (as always with Mac OS X Server) because standard will configure your system as OD master, while advanded will make standalone.

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