Cannot Search Mac Mini Server

Setup a small office network for our art dept, but have lost the ability to search for files on the Mini server. I have seen a ton of threads about this, but no definite fixes or reason. Please help! It is very difficult to work with a server that you can't use a search function on!
Imac- OSX Lion 10.7.4
Imac- OSX 10.6.8
Mini Server- OSX Server Lion 10.7.5
Thank you
-Prodigal

This sounds like a simple port forwarding issue, but I don't understand your LAN setup.
The WRT300N has DDNS service set up. NAT and RIP are disabled.
The chances are, you're running NAT somewhere in your network. If not the WRT then what? If it's your cable modem then you must have port forwarding configured on the cable modem, and that's where you need to focus - change the port forwarding to point to your Mac Mini's address rather than the WRT.
HOWEVER, it is far more common to have the wireless router perform NAT and DHCP, which is why I question your setup.
Not directly related, but:
The Mac Mini DHCP is reserved
Nix this. Your server should be configured manually, with a static IP address, not DHCP, even with a reservation in the DHCP server. The only advantage of DHCP is for dynamic hosts (hence the 'D' in 'DHCP') or if you expect to change your entire local subnet on any kind of frequent basis. The reality is that you can't just change the IP address of Mac OS X Server like this - there are too many dependencies, so it's better to set it manually, knowing that there's a cost (and pain) to change the server's address.

Similar Messages

Cannot start Mac mini server after changing permissions

I have a two-day-old Mac mini (server version) and all was OK until I decided to change the permissions on both hard drives (and all enclosed folders and files) to give read/write access to administrators. I received quite a few error messages about invalid kernel file extensions (I think) which I elected to ignore or override. Then when trying to log off, the machine hung.
Safe reboot does not work. I have rebooted using <Command> S and get the following amongst the many messages:
Bug: launchctl.c:3557 (23930):17: ioctl(s6, SIOCAIFADDR_IN6, &ifra6) != -1
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There are no peripherals and I cannot try re-installing Snow Leopard for two reasons. First, I have no disk. More importantly, there is no CD drive - this is a Mac mini.
Please help!

HHMNY wrote:
I have a two-day-old Mac mini (server version) and all was OK until I decided to change the permissions on both hard drives (and all enclosed folders and files) to give read/write access to administrators.
doing this completed scrambled your system. you now have no choice but to reinstall Snow Leopard.
and in the future NEVER use "apply to enclosed items on ANY system created folders. and certainly NEVER EVER use it on the whole system drive.

Cannot see Mac Mini Server from Internet: DynDNS alias gets thru cable modem to wireless router, not to the Mac Mini. How to configure?

I want to make my Mac Mini Server (Lion) visible to the Internet from my home LAN. I have followed the Lion server install wizards and also set up a dynamic DNS at DynDNS.com.
When I enter the Internet address with the proper alias from a web browser, I get dumped into the admin screen of the Linksys wireless router WRT300N. Hint: the WRT300N provides DHCP for the LAN, not the cable modem providing DHCP. The WRT300N has DDNS service set up. NAT and RIP are disabled. The Mac Mini DHCP is reserved.
Suggestions? I could use the Motorola Surfboard SB6121 to provide DHCP but have hesitations.
Point me to the right discussion/article and get me back on track, please.

This sounds like a simple port forwarding issue, but I don't understand your LAN setup.
The WRT300N has DDNS service set up. NAT and RIP are disabled.
The chances are, you're running NAT somewhere in your network. If not the WRT then what? If it's your cable modem then you must have port forwarding configured on the cable modem, and that's where you need to focus - change the port forwarding to point to your Mac Mini's address rather than the WRT.
HOWEVER, it is far more common to have the wireless router perform NAT and DHCP, which is why I question your setup.
Not directly related, but:
The Mac Mini DHCP is reserved
Nix this. Your server should be configured manually, with a static IP address, not DHCP, even with a reservation in the DHCP server. The only advantage of DHCP is for dynamic hosts (hence the 'D' in 'DHCP') or if you expect to change your entire local subnet on any kind of frequent basis. The reality is that you can't just change the IP address of Mac OS X Server like this - there are too many dependencies, so it's better to set it manually, knowing that there's a cost (and pain) to change the server's address.

