Apple is killing OS X Server. Does anyone else care?

Folks,

Based on your comments, some of this may be of help to you in moving from MacOS server to something better.

As a diehard Apple fan I really wanted to love OSX/MacOS Server. In the end I was forced to ditch it and look for alternatives, and haven't looked back. In MacOS Server, the features I most wanted, like a proper webserver, always felt like a lame afterthought with no meaningful support or community to speak of.

In a way I welcome this piece of news because it clarifies things and forces us to look into other, better alternatives of server while otherwise fully staying in the Mac ecosystem.

Since I already had to make this leap a couple years ago, allow me to share with you what has worked for me very well as replacement. (Admittedly, I only used the standard features of MacOS Server, such as web, dns, filesharing, some routing etc - not mail or the iOS management features.)

Just as MacOS is a pretty face over the gears and machinery of UNIX (including opensource server features like Apache webserver), there exist serveral options which let you come close to putting an easy-to-use server-focused interface over Linux.

The one that has worked best for me is Webmin. http://webmin.com/. This is a free user interface available for install over many distributions of Linux. Unlike MacOS server, in which all available features are just a limited and introductory subset, Webmin lets you configure any and all features a Linux server offers. (Just stop and think what that means... Entire corporations run on Linux!)

In my opinion, Webmin is such a good and complete server interface that you can in fact choose and install a desktop-free, server version of Linux, install Webmin over that, and manage the whole thing locally or remotely just that way. And I do just that. (It also has a module extension called Virtualmin which I also use and recommend for people who need all advanced features of a webserver.)

With the giant ease-of-use issue out of the way, you are now able and ready to avail yourself to all the benefits of using a Linux server without being a Linux expert. By far the two most important are:

- A truly full and regularly updated set of features of Linux. Including all the open source server features that haven't been updated by Apple in MacOS's behind-the-scene open-source packages in many years

- Yuuuge number of books and multitude of user communities at your fingertips that enble you to successfully deploy and troubleshoot even if you are totally on your own as manager your small company IT.

My choice of Linux is Ubuntu Server, with no desktop. Very clearly delineated, server focused features. Just choose that when running the installer off the downloadable Ubuntu Desktop ISO image.

You can install all that on any old PC or intel Mac, or as I do, run it virtualized, installed in VirtualBox (also free), a virtualization software package. (www.virtualbox.org). This means that the Mac and its MacOS are your actual base computer and running over it is another full-fledged Linux computer. Once you set in VirtualBox's preferences that you want the virtual Linux computer to get its own, separate IP address on the LAN, it behaves totally as though you actually had a Linux server box sitting in the corner of your office.

Finally, because I never wanted to mess with mail service in MacOS Server, I went straight to cloud-based for my business. For a few bucks a month per user, you can get MS Exchange Server-based service for your small business using your own domain name. I use Microsoft's 365 offering, Office 365 Business Essentials. Just Exchange mail, business Skype and online-only use of MS Office, so I can open and convert .doc files without losing any formatting.

Then, of course, there are "socialized" and cloud-based business communication offerings such as Slack. It's just awesome. I might be wrong, but I cannot imagine any feature MacOS Server mail service has that cannot be fully replaced (and then some) with a few clicks by such offerings.

I hope this helps. Happy to answer any questions.

***

Anyway for email you could turn to Kerio Connect, a lot of our customers are using this one, and part from the one time costs and anual fee for the updatest and stuff, it's a great server with minimum problems, easy to install and updates are simple. Other sollution is to look for a OpenSource sollutions, but be carefull about this, do test it a lot and see if the support-community is actual and alive.

<Edited by Host>

I concur with you with the advantages of sandboxing the linux Server on virtualbox. If one takes the precaution of locating the virtual disk on a sparse bundle, it even plays nicely with the host mac backup tools such as carbon copy cloner.

This being said, the performance hit is minimal only if one has significant memory in the host machine and if the machine is recent enough to incorporate a microprocessor that natively support virtualization. Some of us around here are hanging around very old mac minis in the hope of the advent of the mythical quad core new mini...

Likely migrating to some combination of Synology boxes and BSD Unix instances, if Apple continues on the current path with Server.app. Synology supports packages that provide most of what macOS with Server.app supports, if not more. These packages well beyond their applicability as NAS boxes. Including an optional Mail Server package. Will be running a mix of prototypes including OpenSMTP on BSD, and while waiting for further details from Apple including from the upcoming Spring 2018 announcement.

I sure care.

Server.app vertically integrated both Apple hardware and software from AE routers, certificates+keychain, to providing management and services to dozens of macOS and iOS devices. Some services like APNS might not be easily replaced.

Server.app is the foundation of this Apple device integration, and now that foundation is knocked out.

This calls into question upgrade plans for the expected Mac Pro's. If I have to configure my own servers and network devices by hand, this raises a host of cost, platform, and maintenance time questions, and I don't know yet how a new Mac without Server.app will stack up against the many other available options.

This decision appears very shortsighted, and could for me have multiplier effects about whether to acquire other Apple hardware for my IT stack moving forward.

A couple side projects I'm glad I invested time in now is an OpenVPN server and a privatizing proxy for macOS and iOS. I was never a fan of the L2TP-based VPN in Server.app, and primarily use OpenVPN now. These projects use macOS-based tools like launchd to manage, but could be ported over to Linux or OpenBSD with minor effort.

"few bucks" multiplied by 12 multiplied by the number of users can easily rise to "significant bucks"...

