Mac mini Server (Mid 2010) Lion Internet Recovery Question

[Yebubbleman]

Context:

I have a Mac mini Server (Mid 2010) running the client OS version of Snow Leopard. I bought it as an interim machine to replace my iMac (20", Early 2006) but also hold me off until I buy a 15" MacBook Pro later this year when they are next refreshed (or a 17" if they drastically reduce the functionality of the 15" model, forcing me to go one up). Given that my next machine would come with either Mountain Lion or Lion pre-installed, I've thought it silly to upgrade to Lion, so I haven't yet. I bought the server model Mac mini because I wanted 1TB of storage and, during the Mid 2010 generation of Mac minis, that wasn't possible, so I wiped my drives, RAID 0ed them (so I'd have one volume [don't worry, I use Time Machine religiously and have AppleCare to offset the increased liklihood of hard drive failure]).

Question:

With the recent release of firmware updates to all non-Mac-Pro Mid 2010 Macs enabling the use of Lion Internet Recovery (provided the machine is running Lion which is required to install said firmware updates) I'm wondering what happens on the server model Mid 2010 Mac mini. The Mid 2011 Mac mini Server with Lion Server has a special Lion Internet Recovery Mode that will actually reinstall Lion Server as opposed to just the client version of Lion like on all of the other Lion-Internet-Recovery-enabled-Macs. Does anyone with a 2010 Mac mini Server (who has actually made the jump to Lion [and thusly installed this firmware update]) know if the Lion Internet Recovery on this machine will restore the full Lion Server or just the standard Lion client?

Any info is seriously appreciated.

 

[MJL]

Did you ever find out the answer to this question? I see there is an EFI 1.5 update to enable the mid 2010 mini to Lion internet recovery however I did find one post that someone after upgrading the EFI wanted to downgrade again to 1.4 since it messed with his audio (cannot remember the details).

I've just managed to get an unused Mac mini mid 2010 server and want to change to Lion client. However I have read that one has to go through some hoops to install Lion since from the SL Server it will only allow you to install Lion Server (resulting in extra software purchase and even that seems to have its own issues). Alternatively you have first to install SL client and then install Lion client. There were some suggestions of having a Lion DVD / USB install medium and first wiping the HDD and apparently that might work, have not got the machine yet but I might explore that option first.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Did you ever find out the answer to this question? I see there is an EFI 1.5 update to enable the mid 2010 mini to Lion internet recovery however I did find one post that someone after upgrading the EFI wanted to downgrade again to 1.4 since it messed with his audio (cannot remember the details).

I've just managed to get an unused Mac mini mid 2010 server and want to change to Lion client. However I have read that one has to go through some hoops to install Lion since from the SL Server it will only allow you to install Lion Server (resulting in extra software purchase and even that seems to have its own issues). Alternatively you have first to install SL client and then install Lion client. There were some suggestions of having a Lion DVD / USB install medium and first wiping the HDD and apparently that might work, have not got the machine yet but I might explore that option first.

As far as the EFI update is concerned, it does install Lion Internet Recovery, but all that does is boot (from firmware) the same stuff that boots with the normal Lion Recovery HD partition. I am prompted to enter in my AppleID and password to verify that my account owns Lion and Lion Server (which I don't) before it continues. I don't know if this is the case with Lion Internet Recovery on machines that came preloaded with Lion or (in the case of the 2011 Mac mini Server) Lion Server and thusly I don't know what the case is for those who didn't own Lion or Lion Server prior to purchasing a Mac that came with it preloaded. If someone, in the know about how that stuff works, would like to share their insight, that'd be cool.

As for getting a Mid 2010 Mac mini Server to run the client version of Lion, the procedure is more or less identical to getting the same machine to run the client version of Snow Leopard (as I have running on my Mid 2010 Mac mini). Download Lion from the Mac App Store, extract the InstallESD.dmg file from the app's Contents/Shared Resources folder, either burn that .dmg file to a single-layer DVD via an external DVD burner or image it to a USB Thumb Drive. This gives you a bootable, internet-independent, Lion install media. Boot from it, wipe your drive(s), reformat, install Lion, done. You can't perform an upgrade from Snow Leopard Server to Lion Client; only from Snow Leopard Server to Lion Server. But my guess is that you haven't really been using the computer much with Snow Leopard Server, so a wipe-and-reinstall operation shouldn't be too hellish for you. Worst case scenario, if it is, clone what you have to the second hard drive, and then run the migration assistant when first installing Lion.

 

[MJL]

As far as the EFI update is concerned, it does install Lion Internet Recovery, but all that does is boot (from firmware) the same stuff that boots with the normal Lion Recovery HD partition. I am prompted to enter in my AppleID and password to verify that my account owns Lion and Lion Server (which I don't) before it continues. I don't know if this is the case with Lion Internet Recovery on machines that came preloaded with Lion or (in the case of the 2011 Mac mini Server) Lion Server and thusly I don't know what the case is for those who didn't own Lion or Lion Server prior to purchasing a Mac that came with it preloaded. If someone, in the know about how that stuff works, would like to share their insight, that'd be cool.

As for getting a Mid 2010 Mac mini Server to run the client version of Lion, the procedure is more or less identical to getting the same machine to run the client version of Snow Leopard (as I have running on my Mid 2010 Mac mini). Download Lion from the Mac App Store, extract the InstallESD.dmg file from the app's Contents/Shared Resources folder, either burn that .dmg file to a single-layer DVD via an external DVD burner or image it to a USB Thumb Drive. This gives you a bootable, internet-independent, Lion install media. Boot from it, wipe your drive(s), reformat, install Lion, done. You can't perform an upgrade from Snow Leopard Server to Lion Client; only from Snow Leopard Server to Lion Server. But my guess is that you haven't really been using the computer much with Snow Leopard Server, so a wipe-and-reinstall operation shouldn't be too hellish for you. Worst case scenario, if it is, clone what you have to the second hard drive, and then run the migration assistant when first installing Lion.

