GrumbleDook Posted October 31, 2011 Posted October 31, 2011 I have facially bitten the bullet and coughed up for Lion Server to play around with. After spending some time going through some of the documentation over the weekend I thought it high time to get my hands dirty again. I'll be testing it against some VMs on Parallels but most functionality should work. Also hoping to get my head around iPad configuration a bit more. Anyone got any particular pet peeves they have found so far?
HodgeHi Posted November 1, 2011 Posted November 1, 2011 Lion Server. That's my pet peeve. Of each of the things I have tried to do with it, I failed miserably. This was on the .0 version though and I know some things have changed. Apparently you can now have virtual hosts. On the other hand though most of my issues could have stemmed from not having a proper Domain name (relying on DynDNS which seem to be limiting more and more). I tried to create a redirect for a site to allow for www. version but for the life of me I couldn't get it to work. Email just refused to work at all. One good thing about the Lion upgrade though is that it now has round cube as it's webmail service. You just need to get it to work first. I couldn't get the wikis to work either. Most of my issues all just seemed to revolve around the web services. Apparently since 10.7.1 though you can now create virtual hosts, but I can't even be bothered to find out though. It is a massive step back from 10.6 server and shows that Apple are only intending to support their mobile devices. We can't even upgrade our OS X Server in school due to the lack of some services that we need.
featured_spectre Posted November 1, 2011 Posted November 1, 2011 Lack of functionality is a killer...I have a mac server at one of my old places and I went there today and upgrading screwed up the following... Directory Services - lost half of the structure in the upgrade, restoring from the back up has failed as it is an unrecognisable file format apparently File Storage - shares are not as easy to use any more My network account (a test user) - created this a while back and its still in use - cant log in on the MBP unless it creates a local home folder, which they dont want it to do. What they want it to use is the shared folder that has been set up on the server. When they attempt to log in they either get an error, or it shakes, not allowing it to log in. They can't get the VPN to work, but if I'm honest they don't seem to be too worried about it at this point, as I think they'd rather get the users up and running first. I've spent a ton of time attempting to figure this out and its getting very frustrating. They are my peaves at the minute, and the fact that the school asked me to come in and look says something!
stevenwba Posted November 2, 2011 Posted November 2, 2011 Lion server is the first mac server os i have ever used, so i just took it as everything that is there was on older versions of the OS, until i finally saw snow leopard server, and then you realise how much is missing. create shares don't seem to have as many options, or maybe there just hidden, either way, it makes life more difficult
jubbi Posted November 3, 2011 Posted November 3, 2011 I've got lion server in 2 of my schools. I find that as long as your server has the newest version of the OS on, it's fine. We received a macbook pro with 10.7.1 preloaded and as soon as I connected it to the open directory, the whole thing died. The server could not browse the active directory at all. AD accounts in workgroup manager were unavailable. I had to upgrade the server to 10.7.2 to get it working again. All the features that were easy to find in 10.6 are there (well most) but hidden. Server admin tools don't come pre-installed, which is just daft. But overall, it works just as well, and in the case of mixed networks with 10.5 and 10.6 on, much better than 10.6 server. I even got software update server to work, but that could just be the ISP making changes that improve service for once. Another thing that's really important is to get old clients service packed before trying to connect. 10.5.7 has real issues with directory utility that were fixed up in .8. You also need a 10.7 client to remotely manage the thing as previous versions of server admin tools wont connect to 10.7 server.
Rydra Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 Is it possible to put Lion OSX Server onto a Macbook Pro? I'm looking to get a machine for managing my Ipads, but I'd prefer to have the mobility of the MBP than the Mac Mini, though I'm not sure I'll wrangle the double cost past budgeting.
Rydra Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 It can go on a Mac Mini I believe I know you can get a Mac Mini or Mac Pro with it. I would rather have it on a Macbook Pro laptop though, so that I can manage the ipads from alternative locations, but there's nothing that says it can or cannot go on things other than the Mac Mini or Mac Pro.
featured_spectre Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 To my knowledge it can go on a Mac Pro Laptop, but you have to do a bit of configuring to get the wifi going. not entirely sure what you have to do but I know it is possible. However one thing, you need a fairly beefy laptop spec (4gb ram, quad core cpu etc)
Rydra Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 I was eyeing up the 15inch MBP, which is basically the same as the MM, but with a slightly faster CPU, and a single hard drive instead of dual hard drive. It's only for managing the ipads really, as I'm at 40 of them already, and looking to increase this number significantly next year. This is becoming impossible to manage from a windows PC with one itunes account. It's double the cost of the MM, but the ability to use it as a normal laptop might make life easier in the long run, if I can get it past the budget people.
featured_spectre Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 Explain that you will have it dual booting so you run your normal stuff as well as anything the mac side needs
Rydra Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 Explain that you will have it dual booting so you run your normal stuff as well as anything the mac side needs I don't want the stupid thing. It's made by Apple... but if I buy a MM server, it sits in the corner of the room, and all the apple features of it will never get used (garageband imovie etc.) If I can get a MBP, then those bits of the software can be used by the school.
featured_spectre Posted November 8, 2011 Posted November 8, 2011 yeah but the laptops themselves when they have windows on they are not that bad. Dual booting is a good idea so that if you need to, you can update wherever you are in the school, and then go back to doing what you were doing on the windows side of things without needing 2 items of hardware.
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