Mac mini Server 10.6 unable to search for files on the server from desktop.

I'm running Mac mini Server 10.6 with 15 various Apple Mac desktops 10.4 / 10.6. The problem i'm having is that i'm unable to search for files on the server from any of the desktops. I have fixed permissions and rebooted. I can perfomr a search though command - F and spotlight from the server.
Anyone have any ideas?

I have a Mac mini server with Mac osx 10.6.8 installed --- I have a website {UNDER CONSTRUCTION} installed on it with a REGISTERED DOMAIN NAME belizeansworldwide.com -->[DNS service w/GoDaddy] & DSL INTERNET service w/VERIZON --- {My server is the ONLY DEVICE CONNECTED to my VERIZON DSL router/modem}
When I enter my DOMAIN NAME or WAN IP # in my browser(s)--> Chrome OR Safari -- i get my Verizon modem
set-up page-->{this incl the WAN IP# as I expected}----{NORMALLY I WOULD ACCESS MY Actiontec
modem/router via 192.168.1.1} --- While in that webpage there's an option "shared files/folders" & clicking on that option DISPLAYS MY WEBSITE ---> {"PORT FORWARDING DID NOT RESOLVE THAT"}
My next attempt @ a solution was through my Server's SystemPreference>Sharing>Internet Sharing
& this the Original Object of my post ===> "MY SHARING PANEL DOES NOT INCLUDE THE OPTION
FOR 'Internet Sharing' among the others like CD DVD, Remote Login,Remote Management, Bluetooth Sharing, etc.etc ---- Hope this additional info will help to clarify &/or explain my problem
Thanks, & best regards to you & yours

Disk Erase Failed. Disk cannot be dismounted on Mac Mini Server

Ok, this is a bit crazy for me anyway. I have a Mac Mini Server running Snow. My Server HD failed but fortunately my Mac HD was being used as an image backup and I can boot from it fine and runs perfect. The bad disk was not showing in Disk Utility at all. So I bought a new one and replaced it.
Now Disk Utility sees it but if I try to format it or partition it, I get the message the it cannot be dismounted. I tried re-setting NVRam (Optio+CMD+P+R) but n luck.
I have my original Snow DVD but I have no external DVD. I have a MacBook Pro Mountain Lion.
How do I erase my new disk so I can copy everything back?
Any help is appreciate it.

Although thats an excellent suggestion but in the end I attached an old usb backup drive and restarted and held down the Option key to select it to boot. Then it went into Disk Utility, and I reimaged the 2nd drive to the new drive. After the reimage I restarted and held down the Option key to allow me to select the first drive.
The only issue I had was to rename my boot drive back to Server HD, which I did by using Finder and one more restart.
I guess the rule is you cannot unmount the boot original boot drive unless you boot from an external drive.
All is good now and thank you.

Cannot use my Mac Mini server as Time Machine server

Hello,
May some one can help me...
I try to connect clients to a time Machine server, well it's seems to be a bit difficult, I created user's accounts, computers accounts, group of computers... It works for the update services, but after configuring Time Machine on the server, shared in server admin, in Workgroup manager, file sharing, preference pane, user's services... I can see the volume in time machine preferences, but there is always the same issue, first message is "the disk is not reachable" second "there is a probleme with the network name and password" I tried with different posix, ACLS, with user's password, server admin password, directory admin password... Well I'm a bit tired...
I tried on the server and on a Promise 4To, I can see the shared items folder and the Backups foledr and that the only thing I can do...
Well if some one can help me it will be great for me and for every body arround me...
Thanks,
Nicolas

