We've taken a decision at Awen to use Adobe's Version Cue as the version control system for projects. Sadly, being a proprietary system, it won't play ball with our existing Linux server, insisting instead on Windows or OSX as a platform.

We decided that OSX's Unix pedigree was worth pursuing, and picked up a Mac Mini with a pair of 500Gb external hard drives to ensure we have disk space for all of our projects for a while longer. I decided to set one of these drives solely as the repository for Version Cue.

Installation is pretty easy - put the DVD in the drive, and install Version Cue alone. By default, Version Cue wants to store its data in the directory /Library/Application Support/Adobe/Adobe Version Cue CS3/Server/data. To move this directory to an external drive, it's necessary to configure the drive in such a way that Version Cue will accept it.

External drives are mounted in a hidden /Volumes directory in OSX when they are plugged in, in a similar way to the /mnt or /media directories I'm used to under Linux. To prepare your drive for use with Version Cue, first format it to a something other than than FAT - I'd recommend Mac OS Extended (Case-sensitive, Journaled) because it provides a similar base to ext3 on Linux systems. (Use Disk Utility in the Utilities section of Applications to achieve this.) Once it has been formatted, you have to set it up to allow owners - Version Cue wants to be able to lock directories and it can't achieve that on an external drive until "Owners Enabled" is explicitly enabled. Looking for this option in the GUI is a fruitless task, though; this is one of the few times where Apple forces you to drop back to the Terminal.

Open Terminal from the Utilities section, and type this:

sudo /usr/sbin/vsdbutil -a /Volumes/ExternalDriveLabel

... where ExternalDriveLabel is the name of your formatted drive. (Don't forget to escape characters like spaces with a backslash.) You will be asked for your password, and once you enter it you will have a short pause before being returned to the prompt. Your drive is now ready to host Version Cue!

Open System Preferences from the dock at the bottom of the screen, and select Version Cue CS3 from the Other section. If the server is currently running, click Stop. Whilst we're here, if you haven't done so yet, click to show the status in the menu bar (it's very useful) and increase the memory usage to something sensible - I've set it to 512Mb of the 2Gb of RAM installed. Now click on Locations and change the Data Folder (and/or Backup Folder) to locations on your external drive. Be sensible and use well-named directories for your own sake - ours is /Volumes/External2/VersionCueRepository - so that double-clicking on the desktop icons doesn't immediately dump you into the inner-workings.

I found all the information here strangely hard to find online, so I hope it proves useful to anyone in my situation!