Thank you, that answers my question on the EFI update - that won't be happening then since I do not want to buy the server part. (I do own the Lion client in AppleID)).

As far as a Mac Mini 2011 goes: It does not require the AppleID, it checks the machine and just carries on from there (I am doing it at this moment preparing the machine for resale).

I am actually running only Windows 7 on my Mac's (yeah, I know) but I want also to be able to run XP and unfortunately the SL server does not come with Bootcamp as far as I can tell. (the 2011 cannot run XP except going through lots of hoops, BootCamp 4 does not support it). I am too misery to buy a Snow Leopard client license so now I am trying to figure out a way to get BootCamp 3. Might ring Apple support and harrass them since I already own a SL server license. On the 2011 I have already downloaded the Windows install part of Bootcamp so that should work fine for installing Windows 7 on the 2010 (had it running in the past on the 2.4 Mac mini 2010 and it worked fine).

 

[Yebubbleman]

Thank you, that answers my question on the EFI update - that won't be happening then since I do not want to buy the server part. (I do own the Lion client in AppleID)).

Yeah, my dad owns the Lion part, and a friend owns the Server part. Both have let me use their AppleID, so I can download and install Lion Server when and wherever needed. Not exactly legal, but given that my only real use of Lion Server is to train myself for the "OS X Lion Server Essentials" Exam for my "Apple Certified Technical Coordinator 10.7" certification, I don't feel all that badly for it. Plus, it's not like I won't be giving Apple a ton of my money for a Mountain Lion-equipped MacBook Pro later this year (after selling this Mac mini).

As far as a Mac Mini 2011 goes: It does not require the AppleID, it checks the machine and just carries on from there (I am doing it at this moment preparing the machine for resale).

Very interesting. So I guess the "Lion Internet Recovery" on the older machines just enables clean Lion installation on new drives, but still does the check to see if the machines are legally authorized to get Lion given that they came out before Lion itself did. Interesting.

I am actually running only Windows 7 on my Mac's (yeah, I know) but I want also to be able to run XP and unfortunately the SL server does not come with Bootcamp as far as I can tell. (the 2011 cannot run XP except going through lots of hoops, BootCamp 4 does not support it). I am too misery to buy a Snow Leopard client license so now I am trying to figure out a way to get BootCamp 3. Might ring Apple support and harrass them since I already own a SL server license. On the 2011 I have already downloaded the Windows install part of Bootcamp so that should work fine for installing Windows 7 on the 2010 (had it running in the past on the 2.4 Mac mini 2010 and it worked fine).

Honestly, if you're serious about using Windows either way, you really don't want less than 7. XP is lean and mean by today's standards and is still being supported by Microsoft, but with it still being 60% of the Windows marketshare, most hackers and virus writers are specifically targeting it; you're better off going with 7 from the getgo. Though if you're trying to use your 2010 mini with XP, that's definitely doable, just find a copy of Snow Leopard client and run the drivers from Windows. In the meantime, it is possible to, in Snow Leopard Server, run the Boot Camp Assistant. It isn't installed as part of the operating system, but if you copy the app from a Snow Leopard client system to the Utilities folder of your Applications folder of your Snow Leopard Server system, the Snow Leopard Server system will run the assistant as per usual. I did that before to play with Snow Leopard Server while running Windows XP on an old Mac mini system that I no longer own.

 

[MJL]

....
Honestly, if you're serious about using Windows either way, you really don't want less than 7. XP is lean and mean by today's standards and is still being supported by Microsoft.....

XP is a temporary solution for testing something and not intended to be connected to the internet. Windows 7 x64 is my favourite (and I skipped Vista and it looks like I'll be skipping Windows 8).

 

[sailinfo]

As far as the EFI update is concerned, it does install Lion Internet Recovery, but all that does is boot (from firmware) the same stuff that boots with the normal Lion Recovery HD partition. I am prompted to enter in my AppleID and password to verify that my account owns Lion and Lion Server (which I don't) before it continues. I don't know if this is the case with Lion Internet Recovery on machines that came preloaded with Lion or (in the case of the 2011 Mac mini Server) Lion Server and thusly I don't know what the case is for those who didn't own Lion or Lion Server prior to purchasing a Mac that came with it preloaded. If someone, in the know about how that stuff works, would like to share their insight, that'd be cool.

As for getting a Mid 2010 Mac mini Server to run the client version of Lion, the procedure is more or less identical to getting the same machine to run the client version of Snow Leopard (as I have running on my Mid 2010 Mac mini). Download Lion from the Mac App Store, extract the InstallESD.dmg file from the app's Contents/Shared Resources folder, either burn that .dmg file to a single-layer DVD via an external DVD burner or image it to a USB Thumb Drive. This gives you a bootable, internet-independent, Lion install media. Boot from it, wipe your drive(s), reformat, install Lion, done. You can't perform an upgrade from Snow Leopard Server to Lion Client; only from Snow Leopard Server to Lion Server. But my guess is that you haven't really been using the computer much with Snow Leopard Server, so a wipe-and-reinstall operation shouldn't be too hellish for you. Worst case scenario, if it is, clone what you have to the second hard drive, and then run the migration assistant when first installing Lion.

Can you clarify where the InstallESD.dmg is found after downloading OS X Lion Client?

 

[Yebubbleman]

http://www.macworld.com/article/1161069/make_a_bootable_lion_installer.html