‘Lion’ Server More Of A Whimper Than A Roar

Continued from page 2

Dumbed down

The install of the server components seemed to end badly; at least, that’s what I inferred when the splash-screen indicated that a service had failed to restart. But since there was no access to service or system logs from within the installer, and since everything looked normal when I rebooted (without any sign in the days following of any software-related problems), that may have been a false alarm. As it is, the lack of meaningful information suggests that the Lion Server may have been dumbed down past the point of no return.

The Lion Server’s management tools are a hodgepodge; some utilities such as the Podcast Composer or the Xgrid and Xsan management utilities are single-purpose tools, while others—such as the Server and Server Admin—overlap functions to a degree that can be confusing.

Apple’s decision to use the Server application would make sense if it were the entry point for simple management tasks, with Server Admin reserved for more intricate work. But instead, the company has chosen to treat Server Admin as obsolescent; new features to the OS have to be managed from inside Server, which doesn’t always run reliably on client computers, even those running Lion. By inserting yet another management portal into Lion Server, Apple’s made the problem worse. Does one change a setting in System Preferences, Server, Server Admin or another tool altogether?

It’s hard to recommend Lion Server to anyone except the most fanatical Mac loyalists. Consumer king Apple could care less about its server customers, and I suspect that the company could walk away from that line of business in a year and only suffer minimal backlash from consumers. Use it if you choose, but I wouldn’t plan on it being available beyond the 10.7.x releases.