OS X Server setup

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Level 1

12 points

OS X Server setup

Hi all, I am new to the OS X Server side of Apple. I am a technician at a school and wanted to get some feedback from the Apple community before I embarked on this journey. The guy before me had half installed and running Meraki. I have been getting familiar with Meraki, it is great no doubt about it but the downside for me was I couldn't update my iPad iOS. Also for an app update and install I have to go to each device and enter in Apple ID and PW. This will take waaaay too long for updates. I understand if this is for a business but for elementary students this gets a bit more complicated.

So with that being said, I was hoping I could get some guidance in setting up the OS X Server. I have a mid 2012 iMac updated to the latest OS X Yosemite. The county techs that help us out tell me we have a Apple server but it is not currently being used (so I'm sure it will need OS update, etc.). To run the OS X Server App on my iMac, will this just be communicating with the Apple Server? or will the iMac become the server? this where I get lost with it.

Any help with clearing this up is highly appreciated. Our school also has MacBooks and iMacs for teachers and classrooms, so I am hoping this Apple server and OS X Server App will ease the process of app updates and installs. Thank you.

MacBook Pro, OS X Yosemite (10.10.2)

Posted on Mar 18, 2015 10:00 AM

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Answer 1

nick101

Level 5

5,150 points

Mar 19, 2015 4:56 AM in response to Jarv15

To get you started (there are people much better qualified than me to talk about details):

OS X includes all the components to run a server. To turn a Mac into a running server, you obtain Server.app from the Mac App Store ($20) and install it. That then gives you a GUI to configure and activate services. You can run Server on any Mac - most people use a Mini or a Pro rather than an iMac, but there's no absolute rule. You make the Mac a server by running Server.app on it.

You need to figure out how you want to use Server, and therefore what services you want to configure. For updating other Apple devices, you'd use the Profile Manager service, which allows you to remotely configure applications, user and password policies and other stuff. You may also want/need some or all of DNS (for name resolution on the local network)), File Sharing, Caching (so software updates can be distributed from the server, rather than from Apple.

There are a couple of useful reference guides in the Apple bookstore - search for Yosemite Server. Read them and think about what you need.

Hoe that helps

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Answer 2

DYC87

Level 1

31 points

Mar 19, 2015 7:24 AM in response to nick101

I would like to add that for updating other Apple devices, be prepared to find a lot of lacking functionality as Profile Manager and the updates feature of Server are not as useful as they first appear. It does not work like WSUS for Windows where you approve an update and now any users no matter if they are local users or admins on their machines can suddenly install updates. Essentially approving an update just allows it to be pushed locally instead of going to apples server (i.e. saves bandwidth). Also for newer OS's it becomes less useful as even preloaded apps like Pages/IMovie cant be updated through server because they are "store" apps. In 10.8 those apps are updatable without a store account.

Also there is no real integration between Apple Remote Desktop and Server so you can't tie in ARD task server into timing application pushes. I was hoping for this to distribute Office for Mac updates

If you already have core network servers running already you probably will not need DNS and/or DHCP.

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