Lion Server!

[sux2beyou]

Mail is not using squirrelmail !! HORRAY. They switched to roundcube. (http://roundcube.net/) Also they are using the latest version of roundcube (0.5.1) which was released 2-9-2011.



I posed some screen shots of the new device management remote lock and wipe features here.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1106504/

In the backend there is a lot of ruby running the wiki (teamsserver and the webauthserver)
There is also built in postgres running the services, but no obvious way to manage it from the GUI.
MySQL is not installed.

A lot of services are missing from server admin, some have dumbed down features in the server.app (which replaces server preferences) but a lot is missing.


Web is missing from server admin, so I find no obvious way to change thing like Folder Listings, or Proxy or Aliases.

I can't find any way to make an NFS or FTP share.

Print server is missing.

QuickTime Streaming service is missing. (although I've never used that)

VPN settings are only in server.app, so there is no way to provide different DNS Servers or Search Domains or Network Routing to your VPN clients.
It also looks like it sets up as L2TP over IPSec Auth and there is no way to change it or see the number of connections like you can in server admin.

 

[bluebomberman]

Google literally Velcro's their server farms? Dang, I should try that.

I'm serious. See here. And here.

The slow shift to el cheapo green servers and cloud computing makes Xserve an even tougher sell, most of all to Apple internally.

More so than other tech companies, Apple is famous for making stuff that they want to use themselves. (I remember Steve Jobs once mentioned how Apple employees' hatred for their own cell phones helped drive the creation of the iPhone.) So I'm willing to bet that Apple looked at their server farms and thought, "Dang, we'd be stupid to put Xserves in here. Um, why are we building these things again?"

 

[talmy]

A lot of services are missing from server admin, some have dumbed down features in the server.app (which replaces server preferences) but a lot is missing.

Doesn't seem right to remove services. Perhaps they will reappear later in the beta.

At least for my use, all the services seem to be present (except Printer Server, which I use but don't really need, as all it really offers is spooling and is otherwise a PITA).

I don't really have time to install and look into this. I'll just investigate when the final release comes out, and maybe a .1 after that! I already know of some Lion issues that will keep me away for a while anyway. And as long as Snow Leopard server will work with Lion clients I can certainly wait!

 

[Mr-Stabby]

Thanks for the screenshots.

Slightly concerned that some services appear to be either missing altogether or lacking in functionality.

Hopefully we'll see them appear before the final version appears. It seems from the look of those screenshots that a lot of stuff has been re-written from the ground up.

I'm liking the look of the new web based features

 

[handheldgames]

yes i agree there. osx server shall thusly be known as "Mac OSX Home Server".

*cry*

Yep... Considering Apple did nothing to provide a Snow Leopard Server connector for Windows 7 and beyond, kinda makes Apple's server offering redundant in a mixed-platform environment these days... SLS in name had potential... but... whats under the hood isn't up to the quality of the Apple logo.

Great to see some EFFORT on polishing the server. Based on my experience using it over the last 18 months, they would have to give me the next version in order to even consider it... Guess they are

I just deployed Windows Home Server 2... And very happy with it at the moment... It seem MS is more than ready for competition on this front...

 

[handheldgames]

Any changes under the hood allowing Win7 Boxes to join an OD domain?

More server an the start of the profile manager web app.
the profile manager also allows you to remote lock/wipe your devices but you need to have network directory set up which it was, so will investigate later more about this feature.

 

[hans-martijn]

Push mail

Does push-mail actually work this time? In SLS it is supported, but not with an iPhone. iPhone push thus far only works with Exchange, Google or MobileMe.

Thanks!

-Hans-Martijn

 

[handheldgames]

Does push-mail actually work this time? In SLS it is supported, but not with an iPhone. iPhone push thus far only works with Exchange, Google or MobileMe.

Thanks!

-Hans-Martijn

Push works AWESOME on Kerio Connect 7 to the iPhone, 6 worked great also. It uses an outlook connector for it's black magic. Email are generally pushed to and appear on my iPhone within a second of hitting the server.

 

[DoFoT9]

Yep... Considering Apple did nothing to provide a Snow Leopard Server connector for Windows 7 and beyond, kinda makes Apple's server offering redundant in a mixed-platform environment these days... SLS in name had potential... but... whats under the hood isn't up to the quality of the Apple logo.

