Can I delete OSX Server Software Updates?

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Level 2

223 points

Can I delete OSX Server Software Updates?

I installed OS X Server on El Capitan a while ago and recently noticed my 500 GB boot drive was about out of space! I have all media on an external drive and I use Time Machine so I typically run about 125 GB on my Mac's HDD. The Disk Utility indicated there was a whole lot of "Other" going on. Hmm, back to Finder & located the Server/Software Update folder was stuffed with updates, sometimes multiples/day. So, before I start deleting them, are there any ramifications to deleting these updates to recover some space? I do have them backed up if I ever need to restore them (but doubt I would ever be able to restore them all in the future if really needed). Seems like there should be a background process that cleans these up if not needed but I remember Microsoft Server updates used to do the same thing (accumulate).

Thanks in advance!

Scott

Posted on Nov 23, 2015 9:22 AM

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Answer 1

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Strontium90

Level 5

4,803 points

Nov 23, 2015 10:44 AM in response to MRYFLYGUY

Might I suggest you shut down Software Update server and enable Caching Server?

Now, if you are behind a proxy, I can understand not. But if you are on a simple network, I think you will find that Caching Server does everything you want Software Update server to do. You can define a storage limit, it will auto-purge unused cached content, requires no client side configuration, and works with both OS X (10.8.2 and higher) and iOS (iOS 7 and higher).

Now if you are supporting legacy OSs or have network limits, then I can understand the need for Software Update server. If you must continue to use it then I would suggest setting the mode to manual, purging your existing repository, and then selecting only the installers you want to support on your network. If you have a consistent deployment this is relatively easy. If you are supporting multiple OSs it gets tough.

Hope this helps

Reid

Apple Consultants Network

Author "El Capitan Server – Foundation Services" :: Exclusively available in Apple's iBooks Store

Author "El Capitan Server – Control & Collaboration" :: Exclusively available in Apple's iBooks Store

Author of Yosemite Server and Mavericks Server books

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Answer 2

MRYFLYGUY Author

Level 2

223 points

Nov 23, 2015 11:02 AM in response to Strontium90

Silly me. This is a stand alone server for me. I have a couple domains and installed OS X Server to get rid of my Web Hosting service. I must have inadvertently/unconsciously activated Software Updates my last time in Server. Oh well, live and learn. It's only time, right? Thanks much!

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