I think there is a need for a document which describes Mac OS X Server from the perspective of traditional unix administration. This would serve two primary purposes:

1) Provide a smoother learning experience for seasoned unix veterans who are tasked with administration of Mac OS X Server. There are a good number of 'gotchas' that are generally related to situations in which Apple has strayed from unix tradition. Ideally (in my view, at least), a unix administrator should be able to sit down at any unix system and figure out / deduce / discover everything they need to know, but that is not always the case with Mac OS X Server.

2) Provide an overall architectural description of Mac OS X Server, which to my knowledge does not exist anywhere (in public form). There is plenty of feature documentation, but this should aim to provide system-level information relevant to administrators. Some of the topics here would also apply to Mac OS X, although this would also describe the general architecture of the (server-specific) admin tools / daemons, and any other 'added value' areas.

A very loose first attempt at a shell of an outline might look something like this. Time permitting, I would love to act as a contributor for / mentor of such a document.

Topic
- [ ] Introduction
	- [ ] Intended audience
	- [ ] What is Mac OS X Server?
		- [ ] Superset of client
		- [ ] Service daemons
		- [ ] Administration tools
		- [ ] Auto-configuration 'workflows'
		- [ ] Introduce concept of attempting to allow mixing / matching of administration styles between GUI and CLI
- [ ]  Mac OS X Server Architecture
	- [ ] Identify layers, and identify where the server-specific software operates in the layers context
	- [ ] Filesystem hierarchy
		- [ ] Areas of interest
			- [ ] This could be a short list of key places that might be enough to get a very savvy admin rolling
			- [ ] Preferences, logs, daemons, /usr/libexec,
			- [ ] Describe Mac / Unix equivalencies
				- [ ] /etc  <--> /S/L/Preferences
				- [ ] /L/Logs  <--> /var/log
				- [ ] ...
		- [ ] Separation of (network / system / site local / user) resources
- [ ] Service Configuration
	- [ ] Property lists versus traditional line-oriented config files
		- [ ] Pros and cons
			- [ ] XML is more expressive and flexible
			- [ ] XML is difficult to use with traditional line-oriented tools
		- [ ] plutil
	- [ ] servermgrd
		- [ ] Describe architecture
		- [ ] takes commands from serveradmin and Server Admin
		- [ ] Talk about the modules, point them out in the filesystem
	- [ ] Revisit and expand upon concept of mixing CLI and GUI administration styles
		- [ ] GUI tools are often wrappers for CLI tools
		- [ ] GUI tools: stdout / stderr? IT'S COMPLETELY INVISIBLE (zomg, yes, this is crucial)
		- [ ] lists.apple.com—msg00013.html <http://lists.apple.com/archives/macos-x-server/2008/Mar/msg00013.html>
		- [ ] Caveats
- [ ] Directory Services
	- [ ] High-level directory services architecture
		- [ ] introduce various directory stores
		- [ ] a pretty picture
		- [ ] Introduce concept of native and standard attribute names
	- [ ] Directory Utility plugin configuration (especially wrt BSD)
	- [ ] WGM and dscl
- [ ] Process Management
	- [ ] The Apple Way (on-demand)
	- [ ] Launchd
	- [ ] Preservation of traditional / pre-existing mechanicms
		- [ ] cron
		- [ ] /sbin/service
	- [ ] Legacy
		- [ ] SystemStarter
		- [ ] /etc/rc