Great to see some EFFORT on polishing the server. Based on my experience using it over the last 18 months, they would have to give me the next version in order to even consider it... Guess they are

I just deployed Windows Home Server 2... And very happy with it at the moment... It seem MS is more than ready for competition on this front...

so you use your server in the home environment? i kind of think that Lion will be fairly decent in the home environment, its user friendly and most of the features that are not included from SLS arent required by the general home user population. turning on and off services without configuration is exactly what most people need

 

[hans-martijn]

Push works AWESOME on Kerio Connect 7 to the iPhone, 6 worked great also. It uses an outlook connector for it's black magic. Email are generally pushed to and appear on my iPhone within a second of hitting the server.

Before SLS I used mail server software on linux. The general idea was that Apple promoted SLS as THE server to use with an iPhone, which apparently isn't completely true. I don't think I want to pay a yearly subscription for another mail server again.

 

[satelshawn]

Kingdonk, thanks a million for the screenshots. Any idea what version of Samba they have included? That has been a big headache for me with Snow Leopard ever since win7 came out. Cannot bind win7 to the domain because apple are running an old version of samba.

If you could figure out the samba version that would be awesome, if it is still and old version then I am going to have to either move to Linux or buy a Windows server license for our win7 machines.

 

[twoodcc]

thanks for the screenshots! i'm glad that lion server is included in lion. more people will use it, since it comes with lion.

 

[talmy]

Lion Server NOT in Lion!

We may all be jumping the gun on this one. Apple says that Lion Server is included in the Lion preview. That doesn't mean it will be included in the final release!

Obviously developers need a copy of Lion Server to test their applications. Just like Mac Developer members can get Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server downloads, this is just a convenient way to package up both Lion client and server into one download.

 

[grawk]

Lion Server

Simply a better server.
Lion Server is now part of Mac OS X Lion. It’s easy to set up your Mac as a server and take advantage of the many services Lion Server has to offer. Here are just a few of the new features that make server deployment faster, easier, and more powerful than ever.

That doesn't say anything about the preview.

 

[talmy]

Ah, right. In the developer site there is an implication that the server version would be separate. But I'm still expecting some sort of gimmick. With the Mac Store one could end up paying for each little feature as an option.

 

[DeepIn2U]

kingdonk,

Many thanks for the juicy pics and all your efforts. Unfortunately tonight I'll sing a sad sad sad sad song learning what you've posted. I'm seriously almost afraid to learn Snow Leopard Server and will need to re-evaluate if that $21xx course & certification exam will be worth it - considering I live in Canada - I don't know of any major corporations running an all OS X business model & infrastructure.


Wait: I had another thought.

Back in the days of AIX didn't Apple ship such a server (Workgroup Server running this)? When it was cancelled like the XServe now ... did Apple eventually kill off the server specific software/OS (either or both) shortly after or has there ALWAYS been a server software?

 

[Chimaera]

From memory Snow Leopard Samba runs a modified version of 3.0 Samba, however versions 3.3 and 3.4 of Samba Windows 7 *can* authenticate against(+). If the version of Samba in Lion is 3.3 or higher then it might be possible to get Windows 7 computers to authenticate against OSX Lion server...

(+) Although a registry patch is required on the Win7 machines to enable certain legacy support.

I beleive the command is "smbd -V" in terminal on the server if someone feels like trying it...

 

[kingdonk]

Whats this?

Whats this feature for? I don't know if it was in SL Server but its part of the mail settings and don't know if its for certification or for using apple's mobile me mail service for pushing mail to iOS devices.

 

[hans-martijn]

Whats this feature for? I don't know if it was in SL Server but its part of the mail settings and don't know if its for certification or for using apple's mobile me mail service for pushing mail to iOS devices.

This looks like Push notifications for email will finally work

-Hans-Martijn

 

[kingdonk]

Whats this feature for? I don't know if it was in SL Server but its part of the mail settings and don't know if its for certification or for using apple's mobile me mail service for pushing mail to iOS devices.

i came across a post earlier and carnt remember the link to it but it was back from 2008 where some one was on about the new sl server and about the apple push thing and it was not for push e-mail but for push notifications for apps. i guess it might be if a company has their own app they can use that service for push notifications in the app.

i may be wrong about this. any body else like to share?

