By JJ Franzen -
Hello folks. We're looking at having to replace our aging infrastructure XServes. We locked them off at 10.6.8 as I've been underwhelmed with what I've been seeing from both 10.7 and 10.8 in how they've "app'ed" the server functions. However, the XServes are going the way of the dodo so eventually we will have to move on. Which direction we head off in, either remaining on OS X or heading off into the wilds of Linux depends entirely on what choices are available. One option that my Apple rep is touting is the Mac Mini Server. Now, some of us here at SP are a teensy bit skeptical on that fact so I wanted to see if anyone out there in SSA Land is using these things for infrastructure critical services such as email, intraweb, LDAP, DNS, RADIUS, SQL, etc. Obviously we would prefer not to have to rebuild our entire infrastructure on a new OS platform if we can avoid it so I'm willing to make some allowances if necessary to make it work but if people have already tried and determined that using these boxes for mission critical roles is a non-starter that would be very useful information. Also, is there a realistic migration path from 10.6.8 direct to Mavericks which is what will be out when we pull the trigger or will we have to walk through the Lions to get there? If we end up having to rebuild all our data on Mavericks rather then migrating then we lose one of the main reasons we'd want to stay with OS X. So, opinions?
Cheers,
J. J. Franzen
C.I.O.
South Park Studios