OS X Mountain Lion Server For Dummies

Collecting Info Before You Install

It’s a good idea to gather some information about your server Mac and your network before you start installation and configuration. By having the info in front of you, you may speed up your setup time and you’ll have a record of how you set up the server. And the process of gathering the information will help you understand the type of setup you need. This section describes information you may collect and explains some of the terms that the installer software uses.

Hardware ID numbers

Two hardware identification numbers are useful to record if your network contains multiple servers: the MAC address and the serial number. If you’re using remote management software for multiple clients and servers, this information may help you configure that software.

The MAC address doesn’t refer to the Macintosh; it’s the acronym for Media Access Control. The MAC address is a unique hardware identifier that specifies each Ethernet port or wireless network card. In general, if a Mac has two Ethernet ports, it will have two MAC addresses. (The exception is Xserve, which has a built-in Ethernet port that has two MAC addresses — one used by the server’s processor and the other used by Xserve’s special Lights Out Management processor.) The MAC address is a series of two-digit characters separated by colons, like this: 00:23:32:b5:d0: 43. Apple also refers to the MAC address as the Ethernet ID.

The serial number is a unique number that identifies every Mac. A Mac can ...