Problems getting Lion server down from App store

You must upgrade to Lion then purchase Lion Server and download it. You cannot upgrade Snow Leopard Server with Lion Client or Lion Server. You need to return to Snow Leopard Client and upgrade to Lion Client or erase the drive and make a fresh installation of Lion Client - Lion Server- Installing Lion Server on a blank volume

I'm stuck in the same loop. Bought and downloaded Lion upgrade ... but for that install I get a message "Waiting for App Store to download Mac OS X Server Add On." ... But from the App Store "We could not complete your purchase. Server can't be installed on Server HD because Mac OS X version 10.7 or later is required."

So the client won't upgrade until the server add on is downloaded. And the server won't install unless the client Lion is installed.

A catch 22 situation if ever I saw one.

This is on a Mac mini Server running 10.6.8.

I'm stuck in the same loop. Bought and downloaded Lion upgrade ... but for that install I get a message "Waiting for App Store to download Mac OS X Server Add On." ... But from the App Store "We could not complete your purchase. Server can't be installed on Server HD because Mac OS X version 10.7 or later is required."

We have exactly the same problem.

Just go round in a loop. There seems to be no way to upgrade since the 10.7.4 version appeared.

Hey Glen -

I'm not at all sure why you're getting these errors, as I've followed this upgrade path just this week; but with a difference, I upgraded a client SL Mac (not server).

I'm going to suggest this - and you may even be able to do it at your local apple store with a Genius present. 🙂

Find another Lion machine and log into the app store on the account that bought Lion. Find Lion and click the download button. It'll tell you that you purchased before and you won't be charged again - let it roll. The download will proceed and when finished, will start the installer. At that point quit the installer.

Do the same with Lion Server; download again at it's App Store page.

Come prepared with a nice fat USB Stick. Copy both Installers onto the stick. They'll be in the Applications folder on this Mac.

Go to your SL Server, which MUST be at least 10.6.8.

Copy both files to the Applications folder. If there's an old Lion installer in there, overwrite it; you just got the latest build that way.

After copying to Applications, the Server installer will be greyed out and have a disable icon across it. That's normal; it can't run on anything less than 10.7. It just needs to sit there right now.

Run the Lion installer - client, that is.

It'll restart at some point - and then, because you have copied the server installer to Applications already, it will see that you want it to be a Server upgrade and will start quizzing you a bit about your setup and roll over your existing settings where it sees them.

When it's done you'll see your familiar login screen. And yes, it's server! Even though About This Mac says its 10.7.4- it really is Server. Start the Server App (not Server Admin app) and you'll see the new interface.

Server tools for Lion is a seperate download, so trash any SL versions at this point. You can DL the new ones anytime if you have a hankering for fine tweaking, but you're pretty good right out of the gate with just Server app.

Hope this helps. I've basically quoted a lesson from the Lynda.com Lion Server tutorial. 🙂 Just a satisfied customer.

Tony

Based on my experience and the other comments here, the problem only occurs when upgrading SL SERVER. (Please respond if that assumption is incorrect.) Though I appreciate Kappy taking the time to respond, it was not a solution for me.

I ended up on the phone with AppleCare and the tech I spoke with recognized the symptoms immediately, acknowledged the problem, apologized and provided a work around.

1) Go to another Mac running Lion Client.

2) Sign in to the App Store with the same AppleID you want to purchase Lion Server with.

3) "Install" Lion Server on this client Mac. Don't really "Install" it, we just want to download Server.App to the applications folder. It will only download and install the server components if you run the executable on the client.

4) Copy Server.app to the applications folder on your target SL server.

5) On the server, run the Lion Client installer again. Now that it finds Server.app where it expects, the client install will complete.

6) Run Server.app on your server.

This sure beats a clean install. The AppleCare experience could not have been better. But I am surprised to have this type of problem installing an OS that has been out for over a year. There may be a k-base article, but I sure couldn't find it.

Thank you pew10 .

It indeed solved my problem .

You are right I couldn’t find it in the KB either .

Sam

yes, that is what i figured out as well. But supposedly if you are talking mac mini server in the first place, an internet restore is supposed to install the server app as well, but I never made it through the process (ISP is too slow here) to confirm that's what really happens.

This situation is now complicated by the fact that you can no longer purchase Lion or Lion Server in the app store. In my opnion, Apple has created a real mess here. I bought a Mac Mini server which came with Lion Server pre-installed, and no media. So there was never any installer app on it's hard drive, and no way to "re-purchase" one, because it wasn't purchased through the App Store. If I were to try to restore from the rescue image, would I get Lion Server or Mountain Lion Server? Or any server at all? If I had to start from scratch - well, I don't think there is any way actually. Whatever I would do, I would probably wind up with Mountain Lion Server instead. But Filemaker Server is not compatible with Mountain Lion Server yet, as are some other apps I need. Fortunately I have only been testing on this machine, my production servers are all still running 10.6.8.

Apple has really turned their backs on enterprise users and managers, in my opinion.

So I was having similar difficulties when trying to re-download the Lion Installer to create a fresh install, as the Lion app no longer appeared as an option for me and the Option key reload of my Purchases page did not result in showing it to me. I called Apple and the genius on the phone could not tell me anything more either even after consulting with his supervisory genius. However, whilst I had the genius on the line I happened to click on the account link on the Appstore Home Page. On the bottom of my Account page was a link to unhide hidden items. Low and behold OSX Lion appeared in the hidden apps page. Clicked uhide, and all was well. I don't have any way of knowing if this will work for those of you who are tyring to purchase your first copies, but I figured it was worth letting you know to see if you too have a hidden OSX Lion app. Good Luck guys!

P.S. Genius said, oh yeah they do that sometimes...idiots!

Had to upgrade today and have a solution.

If you download the installer for the server add ons and then get the wonderful Pacifist application. This will allow you to view and extract the contents of a package. Grab the server.app from the package and extract it to your applications folder.

Job done!

i got mine to work by:

1) making a lion USB installer

2) on a lion machine (actually, a mountain lion, i don;t think it matters) downloading the LION server app via app store

3) copying the lion server app from the applications folder where it was downloaded onto the root of the Lion install USB stick

running the installer on my 10.6.8 server from the USB stick