Apple to Deprecate Raft of Essential Services in macOS Server This Spring

Apple is deprecating a significant portion of essential network services included in macOS Server this year, as outlined in a published support statement titled "Prepare for changes to macOS Server". Apple's note reads:

macOS Server is changing to focus more on management of computers, devices, and storage on your network. As a result, some changes are coming in how Server works. A number of services will be deprecated, and will be hidden on new installations of an update to macOS Server coming in spring 2018.

The note goes on to list a series of deprecated services that will be removed in a future release of macOS Server, including calendar and contact support, Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), Domain Name Services (DNS), mail, instant messages, virtual private networking (VPN), NetInstall, Web server, and the Wiki.

Apple assures users who have already configured any of the listed services that they will be able to use them in the spring 2018 macOS Server update, but the statement signs off by linking to a number of alternative services, including hosted services, that macOS Server users should consider as viable replacements to the features it is killing off.

Apple halted its presence in the server hardware space back in 2010, when Steve Jobs announced the company was ending its line of Xserve rackmount servers, which were first introduced in May, 2002. At the time, the two alternative server solutions to Xserve that Apple offered included the Mac Pro with Snow Leopard Server and the Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server.

Today, macOS Server version 5.5 retails for $19.99 on the App Store, as an addition to the standard desktop version of macOS High Sierra.

(Thanks, Ankush!)

Tag: macOS Server

Top Rated Comments

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cogitodexter

16 months ago

Oh this is ridiculous!

Bang goes my mac mini based web server and now I have to invest a fortune in other hardware so I can run Windows Server which I don't want to do. Does Apple *WANT* to alienate its professional users?

Rating: 17 Votes

StrangeNoises

16 months ago

In short, install Linux, where most of these alternatives are included as part of the distribution. Running them on macOS isn't going to be any friendlier, which was always the only point in Server, and in fact probably less so. In any case, "install linux" is usually the best answer to what to do with Macs that Apple deem "obsolete" and which can't run the latest MacOS. cf: my 2005 G4 Mac Mini still running the latest Ubuntu... (Although sadly it's slower than a Raspbery Pi...)

Rating: 14 Votes

CarlJ

16 months ago

At WWDC: "And now onto macOS Server: this year, we've made it thinner than ever before! You're welcome!"

Rating: 13 Votes

Glmnet1

16 months ago

A server without all these services seem pretty useless to me. One could still install alternative software on the Terminal but then why not simply use a Linux distribution.

Are the features for the "management of computers, devices, and storage on your network" really useful on macOS Server?

Rating: 13 Votes

peter2

16 months ago

This move is incredibly short-sighted from Apple (like many other things Apple does lately). Granted, the Server per se certainly makes no money for Apple, but is an important part of the ecosystem. Once they remove the pieces that allow one to stay out of Linux / Windows completely, they remove, for many, the need to run macOS altogether.

Once those services are gone, my work (20+ macs) will just switch to all Windows or all Linux solution. As the person responsible for IT here, I have no desire to try to glue bits and pieces from different vendors. I guess I am not alone.

Shortly after that, I will switch away from iPhone (as there are other better options for non-macOS ecosystems) and my whole family's iPhones and iPads (which I administer) will follow.

Well done Apple!

Rating: 12 Votes

obitow

16 months ago

Linux has been the best option for these for quite some time anyway.

Rating: 7 Votes

David Andel

16 months ago

Linux has been the best option for these for quite some time anyway.

Well, no.

Apparently nobody of you ever uses them as none come with APN (Apple Push Notifications) for iOS devices. Of course every kind of "out of the box" CalDAV, CardDAV, Postfix/Dovecot etc. does the trick for everything else – but iOS. So Linux is no option if you do not want to leave the platform or are not interested in instantly announced e-mails etc.

AFAIK Kerio Connect would do the trick on the mail/calendar/address book side but is really really expensive ('http://www.kerio.com/products/kerio-connect/pricing/'). An alternative could also be Synology MailPlus for those of us using compatible Synology DiskStations but again, this comes without push notifications if you do NOT use their proper mail client. And if you do use their iOS etc. mail client, you’re losing the S/MIME functionality for encrypting your contents, cannot even change the mail sound etc.

Again: many thanks, Apple!

Rating: 6 Votes

2013.1

16 months ago

:eek:
I use print server, calendar, contact support, mail, virtual private networking (VPN). The only services I considered dropping were the file server and webdav.

I wanted to upgrade and update all of that with the next mac mini ...

I really don't want to store my (families) customer contacts and (medical) appointments in iCloud.

So we will have to somehow unhide this features. :)

Rating: 5 Votes

JosephAW

16 months ago

Having various files servers and web servers since Mac 8.1 and now running Linux command line servers, yes Linux LAMP servers and bacula backups work okay but there always something nice about being able to create a full backup of a live mounted volume using disk utility, time machine or super duper/ccc without having to boot from another Linux EXT4 volume to create a complete recoverable backup image.
HFS+ makes it so much faster to restore a working system or move to another box without having all kinds of wonky permission problems from overwriting Linux passwd files in a restore.

Rating: 5 Votes

David Andel

16 months ago

Those that need the features it offers can install all of the things listed themselves. Every one of them are free.

No.

Rating: 4 Votes

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