macOS Server App Reviews

After upgrading to 5.0 my client machines cannot connect to the Server Timemachine saying there is a problem with the network username or password. I even went as far as wiping the entire server and doing internet recovery to install clean os and server. Issue persists.

After updating to 5.0.4 I can’t get to the web interface for profile manager. Continually get Unknown Error and I have to reload the page.

I installed OSX Server in July but decided I would configure my local network service on my own. I deleted the Server software, but apparently not all of it. Software Update keeps listing it for update. How do I stop that?

I run OS X Server on a Mac mini server and use it for hosting websites, mail hosting for those sites, and several other functions. Everything seem to finally be working fine after the Yosemite upgrade and issues last year. I upgraded to El Capitan and everything seemed to go awry. Initially nothing worked. After some tinkering and a restart I finally got the websites up and running despite OS X Server itself indicating that they are only reachable on the local network. Mail, however, has not returned to functionality. There is nothing reflected in the logs to indicate what may be going wrong, or even that anything is going wrong. I have no idea if these issues will be resolved.

Thanks Apple!!!

This update fixed Profile Manager changes not being pushed to computers. However, having a network user login using the server Login window still causes problems for network users who login at client computers. The only "fix" so far is to restart the server. So, only local users can login to the server without causing problems. Also, the weekend time limit is always 5 hours when reloading Parental Controls in Profile Manager.

Fixed a serious problem of not being able to push out profile manager changes to a device group. It works now and I am very happy for this upgrade. Also fixed the DNS log rollover problem as well. When you upgrade, remember to turn off all services in server except for DNS and Open Directory, leave those 2 on or you will run into problems with the upgrade.

I have been working in higher ed for almost 15 years now. I’ve managed apple labs and servers for over a decade. Ever since apple made the switch away from Workgroup manager lab setup went from easy to a struggle. Profile Manager is a horrible alternative to Workgroup Manager. Lets get started, all computers are on Yosemite 10.10.5 and my server app version OS 5.0.15. Problems I’m thinking about. Under Network “Ethernet (OS X only)" does not work. Selected it will cause profiles to fail to push. Login Windows Options, “Disable Apple ID setup during login” does absolutely nothing. Login Windows Options, Log out users after: __ minutes of inactivity (minimum 3 minutes) does not work. Security & Privacy, upchucking “Require password after sleep or screen saver begins” does nothing. Mobility, “Delete mobile accounts” does nothing. One problem with a lab environment. Having a whole class have home folders run off a server is way more load than a single Gigabit or even two Gigabit ports can handle. Let alone the drive requirements. So i configure the mobility. Which is riddled with all kind of sync issues even though the only folder that syncs is the Library. Summary find another solution even if you have to pay for it.

OS X Server is unfortunately little more than a toy for tinkering with until you get so frustrated you delete it and then go about cleaning up its remnants on your system. I can’t imagine anybody actually deploying this software in a professional enterprise environment where dependability is paramount. No way would I trust this with something important. I love my Macs but there is a reason why Windows Server editions sell for anywhere from $400 to several thousand dollars and run the enterprise world while Apple has to basically give this away: reliability and functionality. I was dubious from the outset of a server which runs as a software layer on top of an underlying client operating system, but It was cheap and I wanted to try it out; after all, my thunderbolt RAID containers and all those expensive disk drives and other cool stuff could be put to good use on my network if this app worked. Well, it wasn’t to be. All I had this server doing in the end was acting as a simple file server and backup server for Time Machine on my home network. It still crashed several times a week, was a resource hog, interfered with apps and stability on the client operating system (Yosemitie and then El Capitan), and annoyingly filled up almost my entire system drive with 200GB of cached data (even though the caching option was specifically left off). My system drive went from 22GB full to 220GB full on a 256GB SSD. The reason the drive was almost empty at first was because I figured since OS X Server has to run on top of a client operating system, then maybe if I ran it on a clean install of OS X doing absolutely nothing else (on a quad-core iMac with 32GB RAM acting as a dedicated server), then this would have to make it stable. It didn’t. Sorry for the long negative review -- in short, don’t waste your time or money on this app. I love Apple but they dropped the ball on this one and it hasn’t gotten noticably better in the last year or so of updates. On the bright side it does have a pretty cool looking icon to decorate your launchpad I guess. Maybe that was Apple’s focus.

Just sad really. For what it’s worth, it’s not just that the “Server” app is bad. The server app, and functionity in the OS inteded to work with it are very buggy, and have been back to 10.7. Things actually worked in 10.6. I gave it two stars rather than 1, because basic file sharing still works.

Web Server is even worse then before, I am now unable to get any SSL websites to work, Mail refueses to connect 95% of the time. It is just an overall faliure. EDIT: 11/30 Its now been almost one month since the last update. Apple, have you given up? Mail requries constant reboots and Web SSL still is damaged.

It’s unfortunate that this application keeps getting worse with each new release… Watch out for Apples OS X Server “updates” as you’ll need to re-configure your enviorment upon install. With this latest version I’m finding that just about 90% of the GUI config tool is completly worthless. I found that, to truly get what I need done, I’m forced back into using the OS X Terminal to complete my set up. $20 I’ll never see again.

I’m not sure what all the bad reviews are about, but I have to say I’ve been using it for about a week for the majority of the services it has to offer and it’s outstanding! I especially love the VPN feature that’s super easy to set up. Great for using when you are connected to public wifi or untrusted networks on your macbook, iphone, or ipad. Will also work with other devices as well.

I have a small business that has tried to update our no longer supported yet speedy file server with a cloud solution, a quality NAS and with Debian and Ubuntu Linux servers without losing the speed with which we’ve grown accustom. All were comparatively slow against our old server. My choices were down to building my own server with SSD and conventional HD for Linux or Windows or trying OS X Server on the Mac mini with 1 TB fusion drive with 128GB of that SSD. I opted to try the OS X Server first. I am happy so far with the speed and apparently stability. The wiki platform meets our needs to have an intranet repository for how processes work in our office. I’m rating this four stars (AKA good) for now until I have some time to see how reliable OS X Server may be for how we use it.

After installing OS X server app, took 1 switch to turn on caching server. Tested by downloading app, deleted app. Redownload of 100MB app took just 4 seconds on iPhone. Woot!

I suddenly got these errors where the server couldn’t serve up an SSL page because of too many redirects. After spending the past 4 hours trying to resolve this, I’m writing to let you know that this morning I was on 4.x and it was great. I upgraded and the new way that Apple handles :80 and :443 is apparently to redirect them to :34580 and :34543. This falls into the “it seemed like a good idea at the time…” category. It probably is somehow a great idea, but after two decades of running on :80 and :443 with no problems I have to say thanks for breaking my ssl with another cruddy upgrade. Hey for $20 what do you expect? Google: mac server port redirect

See above:

All my websites with SSL Certificates have been broken since upgrading to server 5, there’s been a lot of complains about ver. 5 and SSL but has usual apple is tone deaf i wish there was a -star rating.

Hours and hours, can’t get it working with Win 10. 2016. Can’t serve to Windows. No support. This machine is having trouble keeping up with my typing, beachballing every fifteen seconds. I may have to downgrade from El Capitan. Apple software is garbage. I work in media. First strike was Shake. Second strike was trashcan mac. Third strike was Final Cut X. Apple is forcing professional users away from mac and won’t even serve to the replacements. Done with macs.

I have to call support minimum once a month. I have had to do 5 clean installs in the past year and have lost my data 3 times because of this server. Support takes forever and they never get back to me. Profile manager barley even functions and when it does, it would only work for a couple hours at most. Do not get this product, try looking for any alternative.