Catalina kills Server

[jayducharme]

Just so you're all aware, I upgraded my 2019 Mac Mini server to Catalina today, and -- surprise! -- Apple's own Server app is incompatible. That wasn't one of the apps listed as being unsupported. I have no idea whether Apple will be releasing a new version, but they usually do that before or at the same time as a new OS. Does anyone know of a good app to take the place of Server's functionality?

And BTW, I did have a Time Machine backup of the Server, but Catalina won't allow me to revert to a previous OS; every time I restore, no matter how far back in time I go, I'm restored back into Catalina.

Edit: I finally did restore into Mohave. I had to click back in time a lot further than I thought (well before my Catalina installation).

Edit 2: Apparently, Apple updated the Server app on October 8. It didn't appear as an update for me. Even so, I think I'll wait till I have a bit of down time before I attempt anything else.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

Threads like this always pop up. I'm certain I've gone looking on launch day and couldn't find it.

And Carbon Copy Cloner is your friend.

 

[tothemoonsands]

There are some features missing in Server with Catalina - in my case there was a pop up upon installation that warned me of these changes to Server.

 

[mmomega]

Glad you found the updated server app. Enjoy.

Personally I moved away from macOS server once they removed a majority of it's functions and moved to Ubuntu on the Mac Mini instead.
I tend to wait until the weekend or last day of the work week to update my servers, just so something similar to this doesn't occur in the middle of the week and panic ensues.

 

[jayducharme]

I tend to wait until the weekend or last day of the work week to update my servers, just so something similar to this doesn't occur in the middle of the week and panic ensues.

In the past, I always waited for the end of a term before I installed a major update. Then I'd have lots of time to work out the kinks. But for me, Apple updates had been pretty flawless over the last few years, so I rolled the dice and lost. About all we're really using Server for now is to host a shared hard drive, and I don't really need the app to do that anyway. I can just set that up in sharing preferences. So I may just scrap Server entirely.

 

[Flint Ironstag]

With the introduction of the 7,1 rackmount version I really hope ARD and the server app get a bit of love.

 

[satcomer]

My felling Server is dying a slow death! With the rise of smart NAS have surprised home users and most stock Mac OS can be changed with a little Terminal codes! So in my opinion Linux servers are slowly taken over world once MicroSoft starting changing subscriptions to their newest server!

So if you want a carrier learn the popular Linux Servers flavors and drive into those and learn that because it is slowly taken over the largest Server farms!

 

[mmomega]

With the introduction of the 7,1 rackmount version I really hope ARD and the server app get a bit of love.

I had an instance where I was in Ireland, in literally the middle of a Jameson whiskey distillery tour and got a call that the X-Ray server was down. My #2 had pushed an update that morning just before everyone else would have gotten to the office and crashed the system. So that was a bit of a panic attack moment, I was able to VPN in and handle it via cell phone connection.
Ever since that, I don't risk updates in the middle of the work week unless it's near end of day and I have time to handle any issues that may come up. At the time I had 3 different offices that relied on that server connection.

But ... ARD works good for me still. I have 3 remote systems in different locations that for whatever reason do not like my other remote software, so VPN connections and ARD work flawlessly.
The server app, I have not tried in a few years since it was relatively dismantled.

 

[jayducharme]

So if you want a carrier learn the popular Linux Servers flavors and drive into those and learn that because it is slowly taken over the largest Server farms!

Of course the irony there is that Mac OS is basically Linux under the hood.

 

[satcomer]

Of course the irony there is that Mac OS is basically Linux under the hood.

No it isn’t! To me it BSD underneath left over from the Next guys hanging around when OS X first came online!