[CalendarServer-users] Running CalendarServer on Mac OS X 10.8.5

[Scott Cherf]

On Nov 29, 2013, at 2:52 PM, Andre LaBranche wrote:

> 
> On Nov 29, 2013, at 5:15 AM, Scott Cherf <cherf at ambient-light.com> wrote:
> 
>> Bernard, I strongly suggest sticking with the Calendar Server you have and avoiding MacOS X Server at all expense. At the very least, take a look at some of the critical commentary available for the Server product. I tried that route myself when I became frustrated by some installation issues I was experiencing with CalanderServer and wasted several weeks. I would not recommend attempting to install the Apple Server product; in my experience it does not work at all.
> 
> Hi,
> 
> It might be useful to qualify this a little. While I don’t doubt your experience, I can’t help but feel like there’s an implied “… for my purposes” at the end of your last sentence. I can confirm that OS X Server and the Calendar & Contacts service therein does actually work for many purposes - but not all purposes :)
> 
> Based on my fair amount of sysadmin experience, I will assert that running a server ‘for real’ is going to involve some amount work. By ‘for real’, I mean:
> the service is actually used by real humans other than yourself, whose numbers may be increasing or decreasing, and whose usage patterns may change.
> those humans use the service to create data which they care about. don’t lose, break, or leak this data.
> the service needs to be up, always and forever, notwithstanding planned outages for things like upgrades / migrations / end-of-life.
> I’m not aware of any vendor’s non-hosted solution for any service fitting these criteria that doesn’t require the operator to wear a sysadmin hat, at least sometimes. If any of those criteria don’t fully apply, it gets much, much easier. I assume they must all fully apply.
> 
> That’s all rather vague, so here are some specific questions I think about when I’m evaluating options for deploying any solution that is at least partially vendor-supplied:
> What’s the startup cost in time and money? How much needs to be built / configured versus acquired ready-to-use?
> What are the different high-level components of the service - the moving parts? This is basically the list of things that can break.
> Where is the demarcation line between things the operator is responsible for fixing and things the vendor is responsible for fixing? What’s the expected level of service for vendor fixes?
> Who owns the responsibility for monitoring, troubleshooting, maintenance, performance / scalability testing? For things the operator is responsible for, what tools are available?
> With the answers to the above in-hand, how much operator knowledge is needed to achieve success in a worst / average / best-case scenario, without relying on luck? What are the means for sourcing that knowledge?
> Do all involved parties understand and agree on all of these points?
> There are multiple continuums at play, and making a solid decision requires understanding the tradeoffs involved in each.
> 

All good tuff Andre, and I expect for very large installations it may be more efficient to work through the installation and configuration issues I've experienced with MacOS X Server over the past 5 years. My experience is based on managing a small business network of 2 servers and 5 client machines running 10.6.8. I began experimenting with the Server product with 10.4 and successively installed and tested versions through 10.6. I have no practical experience using later operating systems. None of my experimental installations were successful and in every case I rolled back to the retail product.

My background is in IT and I began my career as a systems administrator using HP 1000 machines running both RTE (4 through 6) and BCS in a research lab environment (NASA's Gerard P. Kuiper Airborne Observatory). Since then I spent 12 years writing OS software for Tandem Computers, then took a position designing and implementing the software development environment for cisco Systems. I retired as Chair of cisco's Reliability, Availability and Serviceability Lab. I consider my IT background extensive.

That said, I would rather use open source tools like your Calendar Server without the additional management overhead of MacOS X Server in my environment. I find the lack of documentation and poor user interface to be a drawback, along with some severe shortcomings in basic product functionality. I can't recommend it, and I hope I've at least qualified myself to have an educated opinion on the subject.

Regards,
Scott.



> Just my two cents :)
> -dre
> 
>> 
>> Scott.
>> 
>> On Nov 8, 2013, at 1:21 PM, Bernhard Spinnler wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> On 07.11.2013, at 22:09, Olivier DUCROT <olivier.ducrot at easymac.fr> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Why don't you simply install Server 2.2 from AppStore. It's worth the price. $20 and one click install..
>>> 
>>> Yes, that's certainly a good option. However, I thought, since I do not need any other parts of the server right now and the CalDAV/CardDAC server is probably similar or even identical, I try the open source solution. Thanks for the suggestion.
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> 	Bernhard
>>> 
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