Best version of OS X for Mini Server

ncrypt · Aug 7, 2014

I have a Mac Mini 2,1 (Mid 2007 C2D) that can run up to OS X Lion, officially. I'm planning to run it as a server for VPN, file sharing, media streaming and backups and am in a dilemma with which version of OS X to put on it.

Snow Leopard, Lion, or.. Mountain Lion using MLPF? (https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1325709/)

I've heard the Mountain Lion is more stable than Lion but since it's being 'hacked' onto the Mac I'm not sure which of the options would work out best. Any thoughts?

talmy · Aug 13, 2014

Snow Leopard Server was the best server. Lion server was terrible (I skipped it altogether). Mountain Lion server seems fine with few issues. I know nothing about MLPF but if it works you would have the advantage of running a still supported OS.

blanka · Aug 13, 2014

For your interest: you can still buy SLS at the Apple Store (by phone only!) for 19.95$/18!
It also can be virtualised in more modern OSX-es if you need to run PPC software on say mavericks.

Neodym · Aug 14, 2014

blanka said:
For your interest: you can still buy SLS at the Apple Store (by phone only!) for 19.95$/18!
It also can be virtualised in more modern OSX-es if you need to run PPC software on say mavericks.

Out of curiosity: Is the 10.9 server app still lacking something that 10.6 server offers? I mean, the latter once did cost a couple hundred Euros to buy and now it's offered for only 18 (same price as the 10.9 server app)...?!

Or did you mention this more as a low-cost alternative to get an official 10.6 installation in general?

talmy · Aug 14, 2014

Neodym said:
Out of curiosity: Is the 10.9 server app still lacking something that 10.6 server offers?

I know these services are missing: Printer Server, Podcast Producer, webmail, xgrid. They also went from MySQL to PostgreSQL for databases (which might cause some problems) and dropped SAMBA for an in-house SMB networking interface. Some more esoteric configuration options have also disappeared from the GUI interface, but none that I use.

Added because I forgot -- Rosetta to run any PowerPC apps. (I didn't have any.)

I've also wondered about its use of excess RAM as a disk cache. Snow Leopard Server did this and Mavericks OS does this so Mavericks Server will as well. I don't know about Lion or Mountain Lion Server as I don't believe Lion or Mountain Lion were designed to utilize all RAM.

Neodym · Aug 14, 2014

Thanks for the brief summary! At first glance there seems to be nothing too important missing for SoHo use (btw: according to Anandtech's review of the Lion OSX server app xgrid is still present - chances are that this is still the case with 10.8/10.9 editions of the server app).

Val-kyrie · Aug 14, 2014

talmy said:
I know these services are missing: Printer Server, Podcast Producer, webmail, xgrid. They also went from MySQL to PostgreSQL for databases (which might cause some problems) and dropped SAMBA for an in-house SMB networking interface. Some more esoteric configuration options have also disappeared from the GUI interface, but none that I use.

Added because I forgot -- Rosetta to run any PowerPC apps. (I didn't have any.)

I've also wondered about its use of excess RAM as a disk cache. Snow Leopard Server did this and Mavericks OS does this so Mavericks Server will as well. I don't know about Lion or Mountain Lion Server as I don't believe Lion or Mountain Lion were designed to utilize all RAM.

Wait .... I am looking into using a Mac Mini as a server to share a printer hooked up to it. ... So it won't share a printer? If it does share, what is the difference between sharing a printer and being a print server?

I would like to hook a printer up to the Mac Mini via USB (for now; maybe ethernet later) and share it between my MB and MBA. Would this also print documents from an iOS device?

Sorry if it is a noob question, but I am trying to learn about OS X server.

Neodym · Aug 14, 2014

Val-kyrie said:
what is the difference between sharing a printer and being a print server?

To my understanding a printer server makes sense in a multi-people environment, taking care of queueing print jobs etc. A shared printer is locked for other devices during a print job.

IIRC in bigger networks a print server also takes care of providing the necessary driver for the printer, but I'm not sure about that, because I seem to remember that a shared printer was also accessible from my iPad which definitely had no special driver installed.

talmy · Aug 14, 2014

Val-kyrie said:
Wait .... I am looking into using a Mac Mini as a server to share a printer hooked up to it. ... So it won't share a printer? If it does share, what is the difference between sharing a printer and being a print server?

It shares a printer identically to the way any Mac does. The print server is different in that the print "jobs" are actually saved on the server (this is called spooling). The server can limit access to certain hours and users.

For home use the only difference you see is that with SLS the print job appears to execute instantly (your computer says it has printed). Personally, I found it cumbersome to manage and wished that I could just have done printer sharing (SLS won't do printer sharing!).

It might just be that I've got more experience now, but I've found Mountain Lion and Mavericks server to be easier to set up than Snow Leopard Server. SLS required getting the networking configured "just right" in order for anything to work properly. They've really advanced a lot toward just plug-and-go.

My story setting up a Snow Leopard Server is here: http://almy.us/server.html.

OTOH, I've found the following videos to be good for setting up recent (Mountain Lion and Mavericks) servers: For Mavericks Server and For Mountain Lion Server

ncrypt · Aug 14, 2014

Thanks everyone for your thoughts. I went with Snow Leopard server and it's running really well on the Mac and the server admin tools are definitely quite powerful -admittedly slightly overkill.

talmy said:
My story setting up a Snow Leopard Server is here: http://almy.us/server.html

I stumbled across this when I was researching, love how you've got everything set up and evolved it over time!

deconstruct60 · Aug 16, 2014

talmy said:
I know these services are missing: Printer Server, Podcast Producer, webmail, xgrid.

Xgrid is missing primarily because Xgrid is dead. Apple formally canceled it (it had been comatose for more than several years).

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1412900/

They also went from MySQL to PostgreSQL for databases (which might cause some problems)

Still can get MySQL on new several via a port system. Default GUI simple admin management is really only thing missing.

and dropped SAMBA for an in-house SMB networking interface.

More so accepting the fact that Windows Servers does bulk of file/authentication work. Printers in similar boat.

Val-kyrie · Aug 20, 2014

Thanks for the links--excellent videos.

talmy said:
It shares a printer identically to the way any Mac does. The print server is different in that the print "jobs" are actually saved on the server (this is called spooling). The server can limit access to certain hours and users.

For home use the only difference you see is that with SLS the print job appears to execute instantly (your computer says it has printed). Personally, I found it cumbersome to manage and wished that I could just have done printer sharing (SLS won't do printer sharing!).

It might just be that I've got more experience now, but I've found Mountain Lion and Mavericks server to be easier to set up than Snow Leopard Server. SLS required getting the networking configured "just right" in order for anything to work properly. They've really advanced a lot toward just plug-and-go.

My story setting up a Snow Leopard Server is here: http://almy.us/server.html.

OTOH, I've found the following videos to be good for setting up recent (Mountain Lion and Mavericks) servers: For Mavericks Server and For Mountain Lion Server

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Best version of OS X for Mini Server

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