Prerequisites

Before we go anywhere, stop here with me. We're going to talk about the prerequisites of this course because there's a lot you need to get through the entire course and I want to be sure that you start prepared to go the whole distance. Okay? So let's get started here. What are you going to need to know already? This is stuff you need to have in your brain before you even get started. So, first thing I want you to know is how to contact your IT department so that they can help you with planning. If you are doing deployment to a lot of computers, you need their help.

If you don't have an IT department and it's all you, that's a different story. But if you have an IT department, definitely know how to contact them and let them know that this is what you're getting started with. Now, if you already know how to set up OS X server or you've just watched those titles and you figured that out, next you need to know how to connect computers and ethernet cables together with a switch to make a little network. And if you don't have that IT department we talked about before, just know how to make a computer on your network connect to the internet. That's enough to get you started.

Now, what do you need to have? This is your equipment list. So, we're going to put together a list for you that you're going to use to get all of the pieces together so that you can proceed with the course. The first thing you need is one computer that you're going to configure to be the master computer. This is going to be the best computer on your network that you have the ability to erase, reinstall, and install apps on and be ready to go. So, make sure that you've got one and that you are able to erase it, okay? You're going to need another computer to act as your server.

Again, if you don't already have an OS X server, you're going to need one that you can erase so that you can set it up as such. You could deploy the resulting software back to your master. That would be perfectly fine, but all you would see was more of what you'd already done, so it doesn't have the same impact as if you deployed what you've built off to a completely different computer, or to a whole bunch of them. Preferably, you're going to have another computer to use as your deployment target, and frankly, I'd rather you had three, or more. So, make sure you've got something to deploy to.

Additionally, we show you how to set up a tech drive in this title and I want you to have an external hard drive, preferably bus-powered. That means it doesn't have to plug into the wall in order to get power. It gets power right off of the USB bus or off of the Thunderbolt bus, or maybe FireWire, if that's what you've got. It would be great if this were a really fast drive. In this title, the speeds that you see me achieve are mostly because I'm using a Thunderbolt drive that is an SSD. Very, very fast.

You can get that too. They're available for sale at Apple's store, or at Staples, or Office Depot. They're available all over the place. You just need to go look. Next, you need to have DHCP available on your network. Or you can run it from your server. If you don't know what that is, don't worry. We tell you what it is through the title. But this goes back to knowing how to get in touch with your IT department or if you're the person who is the IT department, you need to know if you're handing out IP addresses to your client computers or if everything on your network is statically configured.

We need you to have DHCP enabled on the network. You're also going to need a fast internet connection. We download a lot of software in this title and a lot of it is going to come down very, very slowly if your internet connection is slow. It just stands to reason. Also, you're plugging in a lot of equipment. So be sure that you have enough power for everything that you're going to be running at the same time. You'll need a gigabit connection for your client and your server. So, however many computers you've got connected that you plan to use in this title, you need each of them to have a wired gigabit connection to a gigabit switch over Cat 5e or Cat 6 cabling.

When you do the multicast section of this title, you're going to need a small gigabit switch that you can pull the uplink to so that you can isolate it from the rest of your network. If you're plugging into a gigabit network and the outlet is on the wall and you don't know where it goes, you need to talk to your IT department. Now, what else will you need to have? Well, you're going to need enough ethernet patch cables to connect everything that's necessary all at the same times. So if you have a server, a switch, maybe a router that goes out to the internet, and a couple of other pieces of equipment that are all connecting at the same time, each one of those pieces of equipment needs an ethernet cable.

So be sure you've got enough cabling. And you're also going to need to purchase software or at least acquire an installer for OS X Maverick. So it's very likely you're going to need an Apple ID that works on the Mac App Store. So, you might want to have that prepared ahead of time. Additionally, if you're using old Mac Minis, that's completely fine. But just understand that your life is going to be a lot easier if you've got a display, keyboard and some kind of pointing device, a mouse, trackpad, whatever, for each computer that you're going to use.

And also, this is a lot of stuff, right? Plan ahead. Make sure you've got enough physical space to set everything up safely so you're not tripping over stuff while you're doing this course. So, what shouldn't you worry about? Well, don't worry about it. It's going to look like a mess. Your floor is likely going to be a nest of cables. You're going to have ethernet cables going hither and yon. Don't worry about it. You're going to have that just while you're taking the course and then you'll be able to put it all back. And if you are really, really careful, I'm sure you can keep it very nice and neat and organized, but if it ends up looking like a nest of cables, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Just make sure you're not being unsafe and you're not tripping over anything. Now, if you only have one keyboard and mouse to use between all of the systems, like I said before, if you're using Mac Minis, don't worry about that too much. The display is more of a big deal. You want to have a display on each of the computers because it's more inconvenient to be switching displays around. But you can move a keyboard and mouse from one machine to another while you're using it. It's a little bit inconvenient, but not unbearable. Also, don't worry too much if your external hard drive is a slower, older, USB 2 based hard drive.

Everything will still work, don't worry about it. Everything will be a little slower, so you'll have to be patient and wait, but slow is still functional, so don't worry. Also, don’t worry about it if your OS X server is running on older hardware. As long as the hardware supports the software you’re running and it’s compatible, it’s fine. It will work. If fact, I know a lot of people that run OS X server on the minimum standard hardware just in order to get by, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It will be fine. Finally, don't worry.

This is going to be a lot of fun. You're about to learn how to do something that very few people know how to do, and it's extremely powerful. So don't worry, be happy! We're going to have fun.