Alexander Chai

Q: Upgrading to Server 5 from Lion server

Hi all,

I want to upgrade my Lion server to Server 5 running on El Capitan. I searched Apple support documents and found these two:

OS X Server: Upgrade and migration from Lion Server or Snow Leopard Server - Apple Support

OS X Server: Upgrade and migration from Mavericks or Mountain Lion - Apple Support

 

In the upgrade from Lion Server document, it says that "You can upgrade to OS X Server on Mavericks or Mountain Lion from Lion Server......", does it mean there is no way I can upgrade directly from Lion Server to El Capitan Server? That I must first upgrade my Lion Server to Mavericks Server then upgrade to El Capitan Server?

 

Thanks!

Posted on Feb 2, 2016 9:37 PM

Close

Q: Upgrading to Server 5 from Lion server

  • All replies
  • Helpful answers

  • by Niel,

    Niel Niel Feb 2, 2016 9:45 PM in response to Alexander Chai
    Level 10 (314,197 points)
    Mac OS X
    Feb 2, 2016 9:45 PM in response to Alexander Chai

    Those documents are out of date.

     

    (139119)

  • by Alexander Chai,

    Alexander Chai Alexander Chai Feb 2, 2016 11:27 PM in response to Niel
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 2, 2016 11:27 PM in response to Niel

    Oh! Then has anyone tried upgrading directly from Lion Server to El Capitan Server?

  • by John Lockwood,Helpful

    John Lockwood John Lockwood Feb 3, 2016 10:47 PM in response to Alexander Chai
    Level 6 (9,379 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Feb 3, 2016 10:47 PM in response to Alexander Chai

    Alexander Chai wrote:

     

    Oh! Then has anyone tried upgrading directly from Lion Server to El Capitan Server?

     

    I haven't and I suspect many other haven't either due to having done versions in between. However in theory I would expect this to be possible except Apple have had a poor history in terms of how well such upgrades succeed. I personally tend to build a new server from scratch and import/restore the data from the old server. For example in the case of Open Directory you would archive the old server and then restore the archive on the new server, or if your even more paranoid about Apple's capabilities you might export the users and groups and then import them on the new server. This later method requires resetting all the passwords either by hand, or in bulk to the same value, or as I did to use the Passenger utility to import and apply a list of passwords to the imported user accounts.

     

    Services like DHCP and DNS have not changed much and one can use the command line tool serveradmin to export the settings from these services and then import them on the new server. A service like File Sharing is best setup from scratch.

  • by Alexander Chai,

    Alexander Chai Alexander Chai Feb 3, 2016 10:48 PM in response to John Lockwood
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Feb 3, 2016 10:48 PM in response to John Lockwood

    Thanks John! That's basically what I had in mind, I just wanna see if there is a lazy way to do it. Guess I just have to do it the hard way

  • by pterobyte,

    pterobyte pterobyte Feb 4, 2016 2:01 AM in response to Alexander Chai
    Level 6 (11,101 points)
    Servers Enterprise
    Feb 4, 2016 2:01 AM in response to Alexander Chai

    Your best option would be to do a clean installation of El Capitan and Server 5 and then manually transfer any data you actually need. It is a lot of work, but has the added benefit of not keeping around any old cruft and easier troubleshooting in the long run.

     

    Upgrading across 3-4 server/OS versions usually creates a lot of headaches. Some of those may even not happen immediately, but only down the road.

     

    If you do not want to invest the time to do so, then your best bet is to do two upgrades by using an intermediate version first.