Hello, I’m a web craftsman with a passion for the modern web. I build web applications and play with social services and communities.
Welcome, due to a request in one of my other Leopard Server posts I will guide you through the setting up of the new Leopard Wiki and iCal Server.
While writing this the current server version is 10.5.1. However, I don’t think the way the basic setup works will change in the future.
Step 1: Log into Server Admin, connect to your server and go to Settings->Services and tick iCal, Open Directory and Web. (Of cause you can have more but those three are the ones you need to run the wiki server)
Step 2: Get you Open Directory to work! This is pretty straight forward and don’t need any special settings unless you want to do more with your server. In my case I just created an Open Directory Master on my FQDN which actually allows to run most of the LDAP related services.
Step 3: Go into iCal. The settings should be right by default. Important: In case you want to change the Data Store make sure your new destination folder has the right rights! (Check step 5 to take care of that)Start the iCal Service now! (Only if you use the default Data Store. Otherwise finish step 5 before!)
Step 4: Go to “Web”. Here we have to do a little bit more. Go to Settings->Web Services and make sure everything is like you want. In case you want to change the Data Store make sure your new destination folder has the right rights! (Check step 5 to take care of that)
Then go to “Sites”. Add a new web site (+) or modify the default one. Type your FQDN into “Domain name”. I use “example.com” here. Take care whether you add “www.” in front or not. The Wiki will only be accessible over that exact domain name! (You can modify that later so). In case you want to change the Data Store make sure your new destination folder has the right rights! (Check step 5 to take care of that)
Inside the web site settings go to “Web Services” and tick “Wiki and blog” and “Web calendar”:
Save the setting and start “Web”. (Only if you use the default Data Store. Otherwise finish step 5 before!)
Step 5: This step is only needed if you decided to store your iCal, Wiki and/or Web Server files in another location than the default Data Store. This is useful if you have more than one disk to have all the important data separated from the standard OS X data. (In case of 10.5 Server that is very useful because you can reinstall OS X several times without backing up and recovering all the files every single time. I reinstalled 3 times before everything did what it was supposed to do.)
The problem about storing the files in another location is the access permission of the folders. iCal, Wiki and Web server have own users so you have to make sure that these users can access the folders you defined for the services. One way to do so is giving your folders a 777 CHMOD. I don’t recommend that because of security issues. Rather change the owner and group of the folders to the right ones:
- User & group for Wiki: _teamsserver (read & write for owner/group, none for others)
- User & group for iCal: _calendar (read & write for owner, read for group, none for others)
- For the web server folder make sure that “others” can read.
Step 6: All right. So far so good. All the needed services are configured and running. Now open “Workgroup Manger” and go into your LDAP Directory (where you should be by default).If you can see the Directory Administrator you defined while setting up the Open Directory you are right.
Now go into the group view and add a new group. I call my group “Publications”. Choose the before created web site from the drop down “Enable to following services for this group on” and tick “wiki and blog” and “Web calendar”. Specify the rights as needed beneath and save the group.
Create a new user who is part of your new group. (Tick “administer this server” for the user if you want the user to be able to administer the wiki.)
Congratulations, now you are set to use your Wiki!
Navigate your browser to “http://your-FQDN.com/groups/groupname/” and log in with the user you just created.
(http://example.com/groups/publications/ in my case from this tutorial)
Make sure you use exactly the same domain name as defined before. www.example.com would NOT work in my case because I specified it as example.com without www.!
I hope this helped you. Feel free to post comments about your success or failure.
Good luck!
by Matthias Schmidt (m-schmidt.eu)
46 Responses to “How to setup Leopard Wiki Server”
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WOW, a hell of a work, hope more people suffering the same problems write to you.
Maybe just reading the 2 first lines of the pos they fixed the problem and run the wiki and ical…. and they forget to tell you tanks for the post.
Or not.
anyways
cheers.
Hehe…However it is..Since the Tutorial is online I’m getting loads of hits. And most of them are going to this article.
So I guess there are some people who are just to lazy to say thanks.
I know what’s that, ussually I do the same. jeje
Yesterday you corrected me a word in twitter, so now I do the same.
