Mac OS X Server 10.3 Panther

Apple announced Panther Server, Mac OS X Server 10.3, on October 8, 2003, with shipping set for October 24. Store pre-orders opened on announcement day. These dates should remain separate: placing an order is not receiving the product. US ten-client and unlimited-client editions retained prices of $499 and $999.

Family

Mac OS X Server

Version

10.3

Architectures

PowerPC

Historical US price

US$499 / US$999

Apple · Server 10.3 · 2003-10-08

Server Admin brought together configuration, monitoring and service logs previously handled by separate tools. Open Directory 2 combined LDAP with Kerberos authentication; Samba 3 added Windows logins and home directories, including roaming profiles. Apple's October technology overview also describes Kerberos single sign-on and automatic configuration of several servers from saved settings.

Apple · Server 10.3 · 2003-10-08 · Yuval Kossovsky · Macworld · 2003-11-30 · Apple · Server 10.3 · 2003-10 · PDF · 3-4

Mail combined Postfix for SMTP and Cyrus for IMAP and POP; Apache, Tomcat, Axis and JBoss supported web services and applications. The VPN server supported PPTP and L2TP. These are historical protocols and components, not current security advice. Apple required 128 MB RAM, 4 GB free and built-in USB, naming Power Mac G3, G4, G5 and Xserve. The $19.95 upgrade offer had specific purchase conditions from October 8, not blanket eligibility for existing owners.

Apple · Server 10.3 · 2003-10-08

In Macworld, Rodney Gedda praised graphical management but warned that administrators still needed to know what to configure; Server Monitor worked only on Xserve. In a separate review, Yuval Kossovsky welcomed DHCP and network-control improvements but reported DNS zone-transfer difficulties in his setup. These are attributed experiences, not universal faults. His expectation of future fixes does not prove that an update delivered them.

Rodney Gedda · Macworld · 2004-02-12 · Yuval Kossovsky · Macworld · 2003-11-30