Setup headless Lion Server

11Oct11

So we’ve had a couple of weeks now to play with Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and Lion Server. There have been some changes!

First, doing a headless setup of Lion Server, say, on a new Mac mini server is a whole different affair. Before, all you needed was Server Admin and the serial number. Not anymore.

You need to grab a copy of Server.app – either by purchasing it or copying it from your server onto your desktop machine via your favourite method. Mine is target disk mode.

Next, fire up Server.App and then go to Manage > Connect to Server.

Use Bonjour Browser to find the IP of the new server and then connect to it using the username root and the full serial number as the password. And relax! The rest should be fairly easy.

Whilst you’re at it, might as well grab the new version of Lion Server Admin Tools.