How to disable Lion Server. For REAL!

Question

Level 1

85 points

How to disable Lion Server. For REAL!

The instructions that Apple has recently posted on disbaling Lion server is nowhere near complete. Don't be fooled. Following those instructions will NOT completely disbale all the Server services that were installed when you ran the Server app.

Through a bit of research I have tracked down ALL the services that are installed when you run the Server app and created a script you can run from Terminal to really disable all of them.

This is, of course, a use at your own risk script. It worked fine for me with no apparent ill effects but I can not gaurentee it will not cause you problems.

The script can be downloaded from here:

http://www.svrx.com/disable_LionServer.zip

Download this, double click to expand the zip.

Then open Terminal and execute the script. Probably something like:

sudo Desktop/disable_LionServer.sh

or

sudo Downloads/disable_LionServer.sh

After that restart your computer and be Lion Server free.

Let me know if you have any problems with this but again it is use at your own risk. I am not resposible for any ill effects it may have on your system.

Enjoy....

G3, G4, G5, Intel iMac, Mac Pro, MacBook, MacBook Pro, Mini, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Aug 22, 2011 10:34 PM

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Answer 1

Josh Hurd Author

Level 1

85 points

Aug 23, 2011 9:10 AM in response to Josh Hurd

Please note: This script will not remove any files from your computer nor will it undo any config changes that were made, such as those to Apache.

Furthermore it will not remove the Lion Server identifier from your computer either. Your computer will still think it is running Server. You have to remove that yourself if you wish. That file lives at:

/System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist

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Answer 2

welshguru

Level 2

168 points

Aug 30, 2011 12:37 AM in response to Josh Hurd

I ran your script, but i am not sure what it has done, i still have the server app that i can run etc. one problem is that the ServerVersion.plist is not in CoreServices, is it important to remove this ?

Thanks

John

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Answer 3

welshguru

Level 2

168 points

Aug 30, 2011 1:27 AM in response to welshguru

Further to my last response,

I am having trouble with getting the new Mac Mini to appear on my local network, it has done on one occasion i accessed the mac mini once, and then tried screen sharing and it immediately stopped and from then on the mac mini is not showing up on the Network, is this something to do with the mods to the server?

thx

John

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Answer 4

Josh Hurd Author

Level 1

85 points

Aug 30, 2011 1:58 AM in response to welshguru

Well, as I mentioned above the script does not remove anything. That includes the Server app itself. The only purpose the Server app has is to initially install all the Server components and then to manage some of those components once they are installed. Otherwise the app has nothing to do with the underlying services.

If you have re-run the Server app after you ran this script it's possible some services have been turned back on. If you really want to disable the Server services run the script again and don't run the Server app any more. In fact go ahead and remove it.

Not sure why the ServerVersion.plist file would not be in the CoreServices directory. Had you already removed it by chance??

As for your Mini not showing up on your network, check your System Preferences -> Sharing. Make sure your network services are actually running. This script doesn't modifiy any of those services so this is unlikely to be related to this script.

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Answer 5

welshguru

Level 2

168 points

Aug 30, 2011 3:04 AM in response to Josh Hurd

Hello,

Moved Server App out of Applications folder, re ran the script and then restarted. I did notice that if i go to Netwrok there is a server folder showing and within the folder there is the name of the old defunct Server, and the name of the Mac Mini. is this correct?

On Mac Mini networking issues all seems to be fine and set up correctly

Thanks

John

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Answer 6

welshguru

Level 2

168 points

Aug 30, 2011 4:56 AM in response to welshguru

Further to my last response, i also noted that when i viewed the Network from another mac on the same netwrok the Mac Mini that shoudl be just a plain Lion system is showing up on the network with the Server icon .... is this significant?

John

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Answer 7

welshguru

Level 2

168 points

Aug 30, 2011 7:47 AM in response to welshguru

Ok, Went through the process again and finally found the ServerVersion.plist file and trashed it.

Now everything seems to have settled down, i can view the MacMine on the network, and i can access it from other Mac's including Screen sharing.

So thanks for your help

John

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Answer 8

Endemic

Level 1

0 points

Oct 15, 2011 7:56 PM in response to Josh Hurd

Help!

I installed Lion Server for some testing. Now I want to get rid of it and did the steps from above.

"About my Mac" shows the Client Version of Lion but my terminal still showing server:~ username$ .

And also my Mac is shown as server in my router.

Is there any way to get rid of that?

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Answer 9

Jan 2, 2012 4:21 PM in response to Josh Hurd

Ran this script on my Mac mini server, trashed the ServerVersion.plist file and Server.app, and rebooted.

The machine still shows up as a server (in terminal and from other Macs on my network), still sends System Administrator notifications when I reboot, and still refuses to sleep automatically. Any idea what went wrong here?

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Answer 10

Jan 17, 2012 11:47 AM in response to Josh Hurd

Hey Josh, I ran this script. It didn't do what I want now I need to reenable server. How do I do this. My server app is just spinning saying "connecting to server" tried to reinstall my OS it wont allow me, it says that its a server volume and I can't instill OSX Lion on a server volume.

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Answer 11

jjballa

Level 1

0 points

Feb 21, 2012 9:14 AM in response to Josh Hurd

Thanks Josh, I believed this worked for my computer.

I have saw your other topic and you posted a link to this. Hoepfully this erases everything. In software update I had the option to install Mac OS X Update Combined Version 10.7.3 Size: 1..34gb, but my Mac Mini is not the server one its normal one. So I did not want to install untill I removed the server app.

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Answer 12

Jun 10, 2012 10:08 PM in response to Josh Hurd

First, I wanted to thank Josh for his post and script. I made the mistake of installing Lion Server on my MBP (long story, bad decision) and other than "re-install Lion from scratch", this was the only advice that offered hope.

The script ran fine and got rid of most all indications of server apps running locally. I did, however, have nightmares trying to get Spotlight to start indexing my stuff again. Symptoms showed up as an inability to search email, which is a major problem for me. Most solutions pointed to re-building the index, which I did on numerous occaisions without getting anywhere.

Finally stumbled across a thread on Ask Different where one user had issues with Spotlight on Server. Turns out Server will turn on file sharing when installed and if you disable file sharing before "uninstalling" Server it turns off indexing on the sharepoints - which includes /Users ... and all your local files.

If you run into Spotlight issues after running Josh's script, check the status of /Users by opening a Terminal window and running the command

mdutil -s /Users

If the status shows indexing disabled, turn it on and rebuild the index with the commands

sudo mdutil -i on /Users # Turns indexing back on on the /Users directory

sudo mdutil -E / # Erases the index and causes Spotlight to rebuild it

The last two commands could be added to the script directly. The first command will run without error if indexing is already on and the second will cause a Spotligh index rebuild - which takes some time, but won't harm anything.

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Answer 13

zoloe

Level 1

0 points

Sep 13, 2012 2:13 AM in response to Josh Hurd

Josh,

Thanks for putting together the script. I was just trying to download it, but the link does not seem to work any more. Can you share it again, please?

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Answer 14

Sep 14, 2012 4:44 PM in response to zoloe

Hi Zoloe. Josh is a good friend of mine and unfortunately he passed away a few weeks ago. If the link is not working I suspect someone probably took his server offline. Sorry!

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Answer 15

zoloe

Level 1

0 points

Sep 16, 2012 12:00 PM in response to rdrushton

Hi rdrushton. Thanks for letting me know. I'm really sorry for your friend.

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