It’s been a year since Apple first shipped “Leopard”, its fifth retail version of OS X. Which means it’s been about a year since I started hearing people complain about Leopard’s truncated printer controls. Many users still haven’t discovered that the printing options in 10.5 are hidden behind that unlabeled blue arrow, and those that have are tired of constantly expanding the print dialog just to do their jobs.

If your job is to administer Macintosh computers, odds are that much of your time is spent working with Adobe’s Creative Suite. And while many have been tempted to uninstall Adobe products out of frustration, removing Creative Suite entirely can be an important (and difficult) step to effective troubleshooting or a clean upgrade.

Last week, in part one of this article, we took a look at configuring basic IP failover features on Mac OS X to provide high availability. This week, we’ll take a look at building on the process with custom shell scripts, and the secret to successful AFP setup for failover systems.

For companies that have grown on an assortment of mismatched machines, the efficiency and flexibility of a server-based workflow can be liberating. Open Directory, managed services, portable home directories, and many other features are impossible to use without a server to to drive them. This dependance on a single, central system can be a detriment as well. After all, what can you do when your all-important server inevitably fails?