Over the past couple of years, I have installed Linux, Solaris, and DEC OSF (Compaq True64), and none of them can touch Apple for ease of installation and configuration. Being an old NeXT/OpenStep/Rhapsody user, I had high expectations for Mac OS X Server, so far I have not been let down.

Back in June I received my copy of Mac OS X Server. I installed it on my Beige G3/300, and never looked back. After a couple of months of playing around with it, including setting up NetBooting with a single Lime iMac, I had the opportunity to install 5 iMacs in one of our university labs using the NetBooting configuration. This is a pilot project to see how well the NetBoot configuration works. If all goes well, iMacs will be used as information kiosks around the campus replacing aging IBM terminals.

The pilot project consists of one B&W G3/400 with a 6GB drive (2GB for UFS and 4GB for HFS+), 192MB RAM, and single 10/100 NIC, as the server. Five iMacs, revC, each with an additional 32MB of RAM are the remote terminals. The server and iMacs are on a 100MB switched (Cisco 5500) ethernet network segment.

Day One
I installed Mac OS 8.6 on the HFS+ partition. This is the partition used for the NetBoot images and Macintosh files. Once completed, I moved onto the OSXS installation. It is on one CD and takes about 40 minutes to load everything. After the installation is complete and the server reboots, and the Assistant application launches automatically; it is much like the Setup Assistant on the Mac OS. Here the network services are selected, network information entered, and root password is set. Once the setup was completed and the Mac rebooted, I logged in as root and created the needed user accounts for myself and the Mac lab manager.

Next came installing the NetBoot server. It is a separate install CD. It took about 20 minutes to install and then I applied the various patches from Apple. Once installed, the NetBoot Server Setup Assistant launched and I configured the NetBoot options. When completed it was time reboot the Mac a last time.

In theory, I have a fully functional NetBoot server. And I have yet to open up a terminal window.

Now that the server setup and configuration is complete, it was time to setup the iMacs in the lab. All of their firmware was updated, hard drives reformatted and a fresh copy of 8.6 installed locally. At this point I set the Startup Disk control panel to Network Disk and rebooted them. On the first try, the iMacs found the NetBoot server and booted right up.

Day Two
So, finally, the iMacs are booting remotely; not even touching the local hard drive. I booted all five at one time. While not as fast as booting with a local disk, it was responsive and not that much longer of a boot time. I am working on collecting some real world stats.

Since the basics are setup and working, I needed to update and customize the NetBoot HD and Application HD images. I headed to the Apple web site, download the needed patches and any Tech Notes I could find on the subject. After a little reading, I sat down at an iMac and started to apply the updates to the HD images. Then the NetBoot HD system was updated to Mac OS 8.6. Once completed, I followed the appropriate steps and customized various System settings and the application suite the users have access to. Applications are installed in the same manner as in the Mac OS, no surprises. The students have access to Netscape, Transmit, Better Telnet, and Microsoft Office 98.

Lastly, I loaded up the Macintosh Manager and setup the workgroups and user accounts used by the iMacs. The package is fairly straight forward to use and manage. I was pleasantly surprised by the number of settings the sys admin has control over via Macintosh Manager.

The lab is ready for its big day, for on Monday it will officially open. So far, it has held up well; some of the staff here is helping beat up on the system.