10.6 vs 10.8 server?

[pinemarten]

Hi all, just looking for some advice here..

We have a room of 27 iMacs , just upgraded from 10.6 to 10.8 , and an Xserve running 10.6 Server.

Move to 10.8 went fine (after a shaky start - resolved once DNS had sorted itself out..)

Now using WGM 10.8 on a MacBook to manage them , seems to work fine.

Question is , do I upgrade the server to 10.8 or leave it on 10.6?

Any helpful opinions appreciated - thanks!

[seawolf]

There are substantial changes from 10.6 server to 10.8 server. For one, the Server Admin and other server tools are gone with the exception of WGM, although I haven't tested WGM thoroughly enough on 10.8 to confirm it will function as expected (or as it did with 10.6). Era reusing profiles with only a couple of non-conflicting MCX settings for our 10.8 clients.

 

The Server.app has taken over from Server Admin and while it has improved from 10.7 it still does not have and may never have the granularity of control Server Admin had. Server.app has been "dumbed down" to make it easier for SMBa and home users to set up a server. It does that fairly well, but means that you have to dive not the command line to provide the same level of control for some services that were available in the Server Admin GUI. There are also some services that are been plain broken IMO in 10.8 server, such as Mail and SMB file sharing. 10.8 uses SMBX rather than SAMBA for SMB services and it breaks for many Windows clients in my testing, but does seem to work fine for OSX clients I tested. I also found that SMB would not work for copier scans, particularly with Xerox units. I finally had to use FTP to overcome that. Mail Server is now useless for all but the most basic needs and you will want to avoid using it.

 

That said,

there are some positives. I've found 10.8 server to be more stable and faster. Profile Manager and built-in WebDAV file sharing makes managing iOS clients possible without any third part software. There are still some rough edges, but it is good value. Caching server has some real potential, but i have not tested it out yet. Wiki Server has also improved. My suggestion would be to setup a test server running 10.8 on a Mac Mini or any spare client on an isolated subnet or network and test it out. I would recommend against upgrading a 10.6 server though - just make a clean start and test, test, test.

[marekbrad]

Hi

 

We are happily running 10.8 server on a full OD domain and I can confirm its stability is good. WGM remains for 10.8 and does a good job for fine tuning those areas that Profile Manager still cannot control. I would thoroughly recommend getting on an apple server course .. or at the very least get the OSX Server book by Arek Dreyer. Its a great way of making sure you are setup the "apple" way.

[AliG]

I just happen to be on the course today! Augmented records are broken on 10.7/.8 so we may have to wait while while I trial an alternative solution for that.