[pastusza]

I have been given the challenge of setting up a file and print server for a small group of Macintosh clients. My toss up now is between using MacOS X Server and AppleShare IP running on top of MacOS 9. MacOS X has the advantage of not requiring additional client licenses for each user, where AppleShare IP does.

Has anyone used MacOS X server for file and print sharing? How is it? Is there a backup solutiont that will allow me to backup to DLT tapes? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Andy Pastuszak
apastuszak@home.com

[AndyMac]

My secondary job function is to administer two smallish networks. I have been using ASIP - only for filesharing services - and can say that it is great for ease of use and stability. Every few weeks I will reboot the server and maybe run a disk utility to keep it clean. Very low maintenance. No experience with osX server, though.

For backups I have been using Dantz Retrospect to backup to DLT tapes. Retrospect is great and I can only think of one tape that has failed me in the past 2 1/2 years (on average filling 2-3 tapes/month).

Mac OS X Server does not do print serving (unless they fixed it in 1.2). The LPD is broken. Also, since it's a UNIX print queue, it wouldn't show up in chooser. The file services are OK. A bit slower than ASIP, but still good. You must use an HFS+ volume for file services and you must use a web browser to admin.

As for backup solutions, you have UNIX tar command and OmniBackup (www.omnigroup.com)