I found that the Mailman system which is modified by Apple seemed to not be generating any log files. Upon closer inspection I found that the Mailman system was creating logs they were just not where Apple’s server OS was expecting them.

At this point in time I don’t know if this is due to a glitch during the original installation of if this is just the way Apple set it up. Since I have found a few other people with this or a very similar issue I suspect it’s a glitch in Apple’s set up.

I found that the Apple default configs are expecting the logs to be written to

/var/logs/mailman/

but the Mailman* system is configured to write them to

/var/mailman/logs/

I was concerned that a future update/upgrade from Apple might break the logging if I went and changed the Mailman config so instead I set up a symlink for /var/logs/mailman pointing to /var/mailman/logs and this seems to work both from the GUI or the CL. This almost seems like a typo on Apple’s part.

Just thought this might be useful to anyone supporting Apple servers.

* This is not the default Mailman location but Apple’s modified Mailman location

Back in late November I tried to get iCal Server running on some older hardware and this is what happened…

I ran iCal Server + iCal in a test environment on a older Xserve–Dual G4 1GHz 2GB RAM Mac OS X Server 10.5.5–in this test environment with only a couple of test users and I noticed a significant increase in CPU activity due to iCal but it seemed that it wasn’t something the server couldn’t handle. A month later when I rolled out the service to 60+ users the server was brought to its knees. It ramped up to 100% CPU usage as more users logged in and by about 11AM that business day it ceased to be functional. Anyone trying to connect timed out before they received updates.

I have not been able to track down any specifics as far as something I can “fix” to prevent this problem as my iCal Server install is Apple default and other than running the CPU load at 100% there was not a single error reported/logged. I’m going to use brute force to work around the issue but I would like to find a better approach.

I am going to try to roll out this service again but hosted on a brand new Xserve 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 16GB RAM (I’m lucky in that I work for a bunch of lawyers).

Now two months later I think I have finally got it working…

Here are the details of what we have running in our offices:

Server Hardware:
Xserve 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon 16GB RAM, 1.6TB RAID 5. (complete overkill?)

Software/OS:
Mac OS X Server 10.5.6 (completely stock, no open-source mods) which runs iCal, iChat, and VPN. On our network we run Open Directory, Kerberos, and we manage our own internal DNS (all Mac OS X server based). Everything more or less works (although I can’t even keep track of how many things I’ve kludged to “force” Apple server stuff to work the way it is supposed to. For example my DNS is a clean BIND install as I completely removed the Apple BIND setup yet it still plays nicely with the Server Admin GUI tool.

Users:
65 users with about 20 having pre-existing calendars from NUTD each with about 1400 events that were imported into iCal. All my users are using various Mac systems running 10.5 (with a few throwbacks on 10.4). I expect that nearly all my users will give about 30-40 users read permissions to their calendars and 5-8 users read/write permission.

So what happened when I rolled it out this time?
As before it was very slow for all users on the first day which I expected. There are 52,079 events listed on the server, 56 user calendars so far and 16 groups. There have been some brief CPU spikes around 91% but the average CPU load works out to 26%. I am hoping that after a week or so it will start to average 18% – 20% during business hours. Before I loaded all the imported calendars and users started connecting the server load averaged just 2% with the same three main services running (iCal, iChat, VPN).

Once each user has their own calendar fully loaded as well as any delegated calendars the iCal client remains very responsive since events are first being cached locally. The background sync with 56 users actively using the system has–so far–had little impact on our network. We have three satellite offices that connect over dedicated VPNs (sonicWALLs) so their connection speeds are not always very good but each local network is Gigabit ethernet and 802.11g wi-fi. After the initial day’s surge the average bandwidth usage on the server is under 40 KB/s in/out with some spikes of course (at this point most of the data is outbound which makes sense).

It is sad that such a powerful server was required to host this system but I expect this is largely due to the fact that I was importing many pre-existing calendars from an earlier system. If the iCal system had been rolled out with initially empty calendars I might have been able to get by with a slightly lesser server (but in any case the dual G4 Xserve would never had supported so many users).

The Problem with “stuff”

Getting Things Done succeeds because it first addresses a critical barrier to completing the atomic tasks that we want to accomplish in a given day. That’s “stuff.” Amorphous, unactionable, flop-sweat-inducing stuff. David says:

Here’s how I define “stuff:” anything you have allowed into your psychological or physical world that doesn’t belong where it is, but for which you haven’t yet determined the desired outcome and the next action step. [pg. 17]

Stuff is bouncing around in our heads and causing untold stress and anxiety. Evaluation meetings, bar mitzvahs, empty rolls of toilet paper, broken lawn mowers, college applications, your big gut, tooth decay, dirty underwear and imminent jury duty all compete for prime attention in our poor, addled brains. Stuff has no “home” and, consequently, no place to go, so it just keeps rattling around.

