Mavericks Server Reviews?

[techwarrior]

App store reviews for the current OSX Server are horrible.

Questions:

1. Is this indicative of the entire suite, or is it just a few features are poorly implemented and draw the ire of a vocal crowd?
   
2. Are any of you using Mavericks Server and happy with it?

I don't care to hear about the negative reviews of a single feature or two, but want a balanced review of what does, and does not work well. Not much on the web and Apps store reviews are not helpful, they focus on what does not work.

I am considering purchasing it for learning, and potentially to implement in a mixed Mac, and PC domain as an LDAP server for Macs authenticating to an AD domain. Also, to use for email, web, wiki etc.

No need for VPN at this point, this seems to be the most criticized piece of the current release.

 

[snarfquest]

It's working well for me. I don't use the VPN feature.

I use:

DNS/DHCP - my only complaint is the DHCP server doesn't do dynamic dns updates.
Time Machine - working well. no complaints.
Caching Server - works well
Update Server - works well
File Server for my media library (Movies and Music). I stream it from iTunes on the server itself to my ATV. Works well.

When I get some free time I intend to setup the Mail and Calendar servers.

My Server is a 2008 MacPro 2x 4core, 16gb RAM and 16 3TB drives in a raid5 array using 2 Hardware raid controllers from HighPoint.

 

[mvmanolov]

i find the 3.0.1 Server app is quite good actually. i'd say better than the old one. i did give it an abysmal score because of the vpn which is mission critical for me. That being said however if you don't need vpn, or rather l2tp vpn, then i say go for it. many of the bugs from the past one are gone. so...

 

[techwarrior]

Thanks snarfquest and mvmanolov, much more helpful than App store reviews.

 

[mvmanolov]

Thanks snarfquest and mvmanolov, much more helpful than App store reviews.

many of the reviews are just trying to prod apple into fixing vpn. I know i did one of those lol

----------

It's working well for me. I don't use the VPN feature.

I use:

DNS/DHCP - my only complaint is the DHCP server doesn't do dynamic dns updates.
Time Machine - working well. no complaints.
Caching Server - works well
Update Server - works well
File Server for my media library (Movies and Music). I stream it from iTunes on the server itself to my ATV. Works well.

When I get some free time I intend to setup the Mail and Calendar servers.

My Server is a 2008 MacPro 2x 4core, 16gb RAM and 16 3TB drives in a raid5 array using 2 Hardware raid controllers from HighPoint.

Shi7 guy your server is a beast

 

[techwarrior]

many of the reviews are just trying to prod apple into fixing vpn. I know i did one of those lol

Understand... too bad they don't have a better review method.

I do that too, many apps are ok but for a single (or few) features which may not be important to others... Nice to know they keep improving, maybe VPN will work someday?

 

[mvmanolov]

Understand... too bad they don't have a better review method.

I do that too, many apps are ok but for a single (or few) features which may not be important to others... Nice to know they keep improving, maybe VPN will work someday?

the new osx update 10.9.1 is supposed to be able to fix the vpn, but it is still in beta...

 

[jtara]

I'd love to hear how people are getting the VPN traffic passed through their router...

I gave up, and just set-up a VPN on my router itself. (I use OpenWRT on the router). The router really is the right place to do it, but the CPUs tend to be a bit weak (newer ones are starting to add encryption hardware, though.) I can get 15 mbit/sec throughput, and although that doesn't match my Internet connection speed, it's "good enough".

I'm sure my Mac Mini could handle the full speed of my Internet connection (60mbit/sec), but that's the only advantage I can see.

Now, still need to figure out how to get my Macbook to connect to it. (iPhone and iPad work fine.)

FWIW, Bruce Scheiner (security expert) recently commented that the reason for the complexity of setting-up IPSec - one of the universally-despised tasks in Netops - is likely due to significant present of the NSA in the standards process.

In retrospect, they likely channeled decisions toward more complex/more options as that would slow adoption. (And seems to have succeeded...) In other words, they pushed the standard as close to zero usability as possible, somehow with nobody the wiser.

 

[mvmanolov]

I'd love to hear how people are getting the VPN traffic passed through their router...

I gave up, and just set-up a VPN on my router itself. (I use OpenWRT on the router). The router really is the right place to do it, but the CPUs tend to be a bit weak (newer ones are starting to add encryption hardware, though.) I can get 15 mbit/sec throughput, and although that doesn't match my Internet connection speed, it's "good enough".

I'm sure my Mac Mini could handle the full speed of my Internet connection (60mbit/sec), but that's the only advantage I can see.

Now, still need to figure out how to get my Macbook to connect to it. (iPhone and iPad work fine.)

FWIW, Bruce Scheiner (security expert) recently commented that the reason for the complexity of setting-up IPSec - one of the universally-despised tasks in Netops - is likely due to significant present of the NSA in the standards process.

In retrospect, they likely channeled decisions toward more complex/more options as that would slow adoption. (And seems to have succeeded...) In other words, they pushed the standard as close to zero usability as possible, somehow with nobody the wiser.

i use a TC as a router, and the server app does it all for me

EDIT:
but you can forward the following ports on your router:
TCP: 1723
UDP: 500, 1701, 4500

 

[jtara]

i use a TC as a router, and the server app does it all for me

EDIT:
but you can forward the following ports on your router:
TCP: 1723
UDP: 500, 1701, 4500

A TC? What's that?

I did forward those ports, but with no luck.

I think the problem is IPSec. It's not TCP. It's not UDP. It's a completely different protocol. I've no idea how to "forward" it.

On the other hand, perhaps I simply encountered the same problems others are facing. The first time I tried this was on Mavericks.

 

[mvmanolov]

A TC? What's that?

I did forward those ports, but with no luck.

I think the problem is IPSec. It's not TCP. It's not UDP. It's a completely different protocol. I've no idea how to "forward" it.

On the other hand, perhaps I simply encountered the same problems others are facing. The first time I tried this was on Mavericks.

well, the L2TP in MAV broken atm

i dont know how to deal with IPsec either

a TC is a Apple Time Capsule