The last line of the post: Good look!
You didn´t mean Good luck! like gluck!….
cheers
Thanks for the article, very clean and concise.
Hi there…
Very nice indeed..
I ‘m a newbee on the Mac Server (Switched september a year ago to 10.4.x WS, and now to 10.5.1 SRVR)
and wondering if it’s an idea and possible for you to make a sort of quick install guide to get things started.
I’m setting up a server as we speek, and things are getting more clear by the day… or night.. ;)
didn’t have much sleep the past few days…
Wel for starters:
are we supposed to do the following sequence?
1 DNS
2 Open Dir
3 SMB
4 Print
and after that, whatever you want?
Or is there a better sequence?
Thank you
Mac’s great!
\
Hey,
thanks for commenting. Happy to see that there are OS X Server admins reading it.
Writing a general quick install guide is quite difficult because everybody uses the Server for different things.
Basically I’d recommend to start the basic network services at first. DHCP, NAT, DNS, Firewall. But then some people have already another DHCP and/or NAT and/or Firewall in there Network and don’t need these services. If you are planning to use the OS X Server as an Internet Gateway you should run the Gateway Assistant in the beginning. (it’s in the NAT overview pane)
For all the other services it really doesn’t matter in which order you start them.
It’s always good to have a look in the Apple Docs:
http://www.apple.com/server/documentation/
It tells you often things you can’t figure out by just clicking around in Server Admin. On the other hand there are some important details they forgot to write in the Docs.
However, feel free to ask more specific questions regarding you plans with your server.
thanks to you i got the point: how to do to the Ldap for get the wiki working !
cu maximilian
Hi,
What if instead of going to http://www.mywebsite.com/groups/groupwiki/ to access my groups wiki I want to just go to
http://www.wiki.mywebsite.com
Can you provide a tutorial for setting this up?
Thanks & great work so far.
- Daif
Hi,
Can you assist with setting up something like
http://www.wiki.mywebsite.com to take the user to http://www.mywebsite.com/groups/mygroupswiki
Thanks
You could add a new vhost for http://www.wiki.mywebsite.com which includes only a single php-file with a header() redirect inside. That’s the first thing that comes into my mind.
I followed your instructions and set up three folders on my second hard drive and gave each folder the permissions you indicated. I created a group called 2008 which has all the students in that grade in it. When I choose that group and try to (Enable the following services for this group on:) my only choice is (None). Any ideas?
Also, off topic,
I also have my Mac server on the internal network. We have a Linux box that does DHCP and runs all our mail and our webpage. This is then connected to a Sonic Wall firewall which is connected to cable modem. My mac server is recognized on the inside network as fileserver.hudsonvillechristian.org. Is there going to be a way to get to my Mac wiki and calendar from the outside?
Thanks for any help you can provide,
Steve
Thanks for the information. If I am reading correctly, users and groups should be set up by the Directory Administrator instead of setting them up up in the local directory node. Is that correct and if so can I change them to directory accounts?
Thanks again.
Can’t really tell that. Haven’t changes my wiki setup for a while. I’m happy it’s running kinda stable now. But I think it must be in the LDAP directory since the whole server concept seems to be based on that.
I could help you transferring your user/groups from one LDAP to another but I never used the local directory, sorry.
Btw: I don’t really like the wiki. The WYSIWYG editor is awesome but thats about it. The whole attempt to manage everything over tags is over the top for most non-techy people.
Got stuck on the calendar part of the wiki.
When I click on ‘calendar’ it goes to gray screen and shows ‘Get events from server’.
Then after a while an error message pumps up ‘Error from server: Error processing calendar data (210)’
Can anybody help?
Same here.
I’ve got the calendar up on our server, but when I log in, I get that message as well. Error processing calendar data (210). I can hit OK and move around the calendar and even start to add an entry. Clicking OK gives that error again as well.
Thoughts / Comments?
Only thought I have at the moment is disappointment.
Apple announced 10.6 Snow Leopard Server and promises the same features they used to promote 10.5 Leopard Server.
WTF!?!?!?