Hello Peter,
Thanks for your answer.
There must be something wrong in the different steps I follow.
Firts I set Time machine on the server for each user, shoosing the Volume "SmartStor" (a network volume attached on the Mac Mini server) it creates a "Shared items" folder with a "Backups" folder in.
In Server Admin tools I can see in the AFP services the share point /Backups
In Workgroup Manager I set the Time Machine's preferences for the different computers and computers' group with the path afp://myserver.local/Backups/
At least on my client's computer I can shoose the volume "Backups" "on my server".
And it doesn't work... even with all the logins and password, User's, Dir Admin and Server Admin.
With User's and Dir Admin it runs quickly and tells "the volume is not reachable on account of wrong user's name or password"
With Server Admin login and password it runs indefinitly, nothing occurs ...
Is there something to do in terminal ?
Well I tried to find explanations on the web but I found nothing for the moment... The informations are to set a network volume in Terminal in place of the default one...
'Hope to find soon, I can't stand that something runs for every one but not with me...

Cannot print to Mac mini Server print server from MBP

Setup two USB printers on a Mac Mini server, they were recognized and new drivers downloaded. I can print from this machine. I shared them over LPR, IPP and SMB and announced through Bonjour
I installed the printers on a new MBP
When I try to print it starts to spool but the printer goes to pause. If I un pause it just goes back to pause.
The error log said printer does not exist, I have removed and reinstalled the printers - no change
I have no quotas
Firewall ports open
Have tried printing via LPR, IPP using generic PostScript driver and vendor specific
Printer service is up in Server Admin
I have not setup a an LDAP entry for this device as I thought I would not have to - am I worng here
The other odd thing is I have Parallels setup on same MBP and I loaded Bonjour there and it prints fine from the VM - wierd huh?
What have I done wrong here

How do you locate the firewall settings on the server?

Mac mini server cannot connect to keyboards

Just took my mac mini server in for degraded raid. Still under warranty. Raid was setup as mirrored for redundent backup. One of the drives failed and they found that one of my ram sticks was bad. Received my mini back with a new drive , ram, and a restored os which defeated the purpose of having a mirrored raid.... Thanks.... Now i have to setup and register the computer as new and it will not find my apple wireless keyboard. I have done all the reset tricks and still doesn't connect. I spent around 2 hours trying to navigate my way through applecare over the phone but my iPhone won't stay connected to a phone call long enough to get anywhere. And when I finally do their suggestion is use a USB keyboard. I don't own a USB keyboard, haven't in a decade. There are no appointments available with the only Apple store in this area and I'm sick of talking in circles to the scripted help over the phone. Does anyone have any answers other than buy more Apple stuff just to use my Apple stuff.
Sorry for the edit. ios is convinced I typed in something else so I had to go through and correct all of siris spell checks.

Have yo tried:
Troubleshooting wireless mouse and keyboard issues
OS X: Bluetooth devices become unresponsive
Mac mini (Mid 2011 and later) and iMac (Late 2012): Bluetooth keyboard may not pair during Setup Assistant - Apple Suppo…
Last get a wired KB. A USB PC KB is fine. If necessary:
Keyboard mappings using a PC keyboard on a Macintosh

Windows 7 on mac mini server and raid 1

I just purchased a 2011 mac mini server with the hopes of installing windows 7 alongside lion. Then my goal was to have the two drives mirrored. I successfully mirrored the two drives using disk utility and then proceeded to install lion. This all went fine. Imagine my shock when I loaded up bootcamp to see an error message describing it's inability to install windows on a raided system. The thought hadn't even occured to me that this would be an issue.
I have searched through various forums and other places on the internet and haven't found a solution. I am curious if I can get anyone with any experience in this area. Is it possible to have mac and windows installed on a drive... and have that drive mirrored to the second drive... regardless of what os i'm booted into?
Thanks for your help guys

