MacOS Server

MacOS Server‏‎ is a separately sold operating system add-on which provides additional server programs along with management and administration tools for macOS. Prior to version 10.7 (Lion), Mac OS X Server was a separate but similar Unix server operating system from Apple Inc. Since Lion, the server components are un-bundled from the client components and are sold separately through the Mac App Store.

History

MacOS Server was first released in 1999 as Mac OS X Server 1.0. It was the first operating system to ship with the new Darwin core, marking the return of Apple to the Unix-based operating system market after the fall of the NeXTSTEP platform on which macOS is based.

Features

MacOS Server includes additional applications, utilities, and services beyond the standard ones provided in macOS. These additional services include:

• NetBoot and NetInstall for remote booting and OS installation
• Open Directory for user access management
• Profile Manager for mobile device management
• Xsan administration for shared storage
• Wiki Server for collaborative creation and sharing of documents

Current Status

As of January 2018, Apple announced that they are deprecating many of the services in macOS Server and will be guiding customers to acquiring these services separately through third-party software.

See Also

• macOS
• Darwin
• NeXTSTEP
• Xsan
• Open Directory