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Q: Mac Mini Server (Mid-2010) can it run Yosemite?

Hi guys,

I'm pretty sure I already know the answer to this question but here goes anyway: (for the record I'm 99% sure we can upgrade it with no problem)

 

We have a Mac Mini Server, Model MC438LL/A (Mid-2010) that has Mac OS X 10.6 Server installed on it. It has:

  • 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor
  • 4 GB of 1066MHz DDR3 memory
  • Dual 500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA hard Drives
  • NVIDIA GeForce 320M Graphics

 

It was replaced with a newer Mac Mini that came preinstalled with Mavericks. We immediately upgraded the new Mini to Yosemite and installed the new server app version 4 on it. Now we want to upgrade the old server and basically clone the new Yosemite server to it so we have our old server act as an emergency backup to out new one in case a catastrophe happens.

 

Is there any reason the old server cannot run Yosemite and the new server app? I know we cannot downgrade the new server to run Snow Leopard but the old server should be able to run Yosemite, right? We don't do a lot with the server, basically just run AFP & SMB on it to control access to the files on the external RAID array that is attached to it. We don't run  Mail Server, VPN, Website, etc. on it so it's not heavily taxed and there are only about 12 users on it.

 

I'm just not sure if a full blown server OS can be upgraded to a desktop OS with the server app on it. Maybe if we use Carbon Copy Cloner but then we might have hardware (driver) issues if we do that. What would be involved? Wiping the old servers bootable HD and installing Yosemite from scratch? Can you even do an in place upgrade of a server OS to a desktop OS? What are the gotcha's here?

 

Thanks!

Posted on Jan 26, 2015 4:29 PM

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Q: Mac Mini Server (Mid-2010) can it run Yosemite?

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