 

[Natural Science]

mirror iMac & MBP?

Will the Lion Server allow me to keep one set of data accessible from my iMac & MBP so they are basically working with only one set of files? I don't want to migrate data from my iMac to my new MBP because between the iLife projects I don't want them living on separate machines... I simply want to close iMovie or excel for example and pick right up where I left up on the MBP once I'm upstairs! I set up file sharing and accessing the iPhoto library from the iMac takes forever to load, nevermind the loss of certain features like location tagging and I've yet to get iMovie to open the iMac library without having it crash. I know I sound like an total moron here, but the good news is when it comes to computers, I am, and I've accepted that.

 

[talmy]

Will the Lion Server allow me to keep one set of data accessible from my iMac & MBP so they are basically working with only one set of files? I don't want to migrate data from my iMac to my new MBP because between the iLife projects I don't want them living on separate machines... I simply want to close iMovie or excel for example and pick right up where I left up on the MBP once I'm upstairs! I set up file sharing and accessing the iPhoto library from the iMac takes forever to load, nevermind the loss of certain features like location tagging and I've yet to get iMovie to open the iMac library without having it crash. I know I sound like an total moron here, but the good news is when it comes to computers, I am, and I've accepted that.

It doesn't take Lion Server, any Mac will do, to have one set of files. But you may have a performance loss especially if you are using Wifi. With iMovie I moved the local iMovie Projects and iMovie Events folders to the server and created an alias to them on the local systems where the folders used to be. I don't use iPhoto, but if you start iPhoto holding down the option key you can specify an alternate iPhoto library location. iTunes seems to be a can of worms -- I haven't found a satisfactory solution beyond sharing the music folders. Doesn't seem to be a way to have shared playlists or even update the databases across systems. Instead I use Plex for music/video/photo sharing across systems with just the Plex server program running on the server. Doesn't seem to be any issues with other programs from Apple that I occasionally use.

 

[grawk]

idisk and dropbox both work for this. I use idisk to keep a synced copy of data on all my macs. It's not immediate update, but it allows access to the files even when away from the network. Not sure what will happen once mobileme transitions to it's new free version, tho.

 

[kingtj]

Interesting stuff ....

I think the whole thing about the 2-10 person shops moving to the cloud is a bit over-hyped/over-rated, really? I do a lot of consulting and on-site service work for small businesses like these, and none of them have moved anything to the cloud yet, except for one instance where they outsource a Microsoft Exchange and Sharepoint server.

The thing is, moving a firm's mail server to the cloud is a much easier sell than everything else, in most cases. That's because if their Internet connection should go down, it would cause an equal amount of hassle and service unavailability whether email was handed internally or externally. No connection means no new email coming in. By contrast, once a place gets rid of physical application or file servers and puts that stuff in the cloud? They may free themselves from having to take care of the hardware, but any Internet outage means inability to use those apps or get to those saved files. The small firms are usually the same ones who can't really afford multiple redundant broadband Internet connections.

Thanks for the pics kingdonk. It looks like the Open Directory service is there in the pictures, although maybe it's unconfigurable at the moment. I do not see NFS which is surprising.

Overall, with the killing of the Xserve and Apple catering OS X Server more to the SOHO, it will be a tough sell since a lot of 2-10 person shops that don't require more than 500GB can probably have most of their infrastructure on the cloud.

If they need massive amounts of storage and not a lot of physical space then an XServe would fit better with a RAID attached and backup unit.

 

[DeepIn2U]

From memory Snow Leopard Samba runs a modified version of 3.0 Samba, however versions 3.3 and 3.4 of Samba Windows 7 *can* authenticate against(+). If the version of Samba in Lion is 3.3 or higher then it might be possible to get Windows 7 computers to authenticate against OSX Lion server...

(+) Although a registry patch is required on the Win7 machines to enable certain legacy support.

I beleive the command is "smbd -V" in terminal on the server if someone feels like trying it...

I was under the impression that an Open Directory domain can host both OSX, Windows XP/Vista/7, and Linux boxes if enabled.