Personally, for my family and its small businesses, 100% apple equipped, I am going to move calendar, contacts and mail to iCloud and do mail forwarding from my domains to iCloud. The advantages are that it supports push for iOS and is very reasonably priced (0$ per month for less than 5Go and just 1$ per month for 50Go). For now, I'll keep using the Mac OS Server smtp server with a modded generic file to send mail with my domain name, and the Web Server to renew my certificate with letsencrypt. In the event Apple ditches postfix and apache entirely from Mac OS, it shouldn't be very difficult to find it on MacPorts. This being said, in my opinion, Apple doing that is unlikely because

1. postfix and apache2 are part of the "standard" distribution of Mac OS in the /etc directory, so it must be used for more than Mac OS Server,
2. what stays in Mac OS Server (for instance, profile management, certificate management or server alerts) will need these or similar components.

Regarding Webmin, as it says in their site that it supports OS X, did anyone tries to install it on a "standard" distribution of OS X and configure server features ? I would be interested to know how it goes.

Charles,

What you describe is a good workaround for mail when sticking with iCloud, but iOS does have a built-in 'push' for Exchange and any other third party mail solutions that support it, including Google. The only unfortunate part really is that iCloud doesn't support your own domains. If it did, I'd never have gone elsewhere.

You're right, even the few buck adds up if you have many users. The MS 365 Business Essentials option is 6 bucks a month per user. They may still have hidden on the site a $4 option which is strictly Exchance Mail (no Skype or online Office), and that's the one I migrated from to $6 one. Found it: Compare Microsoft Exchange Online Plans

I've taken a look at the OSX implementation of Webmin before but it looked much more invasive to set up as per their instructions than the Linux one. And they don't claim it as one of their highest-tier supported one. Plus, even Webmin can only control what's available behind the scenes in OSX in terms of open source packages, and that's rarely the latest. So I decided against it and went with Linux.

The only case it might make sense to implement macOS+Webmin is if your server must be your physical Mac, but that's not really a good idea. You can still, as I wrote earlier, accomplish a Mac+Linux Server single-machine operation with a lot more safety using virtualization of Linux on Mac via VirtualBox. The performance hit of virtualization vs. pure hardware is really minimal.

A very important benefit to going virtualized is that you can create backup snapshots of let's say a virgin installation of the Linux server and/or subsequent states. The whole server is essentially a VirtualBox volume image. If you keep a copy of it in a safe place, anytime the Mac goes down or you want to switch Macs, all you need to do is pull out the archived vdi image and throw it onto the reinstalled VirtualBox and up boots the server at the exact same place it left off.

You can of course also use Parallels or VMWare for Virtualization on the Mac, I just way prefer the free VirtualBox.

I wouldn't advise 10.13 right now as an upgrade path for server, not unless you absolutely need your server to run APFS. The later server version is crippled, you have to depend on the OS itself now for Time Machine backup handling, SMB2 and AFP are flaky, etc, etc. If I could, I'd move the 10.13 server I just installed back to 10.12—I'd need more budget for that tho and that isn't in the cards right now; maybe when the next major server "update" comes out, it'll be necessary tho to move backwards and not forwards.

I suggest looking at Zimbra. I realise it is Linux based but does all you need

I care

I did reply earlier but that reply was excluded for ranting

Actually those three are by far the easiest to do out of the box providing you don't need to bind the Macs to OD. Use Ubuntu and Webmin.

I use DNS, DHCP, as well as mail and websites for 5 domains. I have a Mac mini running OSX server just for my home. I’ve appreciated the simplicity of setting up these services with a simple UI, and an easy way to check logs from other macs on my network. I’m greatly disappointed in this decision. It’s going to make my environment way more complicated.

While I am capable of digging into config files to set this stuff up, its a pain and frankly I’d prefer not to have to spend the time.

Now that Server.app is dead, I’m looking at a few hardware upgrade paths.

There are some great highly performant, low power, OpenBSD-based server options out there, like this fanless atom system:

• SUPERMICRO MBD-A1SRi-2758F-O Mini ITX Server Motherboard DDR3 1600/1333 - Newegg.com
• https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00HS4NLHA/

This solution could handle the PF firewall, DHCP, DNS, Apache, OpenVPN, all at multi Gb/s on the LAN, drawing maybe 10 Watts, and at a tiny fraction (perhaps a fifth) of the expected cost of the new Mac Pro’s promised this year.

I was planning on a new MP before the demise of Server.app, and I’d still prefer an all-Apple vertically integrated solution to mitigate the multiplatform maintenance, but this looks tough without Server.app. The replacement for Mail/Calendar/Contacts is a tbd, but could also be done on a micro if a NAS is added to the build.

An atom SoC also has the advantage of not having services withdrawn or unstable once it’s been configured.

I think Apple have been very good here... they have given a lot of notice that the product is coming to end of life so giving users notice to look elsewhere and we have several years before we need to worry. The product not keeping pace with technology - no 2FA, no integration with new products e.g. HomePod, and spam protection is now very poor. As I move stuff of OSX onto another OpenSource OS - I'll post instructions. Wiki may be hard and apple are not releasing the push framework at the moment ... so that's a real dead end (and the one I will miss). Everything else is not too hard from what I can see - today.

Thats unlikely because the services are all standard Unix/Linux products. All apple has done is make a nice GUI to manage it. (I think they have done a pretty good job actually)

The most likely reason they are winding this down is that so few customers are using it.