Apple Discontinues macOS Server

[MacRumors]

Apple today announced in a support document that macOS Server is being discontinued as of April 21, 2022. Apple has been phasing out macOS Server for several years now, and the company is finally ready to shut it down for good.

macOS Server 5.12.2 will be the last version of the app, and macOS Server services have now been migrated to macOS. Popular macOS Server capabilities that include Caching Server, File Sharing Server, and Time Machine Server have been bundled in macOS since macOS High Sierra, so there is no longer a need for a standalone app.

Existing macOS Server users can continue to download and use the app with macOS Monterey, and Apple has support documents for migrating from Profile Manager to other MDM solutions.

Article Link: Apple Discontinues macOS Server

 

[Ziperix]

About time

 

[DHagan4755]

This news is not surprising. It's disappointing in some regards. Apple had a lot of resources to make this product really good, but they failed to make it competitive enough to get enterprise & education customers to switch away from Microsoft server products.

 

[cb3]

Sad about this, but knew it was coming. Mac Server was great for our small office.

 

[HorstBockman]

Implementing substitutes for Server has been a total PITA and wholly unsatisfying. And expensive. Huge disappointment over the whole situation here.

 

[eatrains]

I suppose https://www.apple.com/business/essentials/ is now the spiritual successor.

 

[therunningman]

It is disappointing that apple punted its professional IT services, both hardware and software. But, what ya gonna do? it is what it is.

 

[BWhaler]

A product with such great promise and moments of true Apple brilliance, but it was so buggy.

 

[NewUsername]

I wonder if they ever made an Apple Silicon version of it?

 

[AppleTO]

I suppose https://www.apple.com/business/essentials/ is now the spiritual successor.

Except it’s US only, at least at the moment.

 

[ArrayDecay]

Huh. I haven't thought about MacOS Server in a long time.

Remember when Apple actually made server hardware? Good times!

 

[So@So@So]

I suppose https://www.apple.com/business/essentials/ is now the spiritual successor.

It is the successor for the later versions of macOS Server.

Unfortunately, the later versions just used the same name for an app that did so much more (mail server, calendar server etc.)

 

[Realityck]

macOS Server 5.12.2 will be the last version of the app, and macOS Server services have now been migrated to macOS. Popular macOS Server capabilities that include Caching Server, File Sharing Server, and Time Machine Server have been bundled in macOS since macOS High Sierra, so there is no longer a need for a standalone app.

Its much better for all of this to be part of MacOS than a separate app.

 

[longofest]

"Popular macos server capabilities"

I generally don't associate "popular" with "macos server"

 

[Exponent]

Just curious - how did "MacOS Server" compare to the suite of apps that come standard on a Synology NAS box?

 

[bsbeamer]

VERY long time coming. When features were removed from XSERVE back in the day, it was the early sign of things to come. There were some who thought the rack-mount Mac Pro (MP7,1) would lead to this being extended, but even that segment of the "server" market has largely moved to smaller machines (like Mini) or cloud-based.

 

[UndefinedxJoker]

I don’t know anything about servers or enterprise but with the efficiency of the M1 lineup couldn’t Apple seriously disrupt the server market?

Having chips that perform fast yet cool could save a lot of energy and cooling costs.

 

[DominikHoffmann]

… Time Machine Server have been bundled in macOS since macOS High Sierra …

How do I use it? I am hearing this for the first time today.

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

You could even say, Apple has severed ties with it, no?

I’ll grab my coat

 

[Squozen]

How do I use it? I am hearing this for the first time today.

Use Mac mini as a server

Use Mac mini as a server.

support.apple.com

 

[killawat]

I don’t know anything about servers or enterprise but with the efficiency of the M1 lineup couldn’t Apple seriously disrupt the server market?

Having chips that perform fast yet cool could save a lot of energy and cooling costs.

Google Amazon Apple Meta all have tons of x86 commodity hardware. While Apple could see incredible efficiency gains by using their own silicon, the broader talent that builds apps to power the workloads are not all in on the Mx. Additionally, Apple won't supply Mx processors to the industry to build custom SoC. That can change if Apple makes a decent server chassis with enterprise features. But right now, the biggest use for Apple hardware in the data center is and will continue to be powering OS X VMs for iOS/MacOS development and render farms.

 

[beermode]

My work dumped a bunch of money into Apple servers prior to my arrival. OS and physical servers. And they dropped it like a bad habit. Just like that. Apple on the business side will always make me skeptical. Apple clients aren't immune. Monterrey broke USB for our projector and camera setups with no fix in sight. It really dehibilted functionality on a system we paid lots of money for.

 

[Macintosh TV]

I wonder if they ever made an Apple Silicon version of it?

They really couldn't. Nearly everything in macOS Server was just 3rd party products like DNS, mail server, FTP, and other open-source platforms. They did add some easy to use administration to some of but it's really outside Apple's work to make them Apple Silicon versions. It'd be on the particular 3rd party product to do so.

 

[friedmud]

Huh. I haven't thought about MacOS Server in a long time.

Remember when Apple actually made server hardware? Good times!

They still do - you can buy rack-mount versions of the current Mac Pro. We have several in our data center that we use for continuous integration for testing the scientific software that we develop.

The rack-mount versions are insanely cool looking... but they have horrible density. I believe that they are 3U - but only have 28 cores...

Edit: We also have a bunch of M1 Mac Minis in racks in our datacenter (for the same purpose). There are cool 3rd-party rack-mounting chassis you can buy. Then density on them is WAY better - 4 Mac Minis in 1U...

 

[nuckinfutz]

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