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Q: Upgrade Snow Leopard Server to Mountain Lion Server?

I have a Mac Mini with (pre-installed) Snow Leopard Server.  I use this only for incoming mail service and web service.  If I upgrade to Mountain Lion Server, will its current settings and behavior be preserved? The upgrade documents are rather vague on what happens to existing settings, and the fact that you have to first upgrade to 10.8 client before adding Server makes me worry.

 

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Steve Anderson

Posted on Jul 26, 2012 8:55 AM

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Q: Upgrade Snow Leopard Server to Mountain Lion Server?

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  • by geoffalbin123,

    geoffalbin123 geoffalbin123 Jul 27, 2012 10:46 AM in response to YaLinguist
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 27, 2012 10:46 AM in response to YaLinguist

    all my web sites got wiped out! upgraded from 10.6 to 10.7 and all my web sites under the /Default folder are gone.

  • by haykong,Helpful

    haykong haykong Jul 27, 2012 1:36 PM in response to geoffalbin123
    Level 1 (119 points)
    Jul 27, 2012 1:36 PM in response to geoffalbin123

    geoffalbin123,

     

               Your websites are still on the computer, just not at the new location. 10.6.8 Server default location was /Library/WebServer/Documents/

     

    Starting with 10.7 Server and 10.8 Server, Apple moved the website default location to

    /Library/Server/Web/Data/Sites/

     

     

    if you look at the old location your old websites are still there. However you'll have to configure your sites with Server.app and just move your sites to the new location.

  • by YaLinguist,

    YaLinguist YaLinguist Jul 27, 2012 1:39 PM in response to haykong
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 27, 2012 1:39 PM in response to haykong

    Thanks for that information.  As far as mail is concerned, are there also differences between 10.6 and 10.8 that need to be managed?

     

    --

     

    Steve Anderson

  • by haykong,

    haykong haykong Jul 27, 2012 1:53 PM in response to YaLinguist
    Level 1 (119 points)
    Jul 27, 2012 1:53 PM in response to YaLinguist

    YaLinguist,

     

        I just did a test upgrade of my macmini Server from Lion Server to ML server. I used my Mac Pro as a test bed with a cloned HD from my macmini. It errored out at migrating the webstuff, but seemed to migrate mail, contacts, and calendar fine. OD users not an issue.  I'll probably manual migrate stuff such as mail, users, and websites later this weekend after I decided it's safe to do it.

     

     

    Also note Apple starting with 10.7, Apple moved the mail from /var/mail ?? forgot I don't have a 10.6.8 Server anymore to verify location...

     

    but the new location is now

     

    /Library/Server/Mail/Data/mail/(usersmail)

     

     

    As always when you do any upgrade, always have a backup of the entire hard drive before you preceed.

  • by Susan Daniell,

    Susan Daniell Susan Daniell Jul 29, 2012 12:37 PM in response to haykong
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jul 29, 2012 12:37 PM in response to haykong

    I just spent 6 hours trying to upgrade from SL to ML and gave up. I have 4 Virtual Sites, & emails. I never got any of the sites to work, nor did I get mail to work either. I tuned off mail hoping to get the web sites working at least. Hoping to get one of them working. No joy. I'm restoring back to SL from Time Machine right now, and will try again on a long weekend. Maybe try going from 10.6 to 10.7 first. I know the path to the sites changed, but I went into the Server. app, did the chown to root:wheel to match the Default folder's ownership & perms, kept getting the "not allowed" error message. Frustrating as ****! There is no Server Admin for 10.8 yet, and I really miss not having it. Especially since I went ahead and upraded my MB Pro 10 10.8 already, and that my come back to bite me in the ***(&(7 next weekend at the cottage.  All in all, a frustrating day.

  • by go4hockey,

    go4hockey go4hockey Aug 24, 2012 6:19 AM in response to Susan Daniell
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Aug 24, 2012 6:19 AM in response to Susan Daniell

    I have the same situation:

     

    I have a mac mini server with 10.6.8 installed, avoided going to Lion on this machine because I was happy, but now need to move to "the cloud" and can't stall any longer-- and want to go straight to ML.  I bought Lion client on a thumb drive for my other macs but am not a fan of plopping lion client on a server.  I do not own Lion server (and don't want to).  The machine I want to install it on is basically straight and currenly has no hosting on it (it used to be basically an extra), so some of the migration issues others have had should not be a big deal for me.  Can I install the lion client from the thumb drive and then just buy Mountain Lion, or what's the safest, and easiest, way to go.

     

    Help!

  • by Mark23,

    Mark23 Mark23 Sep 2, 2012 12:37 AM in response to YaLinguist
    Level 3 (975 points)
    Sep 2, 2012 12:37 AM in response to YaLinguist
  • by YaLinguist,

    YaLinguist YaLinguist Sep 2, 2012 7:42 AM in response to Mark23
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 2, 2012 7:42 AM in response to Mark23

    Yes, I know what Apple says I should do. The reason for my original question was to see how well that works, and whether there are unexpected gotchas, as there often are with server upgrades. The experiences of at least some people above suggest that Apple's prescribed path is not always smooth.

  • by Mark23,

    Mark23 Mark23 Sep 2, 2012 8:55 AM in response to YaLinguist
    Level 3 (975 points)
    Sep 2, 2012 8:55 AM in response to YaLinguist

    The path to OS X Server (Mountain Lion) is first updating to 10.6.8.

    From there you can upgrade to Mountain Lion (client) and finally to OS X Server.

     

    Look here for a user tip on upgrading: https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-4041

     

    I don't see why any setting wouldn't be preserved.

  • by Martin Joseph,

    Martin Joseph Martin Joseph Aug 31, 2013 10:27 PM in response to Mark23
    Level 2 (225 points)
    Aug 31, 2013 10:27 PM in response to Mark23

    Because it doesn't work, that's why.  I recommend staying at snow leopard server unless you have no choice. IF you are forced to migrate DON'T risk the primary server on the migration. setup an additonal server running your new os of choice ML? and then make sure the pieces are working.

     

    Basically you will be setting up Mountain Lion from scratch.