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Is macOS Server going to be updated for Big Sur/Apple Silicon?
- Thread starter Mr-Stabby
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Haven’t heard, wouldn’t count on it. There are ongoing issues with Catalina server app that they don’t seem interested in fixing. OD and SMB are broken beyond belief.
I tend to think they might release before the public beta to give big developers on board!
macOS Server.app is soooooo useless today. Can't see why one would need it.
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SMB is fixed in Big Sur. As far as I tried it, it's working fine and speedy.
As it has really shifted to Profile Manager...I actually wish they would stop calling it Server.
They should call the time of death, have a nice funeral, and move on. No chance Server will be "server" again. No interest, not much market. That sucks...but time marches on.
For file serving and syncing, Synology runs circles around Server at its best. Same for most of the other services...better alternatives out there. OD might be the hardest service to replace, if one does not want or need AD with its cost and complexity.
They should call the time of death, have a nice funeral, and move on. No chance Server will be "server" again. No interest, not much market. That sucks...but time marches on.
For file serving and syncing, Synology runs circles around Server at its best. Same for most of the other services...better alternatives out there. OD might be the hardest service to replace, if one does not want or need AD with its cost and complexity.
There are exactly 2 GUI accessible services left: Open Directory (hidden in the menu bar), and File Sharing (moved to system preferences).
I agree they should kill it if what’s left doesn’t even work. There’s no shortage of small businesses that can’t be served (ha!) by a Mac Mini server + Thunderbolt storage though. For the resources to keep OD & SMB alive, I would do it.
Automator, XGrid, Widgets, Server App. I weep for you.
Mostly agreed....but I would take a rack mount Synology any day for SMB. More flexibility, redundant power supplies, snapshot backups, easier remote assess via WAN...the list goes on and on. Even managing permissions is better. Bound to AD, so no OD to replace or fuss over.
I still have a Mini running with about 20TB of attached ATTO RAID 5 storage, but 2 rack mount Synology boxes easily replace and improve on it. The Mini and rack mount storage will get retired/repurposed soon.
I’m starting to think that home version, especially their + versions to be media sever for one’s home network!
It can be everything on most home networks.
For what it's worth, there's a dev beta of a new version of Server for MacOS 11, but it doesn't say whether it's Arm-native. I presume it is though!
Edit: I took a nosey with lipo. It contains x86_64 and arm64 code.
Edit: I took a nosey with lipo. It contains x86_64 and arm64 code.
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Server is already crippled heavily and missing the majority of its past functionality, plus it's broken. To me the whole thing should be scrapped or redone at this point.
Do you know if the beta version has the Time Machine server service? This is one of the main reasons I currently use Server. I don't really like the idea of configuring my TM backups with a shared network drive and the TM service from the Server app has worked well.
Time Machine backup sharing has been built into the base operating system since at least Catalina. You don’t need Server to provide that functionality.
I have 2012 mini running server. I hope it runs for another few years but I also thinking of what will replace it. So far it's looking like a Raspberry Pi or Synology
I would go with Synology + NASes to stream music/audio across your network is easy.