Worth upgrading to Lion Server?

THanks for this thread everyone....

I have a client who is humming along on SL server and I appreciate the input on the potential of upgrading them to Lion server.

A question tho: They want to add an addtional workstation - I just ordered them a new iMac. It will have Lion on it.

Any issues connecting a Lion workstation to a Snow Leopard Server. The server hosts network home accounts, file server, and File Maker server.

Of course I can put 10.6.8 on the new iMac, but would rather start moving them towards Lion (at least not away from it).

Thanks in advance for your input!

B

I'm running SL Server on my Mac Mini and SL on two workstations (macbooks). The server is used only as a file and print server. I too would like to know if I can install Lion on the workstations, and have SL Server on the server? I want to upgrade the macbooks to take advantage of the icloud, etc., but don't see a need for the Server.

If you're just serving the printers from the server, you can upgrade the workstations. If your deploying printers through OD, it won't push them to the Lion clients.

It sounds like you're doing the first, so you should be fine. Lion clients can connect to SL shares, too.

Nope. Lion is still dreadful even after 10.7.2. Sad really 😟

Why do you say that? I find it fast and stable, and I think the new features are great, unlike lack of new features, unlike SL.

"dreadful"?

B

Wow where to start...gutted services...non configurable VPN...NAT is restricted to 192.168.2.*..Server App vs. Server Admin app...the list goes on. Lion Server is Apples message that it will be removing Server, and adding *some* of it's features to the client OS. For people that want to do anything besides extremely basic server stuff, Lion is out. Check the forums....very few people find it worth it to upgrade. Blissfully I never really upgraded....I went from Leopard to Ubuntu on my 20" iMac and never looked back. I actually have a copy of Lion Server, but there's no way I'm putting that crippled OS on anything other then a test machine.

Quick...configure more then one type of VPN 😀 Oh look...can't with Lion 😉 It's dumbed down to on/off . My Ubuntu box has two...extremely useful when the airport wireless won't allow one, but will another 😉.

Hmmm...can I get your quick thoughts on this then?

I have a client looking to move from old windows server to all mac. They already have some Macs, would add a few more clients, and was planning on a mini server to do:

-File Sharing

- iCal Server / Address Book

- VPN to allow one user to work remotely, was going to send her into session on Server...

that is about it, would you not go with 10.7 server?

thanks for the thoughts...

B

For $50, and if that's all you're really going to do with it, sure..I'd go with Lion. I would check on these forums for issues with iCal server/Address Book, and VPN...just so you know what you're getting into.

I wouldn't touch Lion Server even for those limited functions. Right now as I write this I have a 10.7.2 Server running on a mini that I can't manage. By "can't manage" I mean that it doesn't respond to either Server.app or Server Admin.app locally or remotely. As far as I can tell the server functions are running but without any way to get in and actually, you know, check or configure anything it's a useless as teats on a boar. Server.app refuses my password (which is correct because I'm logged into the box) and Server Admin.app says the server isn't responding. And that's after gutting the firewall.

The reason I was trying to get in is because I've had trouble with file sharing and iCal Server and Address Book Server where they just stop responding or don't sync completely with clients. I'm probably going to roll back to 10.6 Server and not move again. 10.7 Server is a very bad joke.

Just found this post... if i found it before going the Lion Server route i sure wouldn't bother.

We're using it in small business as file server, iCal and Adress Book share. We decided not to configure VPN.

I used http://www.wegotserved.com/2011/08/12/apple-os-lion-server-home-server/ to set it up. Before we were using old 10.4.11 server.

With just 5 user accounts and one group everything is working OK, for now at least. Its humming on old Mac Pro.

m.

We have a Mac network which consists of 4 xServers and 240 Mac's, recently we acquired 14 new iMacs and they came with............Yes Lion! Unfortunately couldn't down grade them to Snow Leopard so i set about making a NetRestore Image to build them.

Snow Leopards System Image Utility wouldn't recognise the Lion images when mounted on the desktop so i was FORCED to upgrade to Lion Server. After going through the long winded process of downloading Lion - OS Lion Server App - Lion Server tools.... and installed them i was finally ready to make a NetRestore Image, Which i did, Success! or so i thought. When i tried to deploy it, the iMac's would see the Image to boot from, start, then promptly hang.....Nice one Apple. (There is a discussion about this problem, sounds like a bug)

Then i looked at the Server tools Print Service gone from Server Admin as has AFP amongst other services, the record inspector has gone from Workgroup Manager so setting up OD printers will be a problem, one i can't yet find documentation on how to do from Apple.

Apple have Dumbed down the once excellent Server tools and replaced them with totally inadequate replacements with less ability to manage the network. So i will not be upgrading to Lion and would suggest anyone who already has Snow Leopard doesn't either.

Save your self A lot of pain and misery.

No.

- The LDAP implementation (client and server) has caused me misery. Part of it was resolved in 10.7.2 but it still freaks out when you want Lion Server to authenticate against a RFC 2307 (OpenDS) server. I also still issues like client auth bind failing due to 'unknown errors'

- Right now, you need 2 apps to do the work of one: server.app and serveradmin.app and server.app is severely limited.

- I don't like the way where Apple is going with MDM - it looks like this will be the replacement of MCX. I work in an extremely regulated environment and I rather have one centralized point from where I push out settings then having to enroll devices. This is what Microsoft gets with AD but I don't have the budget neither the knowledge to set up AD. Also, I can not use push notification since data going over a strange network (Apple PNS service) is a major no-no for us.

- It has come to the point that we're now looking into alternatives for Mac OS X Server for central settings management but so far the only viable option (Casper Suite) is horrendously expensive for a small site.

Apple has stated several times they are not an enterprise company but their laptops and Mac OS X really prove useful for certain tasks and they have management's attention. However, managing Mac OS X clients start to become an increasing burden if you wish to manage them with a Mac server.

No way. I actually called Apple up and asked for them to ship me replacement disks for my Snow Leopard Server after WASTING MY MONEY on Lion Server.

Such a mess, such a disaster, how much is your time worth?

If you have a working server setup in SL, there is no compelling reason to move to Lion Server unless you hate life and need to be more miserable.

H E double L, NO.

How much is your time worth? Put a dollar value on that and your sanity and purchase Snow Leopard Server which actually works for those services.

I think Apple is trying to get out of the "Enterprise" (if, in fact, they were ever in it in the first place). With the elimination of XServer and the dumbing down of Lion Server, I'm absolutely convinced that Apple wants to move to a more "disconnected" network based on the Cloud.

And, I have to admit, I think they are on to something.

I am NOT a rocket scientist and have struggled with network administration from Novell to Windows and finally Mac.

I have steadily eliminated servers until I'm not running three servers - two Mac XServes and one Windows Server. As soon as this summer comes, we'll move to our vendor's hosted product and the Windows server will be gone.

I also hope to move to Google as our Mail and Calendar "engine" and buy a virtual server somewhere on the Cloud to host our wikis and iWeb sites. I'm still wrestling with file storage, but I PROMISE you I will find a cloud solution by summer. That way I can eliminate the last two servers.

I'll set up a Mac Mini to handle DHCP and DNS (although, really, I could do DHCP through my router and use my ISP's DNS servers.

I figure the way things are going the only things that will be necessary to manage will be my internet connection and our wireless infrastructure.