Worse, there's no clean install option from within the installer itself. There is an unsupported hack to create one, but it can bring up other complications. A problem for administrators is that there is no supported way to make your own bootable installation DVD. Depending on the type of installation (such as upgrade or new), you may have to make a second trip to the App Store to get the server components. The installation process includes downloading the 4GB Lion OS client installer, plus hundreds of megabytes more of server components. This app philosophy filters down through the software as well.īut Lion Server isn't Angry Birds.
Finally, it deletes the installer, though you can stop the install to make a copy before it's deleted. It's available only as a download from the Mac App Store and self-installs as soon as it's downloaded all you can configure is the admin email address. Lion Server installs like a great big iPhone app. Lion Server: A great big app that's tricky to installįor the enterprise, the first clue that something is amiss in Lion Server comes right at installation. Worse yet, some routine tasks are no longer possible at all. Many routine tasks that were formerly a mouse click away now can be accomplished only via the Unix shell command line. And Server can do more than Server Preferences could.īut the ironic part for IT administrators is that Lion Server actually requires a greater degree of technical knowledge than its predecessors. Apple's slogan is "servers made easy." To that end, a new administration tool, called Server, is more logical and easier to use than the old Server Preferences that it replaced.
The $50 price tag - down from $500 - is the first clue that Lion Server trying to be a server for the consumer. Then there's built-in support for Microsoft's distributed file system (DFS) and Apple's Xsan file system, the latter for accessing storage-area networks (SAN) over Fibre Channel.īut once the initial excitement subsides and you start looking more deeply inside Lion Server, it's impossible to avoid the conclusion that Lion Server is not built for those of us in IT.
#Os x preference manager for mac#
Some of the new features will please managers in business and education: The Profile Manager, a slick new Web-front-end tool for providing automatic push configuration and group policy management for Mac Lion and iOS clients, is miles ahead of Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server's old Managed Preferences features. Mac OS X 10.7 Lion Server adds innovative features and a new low price tag, but cuts in services and the elimination of advanced GUI administration tools may force some enterprise departments to think twice about the role of Mac servers on their networks.
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