What I wish I'd Known Before My Lion Server Install

The truth is that I am on my FIFTH Lion Server install on the same box this week. While I was working on #4, I went ahead and submitted a ticket with Apple and arranged a timeslot for this morning to work with them to help me past my struggles with Lion Server. This post is the result of that experience. Big props to Apple support techs Chuck and Don - you know who you are!

What I Wish I'd Known Before My Lion Server Install

1. Do NOT migrate user accounts, apps, and files, until AFTER you have the Server set up and working correctly.

- This one tip, which is brilliantly simple, would have saved me four very long days of head bashing.

2. Server Admin Tools are mandatory.

- The first time around I used the Server App to configure the system (after an upgrade install, and subsequently after a clean install + migration).

- Server Admin allows you to set up the foundation of your server - which it NEEDS!

- DNS - configure a local, pseudo domain for your server if you're doing this at home. Something like "mynet.private" - if you don't, your SSL certificates can get all jacked up, your clients will not trust your certs. This breaks a lot of stuff.

3. Do NOT accept the mDNS .local domain suffix for your Server

- At each step, if something auto-fills your server name as name.local reject it, and use the fully qualified domain name that you set up above (server.mynet.private).

- If you do not do this, anything that requires certificates could/will have big problems.

4. Enable services one at a time. Reboot after EACH major phase past the core Lion install.

- Base install ... Server install. REBOOT

- DNS configuration. REBOOT

- validate your host name - I needed to force a 'changeip' command because there was a problem with the HOSTNAME retaining the mdns .local domain name.

- OD Master config. REBOOT

- Set up Podcast Producer (which will also setup your Xgrid). REBOOT

5. Take images of your hard drive as you go.

- Once I got the core server installed, the basic services above, I rebooted and held the option key, then restarted on the Recovery HD image.

- Use Disk Utility to take a snapshot image of your hard disk so you can get back to this wonderful place of everything working! It's cheap insurance, and adds a bit of extra time, but is well worth it. If you leave the default settings alone (the 'compressed' one in particular) it will use as little space as possible. My server at this stage of configuration created a 4GB disk image.

6. Use the Migration Assistant After the above

- Now you can migrate your apps

- Migrate your users

- etc.

If you use the Migration option while you're installing the server, or if you upgrade on top of your Snow Leopard (or whatever), I can almost guarantee you that you are in for a world of hurt.

I struggled through all kinds of issues with files having embedded information, scattered throughout all the various subsystems, that gummed up my installation and would case all manner of the flakey Lion Server behavior that you read about ("Error Reading Configuration").

If you want to use Podcast Producer, or any of the Profile Manager features, the above methodology was the only way that I could get them to work. Often times I'd have everything working, then reboot and it would break. After I did the above, the system is as solid as a rock.

Today, I love Lion Server. Yesterday I was cursing it.

Best of luck!!