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Apple Deprecates More Services In OS X Server (apple.com)
Long-time Slashdot reader HEMI426 writes: Long ago, Apple used to produce rack servers, and a special flavor of OS X for that hardware with extra, server-friendly features. After Apple got out of the rack server game, OS X Server soldiered on, with the occasional change in cost or distribution method.
The next stop on the long, slow death march of OS X Server is here. With a recent post to their knowledgebase, Apple states that almost all of the services not necessary for the management of networked Macs and other iDevices are being deprecated. These services will be hidden for new installs, and dropped in the future.
Apple writes that "those depending on them should consider alternatives, including hosted services."
The next stop on the long, slow death march of OS X Server is here. With a recent post to their knowledgebase, Apple states that almost all of the services not necessary for the management of networked Macs and other iDevices are being deprecated. These services will be hidden for new installs, and dropped in the future.
Apple writes that "those depending on them should consider alternatives, including hosted services."
It takes an awful lot of courage to remove DNS and DHCP services from a...server. Way to go, apple!
So, let me get this straight: This is a server OS, with basic server functionalities removed? In what way is this still a server OS?
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
People complain about the iPad commercial where the kid asks "What's a computer", but could it be that Apple is genuinely asking what one is since it is looking more and more like they themselves don't know.
It should be easy enough to install them on your own, if for some reason you want to use a macOS box as a server.
#DeleteChrome
Please tell me they manage all their people with a Windows AD + Exchange! ;).
They use an in-house version of iCloud, or so an insider friends tells me.
Mike @ The Geek Pub. Let's Make Stuff!
Apple's neglect of the Mac (and particularly the disregard of the enterprise space) not withstanding, when I look at this list I can't really help but admit that there is not a single entry on it where I would rather use Apple's tools in favor of their open source equivalent.
Apple stopped offering a server certification years ago, but it didn't stop Apple Stores from recommending a Mac Mini with a single drive to customers who wanted a file server. Apple's SMBX doesn't really work well with anything but a Mac, and Profile Manager is just about the least reliable MDM out there.
And who is really using Open Directory these days? If you want Netboot, you can do it from Linux. If you want VPN, use your firewall or an appliance.
So, when people want a server for use with their Macs, we'll recommend a Synology or a QNAP. They offer dozens of services, including DNS, practically any other service you could want, and they have RAIDs and SSD caching as well. Some of the Synology units can even be configured to provide Active Directory.
As Apple has now built the caching service and file sharing into High Sierra, I don't really see that there is much reason for Server any more. Oh wait..
MAYBE you don't want to trust your data to someone else? Maybe you figure YOU are the best person to manage your data and services, so you won't be down a day or two while Google fixes G Suite? And as Google thinks they're the world expert on who is and who isn't sending spam, what could go wrong there?
Server was great because it enabled the end user to run his/her own mail server, DNS, file sharing, software update server, and more, rather than outsourcing everything to companies which may or may not give a damn when something goes wrong with "the cloud".
Their servers had no lights-out management (at least the ones I tested). Their nicest feature was a brushed metal facade; they made sure to include that. I'm surprised it didn't come with a black turtleneck and a pair of horn-rimed glasses. OSX server is (soon to be "was") a pathetic hybrid that shamelessly bastardized whatever they felt like and sucked more as they went along despite borrowing from their betters FreeBSD, OpenStep, and Mach. They went for years without any real volume management, pimped HFS+ as something worthwhile for years before deigning to release APFS (which still sucks in nearly every way compared to ZFS), conformed to POSIX only when they felt like it, and had very few RAS features that defines server. They said fuck all the proven traditions of Unix, they were Apple, they were going to show us how it's really done and bring a new level of user-friendliness to systems administration.
... poorly." Apple is trying to make sure they learn the hard way.
The whole thing is ending as it began, as the IT weaklings at Apple learn that same lesson Jobs himself forgot: "Those who do not learn from Unix are doomed to re-invent it
I don't think that at the time of his death Jobs thought his 'digital hub' concept would lead to Apple's becoming a huge, overfunded cell phone company that would let its computer business die a horrible death. But I think that's exactly what's happening.
They didn't do their own web server. It was a pretty GUI for configuring Apache. Same for mail, originally OSX server used Cyrus, I think they switched to dovecot later. DNS was always implemented with BIND. A few of the services like DHCP/NetBoot used their own implementations, but most of it just a GUI for configuring open source services.
OSX Server used to be a compelling proposition for a small business, because it made configuring these services easy for someone who isn't a professional sysadmin. But once they changed it from being a separate OS spin to a feature pack in the app store, it was pretty clear they just didn't care.
macOS on the Server side of things is so far behind what can be done with Linux, it isn't even funny. You can't run macOS in AWS. You can't containerize macOS apps (Docker on macOS uses macOS's hypervisor to run Linux in the background). If you want to run in the server space, and you aren't tied to Microsoft proprietary ways of doing things, Linux is the place to be. Apple knows this -- they're already too far behind, and are simply never going to be able to keep pace with what's going on in the Linux world.
Apple needs to focus on continuing to ensure that macOS is a highly compatible client OS. Linux still falls flat in this area. Other than for some Apple proprietary stuff (like iOS provisioning), a macOS server is pointless. Use Linux on the server and macOS on the client.
Yaz