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Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/11584
BOOK REVIEWS SNOW LEOPARD SERVER DEVELOPER REFERENCE REVIEW BY RIC GETTER an ongoing theme throughout the book (as it should be). Whether you’re setting up a server for a small office, school or enterprise, setting up a server is an exercise in decision-making. Snow Leopard’s “Standard” server setup makes a lot of those decisions for you but at a cost of a cost of a good deal of the platform’s flexibility. Dilger does an excellent job of objectively laying out your options and explaining their potential benefits and possible consequences. This really comes to the forefront with his coverage of the many topics with security implications. What is perhaps the book’s greatest strength is the way that Dilger precedes his step-by-step instructions with the relevant background and theory behind a given topic, keeping you informed of the implications of what you’re about to do before you do it. When dealing with something like a server, it’s most comforting to know what it is you’re doing before you hit the Okay button. Even before it released its $999 Mac Mini package, Snow Leopard Server was an incredible bargain. A 100-user system would price out at nearly $20,000 less than a comparable Windows setup thanks to Apple’s generous licensing terms. Between its online and printed manuals, the Apple provides an abundance of documentation. However, one needs to assemble a rather extensive library of books and PDFs to cover all the bases of what Snow Leopard Server can do and exactly how to do it. In the same vein as Amit Sing’s Mac OS X Internals, longtime Mac admin Daniel Eran Dilger has compiled a comprehensive reference that’s a one-stop-shop for new and experienced administrators simply titled, SnowLeopardServer. At 944 pages, Snow Leopard Serveris a bit larger (though somewhat lighter) than the Mac Mini, but considering its scope, it’s well worth the shelf space. Dilger’s book starts out with what you’ll need to know to plan your server deployment in advance, not only in terms of its setup but what you should be aware of before you finalize the purchase of any new hardware. In fact, planning ahead is “When dealing with something like a server, it’s most comforting to know what it is you’re doing before you hit the Okay button.” In a tome of this size, a book’s organization is critical and, on this arena, Snow Leopard Serverscores very high. There are numerous interdependencies in server configuration; touching something in one place often requires making adjustments somewhere else. Dilger peppers each chapter of his book with attention-grabbing “Cross-Ref” icons, pointing you to important and relevant information located elsewhere. The book is also copiously illustrated, understandable considering Snow Leopard Server’s graphics-intensive interface. Each diagram and screen shot serves a purpose and not just there to inflate the page count. The book’s design and execution are top-notch, unquestionably on a par with the system it’s describing. Snow Leopard Serverby Daniel Eran Dilger; $49.99, Addison-Wesley (informit.com); 944 pgs. ISBN 978-0-470-52131-1 48 MacDirectory