Hi Neil, Don't be confused by the "it's just an app" look of Mac OS X Lion Server. The app is only a front-end to the install process and I would guess it is *not* easy to back out of. I would suggest a clone of your Mac on a Firewire drive so you can boot from it and play around before you go all out.
Congratulations and all the best with the retirement thing - not sure I'll ever get there. Cheers, Ashley. On 17/02/2012, at 8:32 PM, Neil Laubenthal wrote: > On Feb 17, 2012, at 1:44 AM,2/17, Ashley Aitken wrote: >> Hi Neil, >> >> Firstly, I am not an expert on Lion Server - I have never used it although I >> have read about it and in the short term will probably install it on one of >> our Lion machines to check it out further. >> >> Two things though: >> >> 1. Lion Server when released was not really ready for prime time. >> >> 2. Mac OS X Server in the past has not been very amenable to changing the IP >> address. Generally speaking I think a server is not meant to be used in >> situations when the IP address will be changing regularly, for example, as >> you travel in your RV. >> >> Of course, extra hardware can help with these problems. For example, if you >> had a modem/router that worked with USB 3G, and put the server on a static >> private IP address. > > > Hi Ashley, thanks for the input. I will troll through Apple's boards for > additional guidance. Like you . . .I've considered just playing with it > awhile and seeing if it works or not . . .I'll probably end up doing that and > either keeping a clone of the file server in case I decide to revert or else > just run it in Parallels Desktop VM for testing purposes. Since it's just an > app instead of a full blown server install and since Apple has a KB article > on how to disable it . . .it's probably a bit easier to back out of then SL > server was. The server will keep the same IP always anyway . . .we'll be > using a WiFi Ranger for our router/firewall. This is similar to an Airport > except instead of only having a single incoming WAN port (for the cable modem > or FIOS modem) it's got both incoming wifi for using campground wifi as well > as 3G air card input and satellite internet input; we'll have a choice of 3 > incoming WAN ports which can be configured. On the LAN side the WiFi Ranger > provides NAT and DHCP like an Airport does and everything inside will either > have a static IP (file server) or a MAC address reserved DHCP but > quasi-static IP . . .like you I found that SL server really didn't like it's > IP changing much. > > I may also end up just keeping the setup the way I have it now . . .as I said > it works but I occasionally have permissions problems on newly created > folders or files on the share. I could get around this by either using Guest > access instead of a particular user or else making the sharing user an admin > user . . .but either of those bothers my "former Windows sysadmin and IT > security guy" hat despite the relatively low insecurity either causes with an > encrypted wifi and border firewall/router in place. > > Since I already have both Parallels and a developer membership it won't cost > me anything to try things out other than a little time . . .and us retired > folk have plenty of that; albeit not nearly as much as non-retired folks > think we have and not nearly as much as I thought we would have. We're > finding that this retirement stuff is pretty busy. > > ----------------------------------------------- > There are only three kinds of stress; your basic nuclear stress, cooking > stress, and A$$hole stress. The key to their relationship is Jello. > > neil > > > > -- Ashley Aitken Perth, Western Australia mrhatken at mac dot com Skype Name: MrHatken (GMT + 8 Hours!) _______________________________________________ MacOSX-talk mailing list MacOSX-talk@omnigroup.com http://www.omnigroup.com/mailman/listinfo/macosx-talk