The GUI version of Disk Utility is very limited in what sort of RAID configurations you can create. It will only allow you to have a single partition on the disk and to make a RAID using that.
Boot Camp requires creating additional partitions on the disk and hence it complaining.
There is a commandline version of Disk Utility called diskutility (duh!). It has far more options available. Details for this command can be obtained by typing man diskutility in Terminal.app.
It appears that in theory you might be able to do the following.
Start off with both disks not setup for RAID
Use Boot Camp to create the Windows partition. Repeat this on each disk.
Then in Terminal.app manually convert the boot Mac partition to a RAID using diskutil appleraid enable
Then add the matching partition on the second drive to make it a working mirror using diskutil appleraid add
Then in Terminal.app manually create a RAID for the Windows partition using both drives and use FAT32 as the format using diskutil appleraid create
Then boot and run the Windows installer and tell it to erase the Windows partition as NTFS
I cannot gurantee the above will work and you should obviously have backups if needed. Another option would be to have the Mac partition covered by RAID but not the Windows partition, this would result in three volumes one Mac RAIDed volume, and two other non RAIDed volumes even though you have two physical disks.

Mac Mini Server Airport Express with Server Firewall Settings

I posted this in the Server forum, but I've had no responses so far - so I'll try it here instead! Any help is appreciated...
I've got a new Mac Mini Server (mid 2010) with Snow Leopard Server v10.6 that I intend to use as a file server in the long term, and as my main computer replacing my old PC in the short term.
One of it's uses will be my iTunes server for my Airtunes network with two airport expresses.
When I disable the server firewall iTunes can connect to the airports with the check box in the 'multiple speakers' menu in iTunes. If I enable the firewall with the default settings of 'allow these ports' I cannot. I have used the Apple document on well known TCP and UDP ports to open for Apple software packages with particular attention to streaming audio / iTunes etc. Still doesn't allow the speakers to be selected in the 'multiple speakers' check box.
I also tried the 'allow all traffic' option for the firewall, again no connection to the remote speakers happened. If I turn off the firewall it all works fine. It seems that there are some ports that need to be open in order to establish the connection - I just don't know what they are.
Does anyone know of the appropriate ports to open? I tried searching the forums and I did try some of the suggestions for port 5000, 6000, 6001 etc but it doesn't make any difference!
Thanks in advance...
Message was edited by: Not_So

I found this works too. Though I came about this a slightly different way.
I moved over to Airfoil as Airtunes didn't work without the firewall and Airfoil did. I then had problems with Airfoil not reconnecting to the remote speakers when you cycled the power on them, I don't want all of my remote speakers powered all of the time. They were set to automatically connect, yet they refused connection a couple of times before connecting, which meant logging into the mini and reconnecting manually, which wasn't what I wanted to do. During an email conversation with Rogue Amoeba I sent them a debug logfile - they pin-pointed it as a connection denial with IPv6 addressing.
Once I had that info, I disabled IPv6 for my network adaptors and Airfoil worked and reconnected fine even when airport expresses are power cycled. I then tried Airtunes again and now the speakers can be connected. It's down to the first choice for connections is IPv6, if this is not available it's IPv4.
It's definitely a bug with the IP6FW control and link-local traffic.
Hope this helps.

RAID on Mac mini Server (2011 i7)

