Mac OS X Lion Server - home server step by step guide

[gdc]

Greetings. There is a steady stream of posts to this forum along the lines of:-

'What can I do with Mac OS server that I can't do with the basic/client OS?'
'How do I Set up Mac OS Server?'
'How can I use Mac OS as a home server?'
'Why would I want to use Mac OS X Server?'

and increasingly so with the fall in price of Lion Server drawing a wider potential user base.

It is the case that often people do not appreciate that they really don't need to use the server version of the OS to achieve what they want to, and/or it is pointed out that configuring the server version of the OS is a far more complicated undertaking than Apple's 'it just works' mantra might have them believe.

I would count myself among those who have wanted to have access to a comprehensive step-by-step guide to setting up a Lion home server, and so was very pleased to discover this currently ongoing series at http://www.wegotserved.com that does just that.

So far it has covered "the rationale for its [Lion's] potential role as a home server, features, hardware options, installation, the server app, storage and networking setup..., configuration of users, network accounts and user groups."

There is much more to come, including management of iOS devices, serving updates to client etc.

I hope others find as useful as I have.

 

[DustinT]

GDC, thanks for the link. WGS has been a trusted resource for years when I ran WHS. Now that I've switched to Lion Server at home its quite interesting to get their perspective. I'm on section 5 at the moment and I'm going to have to take a break. But, I'll be getting back to it soon enough.

 

[Sdevante]

Thanks! Ive been trying for a week to get Time Machine to back up over the network to an attached drive, but totally overlooked the Time Machine setting in Server until I read this. All is well now!

 

[Ruahrc]

Seem like this is what I have been looking for- an explanation of exactly what you would want/need a server for, and how to implement it.

After reading a few of the articles int he series, it seems like much of it doesn't really apply to what I want to do- given my home setup has so few computers. But I was interested by a few parts like the network-based users folder thing.

A question along those lines, it might be cool to be able to network-log on to my Mac Mini account using my laptop. Thing is, the mini's on Lion and the laptop's on Snow Leopard? Would this cause a problem? Should I hold off on playing around with that kind of thing until I eventually upgrade the laptop to Lion?

Ruahrc