As quite a few users of our tools and tutorials intend to or already have updated to Leopard, let’s have a quick look at the differences between 10.4 and 10.5 Server. Given our sites’ content, the focus will be on Web and Mail Services.

We would also like to take the opportunity to announce that all our tools have been updated to be Mac OS X 10.5 Server compatible. Most of our tutorials have been updated to cover Mac OS X 10.5 Server as well.

Web Services:
10.5 ships with Apache 2.2.6, PHP 5.2.4 and MySQL 5.0.45. This means it is now current with the latest versions available. The configuration is similar to 10.4. All basic modules and libraries are there, but unfortunately many still aren’t.

One notable absentee is the GD Graphic Library.

Mail Services:
Mac OS X 10.5 Server’s mail services have been updated as well and include very recent versions. Leopard Server ships with Postfix 2.4.3, Cyrus 2.3.8, amavisd 2.5.1, SpamAssassin 3.2.1, ClamAV 0.91.2, SquirrelMail 1.4.10a and Mailman 2.1.9.

Besides the new version, there have been also a few changes. The whole content filtering suite (amavisd, SpamAssassin, ClamAV) now runs as user “_amavisd” and not as user “clamav” anymore. As opposed to 10.4, the bayes db is now written only in one place and there is no more need for the symlink fix.

Furthermore, ClamAV is now being used by means of the clamd daemon and not clamscan anymore. This results in much better performance under heavy load.

What hasn’t been improved are the Postfix settings. Although all parameters needed to avoid being an open relay are in place, it is still a weak and inefficient configuration.

On the bright side, the new Postfix version supports templates for bounce messages et al.

Cyrus is now capable of clustering, but to take advantage of it you will need Xsan.

What is the impact of Leopard Server on our tools?

• mailbfr has been updated and is available immediately in a Leopard compatible version. All functionality has been retained for Mac OS X 10.5, 10.4 and 10.3 Server.
• spamtrainer has been updated and is available immediately in a Leopard compatible version. For 10.5 the -f option is not needed anymore and thus disabled.
• amavis-stats cannot be installed for time being. We will keep you posted.

What is the impact of Leopard Server on our tutorials?

• Updating amavisd, SpamAssassin and SquirrelMail have been updated to include support for Leopard Server.
• Installing the GD Graphic Library, RRDtool and Mailgraph have been updated to include support for Leopard Server.
• Implementing a Frontline Spam Defense for Postfix, Making Virtual Mail users and implementing SPF and Domain Keys have been updated to include support for Leopard Server.
• Updating ClamAV and updating PHP have not been updated yet. A few things have changed in such a way that some more testing is required before releasing updated tutorials.
• Rejecting virtual mail users before the content-filter will probably not be updated anymore. Apple has instructions in their new Mail Services Manual which guide the user through setting up Postfix style aliases. We are waiting to see how this pans out, before changing or replacing this tutorial.
• Properly Deleting OS X 10.4.x Server Mail Users will not be updated. Although still available, we are already recommending the use of SirAdmin even for Tiger Server. As it seems to work fine on 10.5 Server there is no need for an updated version.