DalekSec Posted January 23, 2018 Posted January 23, 2018 (edited) As a bit of a Mac novice and a Mac Server newbie, i'm currently undergoing a task of setting up a Mac Server that is connected to AD. The question i have is what is the compatibility with Mac Server 5.4 with an older OS X?, we have some Macs still running Mavericks 10.9.*, which at the moment we can't update to High Sierra due to software that's not compatible with High Sierra and the teaching department not wanting to pay for the latest version. So will Mac Server 5.4 work ok with OS X 10.9? or will i have to get them onto High Sierra? Edit: The Mac Server is running on a Mac Mini running High Sierra Edited January 23, 2018 by DalekSec
AntonioRocco Posted January 23, 2018 Posted January 23, 2018 My general 'rule of thumb' over the years has always been one OS version older and newer than the Server OS version. However I have managed clients 2 versions older than the server without too much trouble. Managing Macs with Profile Manager has been around since 10.7 so any version after that, in theory, should be OK. I would stop at Mavericks if I was you though, and try if out first before rolling it out wholesale. When comparing the user experience don't be surprised if certain things won't work or don't work as well as they do on workstations with latest OS installed. As every your mileage may vary. Antonio Rocco (ACSA) 1
NB9457 Posted January 23, 2018 Posted January 23, 2018 What's it you're looking to do with the Mac server? Perosnally I dislike OSX server and it find it a bit odd that it's now an app, but I have found managing Macs through an MDM to be easier, but given, that is an ongoing cost.
DalekSec Posted January 23, 2018 Author Posted January 23, 2018 My general 'rule of thumb' over the years has always been one OS version older and newer than the Server OS version. However I have managed clients 2 versions older than the server without too much trouble. Managing Macs with Profile Manager has been around since 10.7 so any version after that, in theory, should be OK. I would stop at Mavericks if I was you though, and try if out first before rolling it out wholesale. When comparing the user experience don't be surprised if certain things won't work or don't work as well as they do on workstations with latest OS installed. As every your mileage may vary. Antonio Rocco (ACSA) I do want get off of Mavericks ASAP but unfortunately the main software the Macs are used for (Sibelius), the version we are on is unsupported and the Music dept are not planning on paying for the update.... What's it you're looking to do with the Mac server? Perosnally I dislike OSX server and it find it a bit odd that it's now an app, but I have found managing Macs through an MDM to be easier, but given, that is an ongoing cost. Just general mac management, the macs were setup by an old member of staff and no one is really sure how they work! They are not attached to a Mac Server and were logging in with AD via scripts we think... I do have a test machine that so far i've attached to AD and to the Mac mini running Mac Server
AntonioRocco Posted January 23, 2018 Posted January 23, 2018 Just for clarification and also to help in your understanding of how 'macs' work in an AD environment. There are a number of ways of doing this but your Mac workstations don't have to be 'attached' to your Mac Server. With Profile Manager you enrol them and then apply the Mac equivalent of global policies either to the workstations themselves, and thereby applied to users logging onto those workstations, or to a group, created in Profile Manager that has your AD Groups nested within. For this to work you need to join/bind the Mac Server to the AD Domain in the same way your would Mac Workstations. Although not impossible it would be unusual for Macs to login to AD via scripts. The OS has a built-in plug-in that is used for binding/joining the mac hardware to the AD Domain in a similar (not exactly the same) way that you join your PCs to the same domain. Hopefully this may help you further?
DalekSec Posted January 23, 2018 Author Posted January 23, 2018 Just for clarification and also to help in your understanding of how 'macs' work in an AD environment. There are a number of ways of doing this but your Mac workstations don't have to be 'attached' to your Mac Server. With Profile Manager you enrol them and then apply the Mac equivalent of global policies either to the workstations themselves, and thereby applied to users logging onto those workstations, or to a group, created in Profile Manager that has your AD Groups nested within. For this to work you need to join/bind the Mac Server to the AD Domain in the same way your would Mac Workstations. Although not impossible it would be unusual for Macs to login to AD via scripts. The OS has a built-in plug-in that is used for binding/joining the mac hardware to the AD Domain in a similar (not exactly the same) way that you join your PCs to the same domain. Hopefully this may help you further? Our current in service macs i have no idea how they are connected as i'm yet to have a chance to look, all i know is it's via scripts but i'm planning on rebuilding them from scratch. My plan i have is to add them to AD which i have done on the test ones via 'Directory Utility' and then use 'Profile Manager' to sort out the policies of the workstations
DalekSec Posted January 24, 2018 Author Posted January 24, 2018 Luckily it looks like Sibelius wasn't as expensive to upgrade as we thought, £19 per seat! So hopefully get the go ahead to upgrade it and then i can update the iMacs also
NB9457 Posted January 26, 2018 Posted January 26, 2018 Don't know if this will affect your deployment but worth a look: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208312
DalekSec Posted January 26, 2018 Author Posted January 26, 2018 Don't know if this will affect your deployment but worth a look: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208312 Thanks, i haven't spotted that! Luckily it looks like it won't effect us as we're not using any of those services!
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