I remember making the decision on upgrading to 10.5 Server because of the promised calendar. Now they they say this will be a new feature in 10.6.
I just wanted to say thank you as well for the nice summary. Until I read your page I never knew I had to turn on iCal for the server. Thanks again!!
here’s a question,Is it possible to search through multiple group wikis at the same time?
When I’m in the workgroup manager (step 6) on my system, the following is greyed out:
Enable the following services for this group:
….
all these options are greyed out and I can’t make it work. Is there any setting i might have overseen? Any pointers?
Thanks,
-ralf
Did you log into your LDAP directory in workgroup manager? There is this little lock on the top-right hand corner you have to press to authorize as LDAP directory admin. Then you should be able to make changes to the directory!
I’m having the same issue.
Ldap is good (or at least the lock is unlocked)
and I can edit group name, but not select anything after “enable the follow services for this group on”:
Any suggestions?
-GReg
@Greg Cohen: same problem here. After quite some time and reading I discovered that I had to enable Open Directory as stated in this article and create users and groups in LDAP. Wiki simply doesn’t work with local users/groups. That got me past the problem you describe. If you’re already using LDAP, then not sure what to do.
However, I STILL cannot get a wiki to work. Individual user blogs work, but not the group wiki. The /groups/web page lists mygroup, but clicking on it says there’s no group with that name.
The group exists just fine in Workgroup Manager.
I’ve been through the Mac OS X Server Essentials book 3 times today looking for the piece I did wrong, but I’m at a dead end.
Anyone have any ideas?
Hi Matthias, nice job. I’ve got everything and up running and have web, wikki and calendar all working. Now my problem is … I want to move the iCal data store to another drive.
I change the link in Server Admin and iCal just ignores this, keeps working but storing in the same Documents folder on the main drive. I’ve tried undoing all the test iCal from publishing and subscribing, starting over and re-starting but nothing actually changes.
Do I REALLY have to start with a clean install to just move the iCal store location?
Oh yes, and the permissions on the new iCal Document store I made on the data drive are wrong. Is the only way to change this by using terminal?
Thank you again for your lucid and easy to read article.
Regards, Norman Leftly
So many questions, so little time.
Thank you Norman,
Currently I don’t have a OS X Server system to play around with and I don’t want to break the ones that work somehow.
I think you can just copy your folder to preserve your permissions. If that doesn’t work I’m afraid the only way is the terminal (chmod command). I can’t really remember how I did it but I think it was just a copy of the folder. Though I might copied it in terminal with “cp -p” to copy with preserved attributes.
Certainly you should stop iCal and Web service before you copy, then change folder location and start again afterwards.
Hope this helps a little.
Matthias
My company is trying to determine if we can use the Wiki instead of an extranet for client access and project communication.
I’ve been looking for examples of working wiki sites.
Have any suggestions on sites that are up and running… any that have been customized outside of the preset formats?
Thanks
analeisa
Thanks. This got me started quickly.
Thanks so much. I have 2 questions I can’t seem to find an answer for. Both have to do with setting up wikis as electronic student portfolios. Question 1: How do I “batch load” 2000 names to create 2000 individual wiki groups? 2. How do I set up automatic email notifications for any time one of my students alters his/her wiki? Help!
Matthias,
Great job on the directions!
Marc,
I would write a script to import the groups. There might also be applications out there that will generate mass groups for import. I know that Passenger does users but I haven’t done groups yet.
I cannot get the wiki to work. When I try to load the site. I get the typical page you get when a site is not found.
http://gemwiki.com/groups/Publications
hi,
I have made agrup in myLPAD directory called pub but while hitting it I am getting error no group withthat name hosted on this server.
Hi.
Very good instructions, simple and effective. I’ve been bitten by the “throttling respawn” problem more than once. :/
Don’t wanna be picky, but I’d just like to point out a small typo under step 5 (about rights).
“User & group for Wiki: _teamserver (read & write for owner/group, none for others)”
It should be “_teamsserver” (with two s’s).
Thanks again,
Lars
Thank you, I fixed the “typo”. Seems like there are still many people coming here to check this tutorial. Is there anyone who can confirm that it is still accurate with 10.5.7?
