Headless server... Can I remotely upgrade the OS?

[mjm6]

Hi folks,

I've looked around and couldn't find an answer to this so I figured maybe someone in the group has some knowledge.

I have a small home network that I run a 2014 Mac Mini as a headless server on and I'd like to upgrade it from High Sierra to Mojave. I don't really have any easy way to pull it out and plug it in to directly work on it, so before I go through that hassle, can the OS be upgraded successfully from a remote machine? I use the Screen share function in Mojave to access the computer right now. It works great for everything I need, but I expect this task will cause a problem.

I'm expecting that when it starts to update, it will need to reboot and at that point I won't have the network connection needed to then proceed with the install if/when it asks for input.

Is this correct, or should it work?

Thanks,


---Michael

 

[barbu]

Yes you certainly can. I upgraded a machine remotely over Back to My Mac and it worked great. That's not an option anymore, but with a tool like Apple Remote Desktop it should be a snap. Not sure if "basic" screen sharing supports it, but I would assume yes.

 

[hobowankenobi]

If you are running it headless....you should have screen sharing setup. You can use Back to My Mac for a remote connection, or simply use VNC when on the same network.
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[mjm6]

OK thanks for the feedback... I'll try it this way and see what transpires.

Back my Mac doesn't exist anymore (in Mojave), so I can't use that approach, but I'll work with the basic screen share and then try a VNC connection if that appears to not work.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

Works as advertised. Have a backup method or spare keyboard, mouse, & monitor just in case!

 

[mjm6]

Worked perfectly... thanks for the help guys/gals.

I find it odd that the Apple documentation didn't mention that this is possible, which is why I needed to ask before I tried it and got things all messed up.