Creating DNS records in OS X Server for top level domains

It is not very common to see this, but if in a rare circumstance you are hosting a zone file in house for your DNS, but it is sharing the same domain as your website, you or your employees might be stuck not being able to access your website.  Unfortunately, OS X Server does not have a way in the GUI to create a top level DNS record (sometimes seen as an @ record).  However, this can still be done via commandline...

cd /Library/Server/named

sudo nano db.domain.com

Add your A record for your [domain.com]:

domain.com. 10800 IN A target_IP_Address

Once done, restart DNS in Server.app, clear your DNS cache and you should be good to go...

Watchman Monitoring

So anyone who supports Apple or Unix computers REALLY needs to look at using Watchman Monitoring.  Its just a tiny client that runs in the background and periodically phones home to report on the status of *many* services: CrashPlan, Time Machine, HD Failure, RAID status, etc, as well as server services such as OS X Server, Kerio Connect, Daylite Server and more.

Its such a great service, and designed from the ground up for the Apple platform.  Last time I checked, we have it installed on close to 300 systems, and it is rock solid.  Everytime we've done a server/master image deployment, we have been able to easily install the agent behind the scenes using a simple ARD Unix command and it automatically phones home.

Seriously, its really helped us be proactive.  People need to check it out.

Oh yeah, and Allen Hancock made it really generous in its pricing.  Totally worth it.