Profile Manager.
For a long time thereafter, Mac OS X Server was an entirely separate product that you had to purchase separately—at a hefty price. The Leopard version of Server, back in 2007, ran for $999. Mac server free download - Parallels Server for Mac, Mac OS X Server Update, Mac OS X Server Update, and many more programs. Download your free version of OS X Server 3.0.3; This text is next to the button: OS X Server 3.0.3 Includes Xcode Server to enable continuous integration. Works with Xcode 5 to configure bots that automatically build and test your apps. Requires OS X Mavericks.
The master multitasker.
Profile Manager simplifies deploying, configuring, and managing the Mac computers and iOS devices in your organization. It’s one place where you control everything: You can create profiles to set up user accounts for mail, calendar, contacts, and messages; configure system settings; enforce restrictions; set PIN and password policies; and more. Profile Manager simplifies the distribution of institution-licensed apps and books purchased through the App Store Volume Purchase Program. It also gives users access to a self-service web portal where they can download and install new configuration profiles, as well as clear passcodes and remotely lock or wipe their Mac, iPhone, or iPad if it’s lost or stolen. And it allows you to perform push installs of macOS enterprise apps and iOS media assets including PDF, EPUB, and iBooks Author files.
Features for iOS and macOS
macOS Server lets you assign Volume Purchase Program (VPP) apps to devices — instead of a user’s Apple ID. This allows for the installation of VPP apps on iOS devices and Mac computers without configuring an Apple ID or sending an invitation. You can also migrate apps already installed on a device to a user’s Apple ID without deleting the app or user data.
Features for iOS
App Store apps — including newly assigned apps and app updates — can be installed even if the App Store is disabled. And apps configured to use Kerberos will automatically launch Per-App VPN when a user logs in to that app. You can enroll iPad and iPhone in the Device Enrollment Program (DEP) and remove the Move from Android option. Network usage rules allow each group or company to specify how managed apps use networks — like restricting the app’s ability to connect over cellular or when roaming on other networks. And you can also update DEP-enrolled supervised devices to the latest iOS version.
macOS Server features restrictions for devices to prevent the use of Mail Drop or AirDrop. You can enable restrictions for supervised devices too, like preventing wallpaper changes, device name changes, modification of enterprise app trust settings, access to iCloud Photos or keyboard shortcuts, Apple Watch pairing, or setting a passcode.
Features for macOS
You can automatically create an administrator account during initial system setup that can be hidden from standard users. Or create a standard account or skip account setup during DEP enrollment, configure the macOS Setup Assistant to create a new standard (non-admin) account, or skip account creation entirely during DEP enrollment.
Xsan.
Advanced by volumes.
Xsan is a powerful and scalable solution for storage consolidation. Everyone in your organization can have fast, concurrent access to terabytes of centralized data. Built into macOS, Xsan allows any Mac to access Xsan or StorNext volumes over Fibre Channel or Ethernet.
I've been working with Mac hosting for about thirteen years. I tell people about using a Mac mini as a server and they just love the idea of it. There are a lot of great hosting options out there these days, but it's nice to work with a server where the OS is familiar and you know you control the whole stack of hardware and software. Our base Mac mini subscription starts at just $79/mo (that includes the server) so it's much easier to get started.
Five years ago today, I wrote a post about ways you might use a Mac server. I’ve decided to update that list and add some new ones that have come along in the last little while. It’s a mix of Mac apps, open source projects, and iOS tools. Now when you say to yourself “I’d love to try a Mac server but I just don’t know what I’d do with it” then you can take a look at this list. (Have more suggestions? Add them here.)
Ways to use your Mac Server
macOS server is in the middle of a big transition, but I'm still including it here. You'll want to be sure to read up on the future roadmap. It's a first party way to run a Profile Manager and Open Directory.
There are a number of ways to use your Mac as a build server. It’s easily the most popular use here at MacStadium. You might look at Jenkins, Buildkite, Teamcity, Veertu, or Gitlab.
Xcode now includes Xcode Server. We have a guide for setting up Xcode 9 Server that may be helpful.
Resilio is a file sync server built on bit torrent technology. It's very good for large files. Here is a tutorial to setup a file server with Resilio on a Mac mini.
Selfoss is a web based RSS reader that is open source and free.
Mac Os Server For Free
Screens will let you use a Mac from your iPad or iPhone.
NuoRDS is a scalable terminal server for Mac. Here are some setup instructions.
Hazel is an automation tool that can keep your Mac server clean. (I use it to offload things from Dropbox, make a copy of full resolution images, etc. Just set it up and let it run. It's especially useful for people who use an iOS device full time but want a Mac to do some heavy lifting in the background without much interaction.)
Sendy is a self hosted service to email your newsletters at a significant discount. Similar to MailChimp.
Guacamole is a client-less remote desktop gateway. You can control your machine without needing a client (and just a browser using HTML5.)
Yourls is a self-hosted URL shortener. It provides stats as well.
Pow lets you create a quick environment to build and test Rails apps.
Use Transmit to access your Mac as a file server. Here’s a short tutorial.
Moodle is a CMS for education.
VirtualHostX lets you setup multiple websites quickly on a Mac. It comes with it's own self-contained Apache web server as well.
Owncloud is a replacement for Dropbox, but also provides calendar, contacts and so much more.
Plex lets you stream all your media to your phone/tablet/Macs/etc.
FileMaker is a powerful database server. Very Powerful. Run it for yourself or as a paid service for others.
Kerio is a powerful Mail server. A very good alternative to Exchange.
Run a Minecraft Server of your own.
uTorrent is a simple torrent client.
ServerPilot makes it simple and fast to create and maintain Wordpress installs. Built for DigitalOcean, but works great on a Mac mini with Ubuntu.
MAMP will help you setup a WordPress blog quickly with PHP and mySQL.
DNS Enabler lets you run your own DNS server.
BBpress is clean forum software from the makers of WordPress.
Discourse is a platform to build a community. It's modern and free for self hosted. We use Discourse for our own community site.
Simon is an application that will monitor all sorts of servers and services and notify you if they're down.
iStat Server will let you keep an eye on your Mac server.
Asterisk is an open source VOIP server.
Deep Freeze will let you really hack on your machine, and bring it back clean with a restart.
Nagios will keep an eye on your infastructure.
Free Ftp Server For Mac
VMware ESXi will let you install and run multiple instances of OS X on the same server (and we'll install it for you when you start a Mac mini subscription.)
Pancake is a seller self hosted app for invoicing and billing clients.
GridRepublic or Warrior will let you put your extra server power to good use.
How To Use Servers Mac
Tell us how you use your Mac server
Mac Server Free
Do you have more software suggestions? Feel free to add them as a comment on our community forum. (And don’t be shy about sending your own software. We’re always happy to work with developers.)