What Apple Removed from Mac OS X Server

With Mac OS X Server 10.7, Apple made a decision to simplify administration and setup. Although it added some new features, Apple removed some features as well as some configuration options. Some of the old features look like they're missing, but you can still access them via the command line if you know how to edit Unix configuration files. This change has made some longtime Mac administrators unhappy, though you may not be bothered at all.

You also don't want to spend a lot of time looking for something that isn't there. The following sections describe where you can find services, as well as the main things you'll no longer see in Lion Server.

Services moved from Server Admin to the Server app

Settings for AFP and SMB (now combined as file service) and web service are now only available in the Server app. Address Book, icla, iChait, VPN, Web, and Wiki services are also now entirely in the Server app, and not in Server Admin. The drawback is that the Server app is simpler, providing far fewer configuration options than Server Admin, which means you can't do as much with them as you could in Snow Leopard Server.

Services removed from Server Admin but not in the Server app

The missing service people complain about most is print server and management. The underlying CUPS printing engine is still there, but it's no longer in the server tools. Apple provides two ways to set up printer sharing:

  • System Preferences: Here, you use the Print and ...

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