Worst off, we’re too neurotic to stop thinking about it, and we certainly don’t have time to actually do everything in one day. Jeez Louise, what the hell am I, Superman?

So you sprint from fire to fire, praying you haven’t forgotten anything, sapped of anything like creativity or even the basic human flexibility to adapt your own schedule to the needs of your friends, your family or yourself. Your “stuff” has taken over your brain like a virus now, dragging down every process it touches and rendering you spent and virtually useless. Sound familiar?

- David Allen, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity

———-

Right now I/we receive incoming requests by the following methods:

1. Email
2. Phone
3. iChat
4. Verbal
5. Observation

A web form input is not used at all at the present time.

This “stuff” needs to be triaged and managed primarily in my head which then can’t be shared with other staff members efficiently. By reducing the input of “sfuff” to primarily just one method (web based form) and two secondary methods (phone and verbal) it will make it more efficient to triage and report to others on how much stuff there is to do, what has been done, and what might need to change in the future.

I’ve found over time that nearly 90% of all verbal request aren’t sufficiently important enough to require a response. If they had been important the user would have emailed or called.

Don can fix anything. Really. A problem sent to him is finished. That’s the end of that problem. We work in a mid-sized Family Law firm in Portland, Oregon and run an all Apple system. I know this is a rarity, as people call from all over the country call to seek advice from Don (after an article about our firm was placed on the Apple website). So, not only does Don help this company to run more effectively and effciently, he helps companies all around the country. Aside from his complete competency, he also happens to be an easy going, humerous person who makes the office more enjoyable each day. I can’t think of anyone I’d rather have working as our System Administrator than Don Kruse, and I’ve worked with a few good ones.. – FH

Don makes our world work. We are completely reliant on our computers to even know our name. If there is an issue, it is fixed, sometimes before we even know there was a problem. Don has an unique ability to explain complex computer jagon in english so that we can learn what we are doing wrong and how to stop it. Don is also approachable with questions and concerns and he is always looking for ways to make our system work better.
As a working mother, Don made it possible for me to have complete access to the computer system from home so that I can be here and there at the same time. He is our life raft. – DL

I think Don would make an awesome candidate for SysAdmin of the year because he is a patient, level-headed individual. He flys from the Portland office all the to the Bend office to fix any office product bugs we come across. He never gets irritated or half-asses the office maitenance problems we have, even if they are simple problems that could have been fixed by us originally. We really appreciate his dedicated, hard-working IT skills or the office would one big electrical mess. THANKS! – CS

http://www.sysadminoftheyear.com/

“Don is able to maintain control of the machines, while the machines maintain their control of us.” – JH

“Don can do it all and faster than anyone else.” – EB

“Don is a well versed IT guru who has successfully facilitated an office of attorneys using solely apple products for their IT needs. I ibelieve this alone would qualify, but will continue anyway. Don and our other IT manager Tim, set up a system of inter-office I chat so ground breaking and secure that our firm was contacted by the department of defese on how they did it.” – AKS
“For amazing IT developments, hard work and being so easy to work with, Don should be your sysadmin of the year.” – BRS

“Without Don’s magical talent with our system our world would come to a complete stop!!!! He is the best!!” – LCS

“He is extremely helpful and is always willing to take the time to solve a problem. We are a big firm with multiple branch offices – he services them all. He has a “can do” attitude and will not stop until an answer or a problem is solved. He is pro-active about solutions and always keeps abreast of recent changes and developments in software and hardware to improve our daily life. He is also an all around good guy who appreciates coffee and the occassional donut. He takes his commitments seriously to our firm and his family.” -AS

“Always quick to fix the problem… need I say more?” – SS

“Best keep the “computer compromised” guys and gals in line man arround” -JLS

“Don not only fixes our computers, he can help me figure out my iPod.” – SM

“Because he is the all knowing super geek !” – KW
“Don is exceedingly helpful both at work and at home. He is always patient with his coworkers, at a law firm, not many of them really understand what goes on with a server, it’s not a tech firm but a family law firm. He often travels to the branch offices peppered throughout Oregon and Washington, for he is the server guru for the entire company, wherever they may roam, and strives to make everyone feel supported even if they are not a part of the main office. He works until a problem is solved. This often means for me, his wife, that dinner is delayed, or a weekend day is a work day, but he cares about his job even outside of regular work hours. He is constantly working to create better solutions on his own initiative, and never waits for someone else to tell him what to do next. And after all those long hours at the law firm…he still comes home and will cheerfully help me out with my computer if it is being fussy. He makes my life easier by keeping the home system running smoothly, and it’s a joy to watch his hard work affect and improve the worklives of others around him. Sure, I am biased, but he really does give his best both at work and at home in terms of being the resident super server geek. I love my geek!” – CLSK

“Because he is my own personal SPAM blocker!!!” – AG