Mac OS X Server provides flexible and powerful tools that help you manage file servers and printers across your network. Support for Mac, Windows and UNIX clients lets you easily integrate Mac OS X Server with your existing enterprise infrastructure — and new support for access control lists (ACLs) adds even more flexibility. You also get advanced features for Mac OS X clients as well as easy-to-use tools for managing quotas and access privileges from a central directory.

Flexible File Serving

Mac OS X Server features easy-to-configure file services that allow Macintosh, Windows and UNIX systems to share files and network resources locally and over the Internet. It uses native file protocols, including AFP, SMB/CIFS (Samba) and NFS, to provide out-of-the-box support for heterogeneous environments. For Windows users, Mac OS X Server systems appear right in their Network Neighborhood — just like a Windows server — enabling them to browse folders and share files without installing additional software.

Users can access their personal files and shared folders from any system on the network, without special software. Mac OS X Server supports native service discovery for Mac and Windows systems, so networked users can find, or “discover,” file servers in the way that’s normal for their system. You can also publish static file server listings on an LDAP directory server, making it easy for computers outside your local network to discover and connect to your server.

Access Control Lists (ACLs)

New in Mac OS X Server v10.4 are access control lists (ACLs), providing flexible file system permissions that are fully compatible with Windows Server 2003 Active Directory environments and Windows XP clients. This capability — unprecedented on any UNIX- or LINUX-based platform — gives you fine-grained control over file system permissions. With ACLs, you can assign multiple users and groups to any file object. You also have the flexibility to assign both allow and deny permissions, as well as a granular set of permissions for administrative control, read, write and delete operations. In addition, Mac OS X Server supports a file permission inheritance model, so user permissions are inherited when files are moved to the server and rewritten when files are copied on the server.

Powerful Printing

Mac OS X Server features easy-to-configure print services based on native protocols that allow Mac, Windows and UNIX systems to share PostScript and inkjet printers — whether they’re network-based or connected directly to the server. This helps organizations reduce expenses by sharing printing resources in heterogeneous computing environments.

Mac OS X Server print services work with Open Directory for centralized LDAP directory-based management. Using Workgroup Manager, you can assign printers to any combination of users, groups and computers and set print quotas on a per-user and per-queue basis. Flexible queue management tools allow you to manage high-volume, cross-platform printing from a single interface, and remote monitoring tools provide detailed service logs for tracking printer use.

Queue Management

Mac OS X Server enables you to manage print queues for Mac, Windows and UNIX clients from a single central interface. With server-based management, you can easily track the status of printers and all current jobs, manage print queues and enforce print quotas. On the client side, users don’t need to tie up their systems during printing. When they submit a job to a shared printer, it’s automatically sent to the print queue on the server.

Broad Printer Support

Mac OS X Server includes hundreds of built-in vendor-supplied raster drivers and PostScript Printer Description (PPD) files to support the most popular printers from Brother, Canon, Epson, HP, Lexmark, Xerox and others. Also included is the open source GIMP-Print printer driver project, which supports hundreds of additional devices.