Reformat and Reinstall OS X Server - Keep Data Store

OS X Yosemite 10.10.1 on a Mac Mini Late 2012, 2.5 GHz, 16 GB. Server version 4 (14S333)

Running the following services:

• Caching
• Calendar
• Contacts
• File Sharing
• Mail
• Profile Manager
• Time Machine
• DNS
• Open Directory

I moved my service data and file shares to an external hard drive. When I format my startup hard drive, reinstall the operating system and server, what do I have to do to connect to the service data on my external hard drive? I imagine that I have to establish user accounts with the same credentials.

Really, what I am after is that I'm trying to get Profile Manager to work right with my iOS devices. And I have a wide variety of them (about 12 of them). None of them work. They get a profile installation failure. The research I've done seems to point to just reformat and reinstall. But in doing so, I don't want to lose the service data. Any help you can provide, please...I need reassurance that when I reinstall everything, I'll be able to have access to the data store again.

Thank you for your direction.

Upated and Profile Manager Reset: FAIL

chrfr said:

You may have to fully reset Profile Manager to get it to work, but you do want to get OS X and Server updated to 10.10.3 and Server 4.1. PM seems to be more reliable with these later versions.
Do you have a backup of the server? It's easiest to migrate from that. For convenience I might move the service data back to the internal disk, clone the internal disk, then use that as your migration source.

Click to expand...

I am now on 10.10.3, and installed Server 4.1.

I fully reset Profile Manager with this article: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202523 .

I am still not able to install profiles on my ios devices.

I am hoping to get clear direction on how to reinstall my server. I forgot to mention that I keep regular backups using time machine. I am certainly just fine with moving the data store back. I am good with most server tasks. But this whole move thing is kicking my butt. I just want to make sure that I know what I'm doing before I completely hose the server and all the services. Really, though, I just care about the data and Mail.

So, If I am going to reformat and install from scratch, what are the specific steps to recover fully once I reinstall?