[...] the reason for this is that my over 2 years old article on how to setup a leopard wiki server is still getting many hits. Personally I haven’t used a Leopard wiki server since then [...]
Hi,
Awesome guide, except, for some strange reason, i can not select “wiki and blog” or “web calendar” in step 6, they are greyed out.. any ideas ?
//Leon
mail at r2x2 . com
Great tutorial! It actually works, and it works great!
Hello Bjarte,
I’m glad to hear that it works for you! Can you confirm with which OS X Server version you set the wiki up?
Hi everyone!
I came across this article when because I had the same problem as I’ve found out many others do, not beeing able to add wiki’s for groups. Blog worked fine but when I added a group in SA-Web-Web Services, the group wouldn’t stick. It disappered after about 30 sec and I couldn’t either add wiki’s and blog for groups in WGM. The drop-down meny under “Enable the following services for this group on:” were set to none and greyed out.
The solution: I found out that my users and groups where added in the local directory. I changed directory to LDAP (the litle globe just beeneth the meny bar shows what directory you are in, just click it and change to LDAP). I just logged in with “diradmin” and my usual password.
After that creating “testuser” and “testgroup” and Voilà. I added the group in SA-web-web services, and it sticked!!! I could also add the services to the group i VGM and when tried to go to the wiki page the group was there!
Now I just have to find a smooth way to move my users and groups to LDAP from local directory.
Hope this helps anyone!
Hello,
What should I put for the “Domain Name” in Web>Sites? I only want the wiki to be accessible from our internal network, as I have no need for it to be accessible from outside (currently). I’ve tried just making it the name of the server, but that isn’t working. I set the IP address to its private IP we use (192.168.1.4). Any help is greatly appreciated!
I configured Mac OS X 10.5 WiKi server very similar to what you have described. What I am now encountering is that the “moderator” setting seems to mean nothing.
If I have 5 accounts and set 2 of the users to be moderator, even the other 3 can still edit and delete anyone else. What I get is one of the following 3 scenarios:
- No name or password, go away.
- Name and password, any rights = wreak havoc on everyone else.
- Name and password, no rights = read only, cannot even reply to existing WiKi.
While there are certainly benefits from allowing everyone in a specified WiKi to be able to edit everything, I also need the ability, within the same system, to restrict people from editing other people, but still be able to reply. Is there something I’m missing, or am I forced to install some bulletin board package to get this function?
Well, I just wanted to let everyone know that I was able to get the Wiki working by removing whatever I had in the Domain Name field. After that, I was able to access the Wiki!
HI
This a shot in the dark. I am trying to find out how to change the default new page template in a group wiki. Does anybody ever tried (and succeeded). So far, I have tried to find de plist file for this, without success. Now I ma going to look into the site them
Thanks
Hi,
I running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Server. I have MAIL, DNS, OPEN DIRECTORY, Web, iCal, iChat all running on the same server.
My problem is i want to create Wiki, iCal & iChat of my organization. My default web is mail.example.com.kw
How can i create another website or a virtual website on the same server to carry the wiki, ical & ichat
can someone help me on this
Hey all,
I have the same problem as mentioned before, with no server showing the ‘enable calendaring’ or ‘enable services for this group’ sections. This is NOT a local users/group, I am authenticated as the Directory Admin, and the server is now showing up.
It’s as if the OD doesn’t recognize that the iCal service even exists. Do I need to reboot the OD master to get it to recognize the service?
Hi Matthias, I’hv set the wiki server on 10.6 server, everything is working fine. My problem is I can’t restrict users. Have created a group in my local directory and added few users from Active Directory, but other users also can login and create wikis. The step 6 mentioned here is missing in 10.6 (where you can specify the services assigned to a particular group). Can you help me out ..
When I try to enable services for groups in workgroup manager, there is no option as there used to be when I fresh installed. The settings are all there in the sites pane. I tried to wiping out OD master then manually entering in the users & groups etc, but this didn’t work. There has to be a file somewhere that can be manually modified/fixed aside from completely reinstalling the OS.(10.5.8)
Any ideas?
Thanks,
Earl