Serving with OS X

The project of the week is setting up a true unix web/email server using OS X Leopard. (groan) Well, I have my reasons for wanting to do this. I am struggling right now but here’s what I have so far. Guides will follow for the stuff that works.

• complete dns setup using named – this was relatively simple since a good install of named already exists on your mac. what’s necessary is creating some configuration files for you domain(s) and setting it up as a service at bootup.

and… that’s it! Everything else is topsy-turvy. It seems like Leopard was put together with the intention that SQLite would handle all the database work (goodbye MySQL!) with php and apache compiled to suit. Now this is great if you’re a Ruby Rails fan or if you’ve never heard of wordpress, let alone countless web email or cms suites. But if you want to deploy a stable, standard cms you’re really out of luck.

Of course you could use OS X Server (if you have an extra US$499 lying around). But then you have to deal with de-coupling some services, like named, from their pre-configured settings and the server admin gui. As far as I can make out, the kernel isn’t any different for low-end server use from regular OS X. 

However, you do get a bunch of server applications pre installed which are a real headache to try and compile yourself. Some of these are imap, pop, apache, mysql… the list goes on. Right now it looks like OS X versus Server comes out as Headache A versus Headache B. It certainly isn’t out-of-the-box-no-IT-department-required-as-advertised.