Upgrade OS X Tiger Server 10.4 to 10.8 Mountain Lion Server

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Upgrade OS X Tiger Server 10.4 to 10.8 Mountain Lion Server

Hello,

I am currently running a 10.4 Server Environment for a small workgroup, and primarily using it for user management, FTP & internal file sharing. Well, as the old saying goes, if it ain't broke don't fix it, and this sever has been running like a rock star for years. Unfortunately though, our backup software (Crashplan Pro) is dropping all support for Tiger, so I suppose that means time to upgrade.

Can someone please give me some pointers on the proper steps to upgrade? I am having trouble finding documentation on this, and suspect I'll need to install Leapord first, but I'm not even sure where to start with which OSX Server to start with, and I really don't want to have to purchase multiple licences.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

~ Dan

OS X Server

Posted on Feb 12, 2013 8:01 AM

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Answer 1

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Brian Nesse

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Feb 13, 2013 8:06 AM in response to dbergeron76

You didn't identify your hardware, so the first step would be to find out if it's supported by the latest OS.

Yes, in order to gain access to the App Store, you'd need to start by getting the system upgraded to 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard.) From there you could purchase Mountain Lion and OS X Server (It's a standalone application now.)

Additionally, I don't believe there is a direct upgrade path from 10.4 to 10.8. So I think you'd need to get 10.6.8 Server, perform the service migration, and then go to 10.8 and perform the migration again.

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Answer 2

dbergeron76 Author

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Feb 13, 2013 2:22 PM in response to Brian Nesse

Thanks Brian,

It's a 2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Mac Pro.

I do have a spare partition on the drive, would it be possible to install 10.6.8 on that parition, and then upgrade to 10.8 leaving my original Tiger Server intact (temporarily?) I've also heard you can aquire 10.8 on a thumb drive at the Apple Store, if I went went that route could I skip the 10.6.8 install?

I don't mind setting up my services again, no real big need to migrate existing user profiles, there's only 1/2 dozen or so. It would be nice to set it all up and then test it out, and be able to revert back to Tiger if I can't get things configured easily on the new server or encounter surprises.

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Answer 3

Feb 13, 2013 2:46 PM in response to dbergeron76

>> It's a 2 x 2.66 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Mac Pro.

I'm pretty sure that makes it a MacPro1,1. Even if it is a MacPro2,1 it still won't run Mountain Lion. The best you're going to do with that system is Lion (10.7.5).

If you can get the OS on a thumb drive, that would allow you to skip the 10.6.8 process... especially if you don't care about migrating your data.

Unless you're using the extra drive bays, or have something like Fiber Channel cards installed, a simpler solution might just be to buy a new Mac mini server.

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