I just purchased a new Mac mini Server today (the base configuration 2011 Quad Core i7 with 4GB RAM and 2x 500GB 7200RPM magnetic hard disks) and wanted to share what I've learned about setting up RAID on the system.
First, as you may have heard, the Mac mini Server does not include any installation/reinstallation media (I was hoping for a USB reinstall key, but it seems that the new systems don't include these or optical discs; last year's Mac mini Server included handy reinstall DVDs even though the system didn't have an optical drive). Out of the box, the new Mac mini Server has Mac OS X Lion, the iLife suite, and the Mac OS X Lion Server tools pre-installed on one of the two 500GB internal drives; the other disk is formatted as a separate, second drive.
If this is the configuration you're looking for, you're good to go right out of the box. As an aside, this shipping configuration is ideal for using the second disk as a Time Machine drive. I would argue that Time Machine would be a better use of the second volume than a RAID 1 configuration, as Time Machine provides versioned backups and you don't incur the write performance penalty RAID 1 requires every time data is saved to the disk. I would further caution that, while an internal Time Machine disk is a convenient safety measure, any critical data should be backed up outside of the system as well.
Now for those like me who were intrigued by the opportunity to mate the Quad Core i7 with a RAID 0/striped configuration for a performance boost (or if you want to use RAID 1), a RAID configuration is possible, but it there are a few caveats.
First, Apple has two recovery options for the new Macs: a small hidden recovery partition on the boot drive and their Internet Recovery system. While it's possible to boot other systems from a Lion installation DVD extracted from the App Store Lion installer, such bootable optical discs will not boot the Mac mini Server at this time (this may change if Apple modifies the App Store Lion installer). Therefore, as of right now, the recovery partition or the Internet Recovery system are the best options for installing/reinstalling on a RAID set.
Second, if you boot the system using Command+R to access the recovery partition, you can wipe the two drives and create a RAID set, but this process will remove the recovery partition and is incompatible with FileVault encryption (a warning to this effect comes up when you try to start an install/reinstalll on a RAID set, but at that point, you've likely already erased the recovery partition in Disk Utility). If the system boots after the recovery partition is deleted, the only install/reinstall option is Apple's Internet Recovery.
Third, as might be expected depending upon your internet bandwidth, the Internet Recovery system can take a while to boot the recovery tools (10-15 minutes to boot on a standard cable modem connection) and to reinstall the OS (50+ minutes on a standard cable modem connection). Internet Recovery currently reinstalls only Mac OS X Lion and the Server tools on the mini Server; there's no option to install iLife during the OS install (Apple could always change this by updating their servers, and there is a Customize button on the installer, but it is greyed out and cannot be clicked at the present).
Fourth, once the OS is reinstalled, it's possible to reinstall the iLife applications by launching the App Store from within Mac OS and selecting Purchased. The store will indicate that the system is eligible to download the iLife apps and you can do so by agreeing to upload system-identifying information to Apple and signing in with your Apple ID.
I hope all this helps. Here's a more concise step-by-step of how to set up the system with RAID:
THINGS YOU NEED
A fast Internet connection for the mini
Patience
Hold Command+R on the keyboard at start up to boot from the system's recovery partition (if the recovery partition has been deleted, the system should start from Apple's Internet Recovery system; you may need to connect to WiFi if wired ethernet isn't available)
Once you get into the recovery utility, select Disk Utility and for each of the two hard drives:
highlight the drive
select the Partition tab
select 1 Partition from the Partition Layout pulldown menu
select Free Space from the Format pulldown menu
click Apply
After you've wiped both of the drives, highlight one of the disks and click the RAID tab, then create a RAID set (striped or mirrored, as you prefer)
Quit Disk Utility and from the main recovery utility menu select Reinstall Lion (from this point on, if you have any trouble, you can restart the mini from the Internet Recovery system and return to this point, but the recovery partition will be gone as long as you keep the RAID set)
After you install and configure Mac OS X Lion Server (which can take well over an hour to download and install), you should be able to reinstall the iLife applications by launching the App Store App and selecting Purchased, then logging in with your Apple ID and agreeing to send your system info to Apple to download the iLife Applications
If you're using the mini as a production server, I highly suggest setting up some local, external recovery tool, as you don't want to have system downtime protracted by having to wait for an Internet Recovery boot/reinstall. I would also beg Apple to consider this sort of scenario and to provide more supported methods for recovering and reinstalling from local media.
Best of luck to you all.

I found the basic principle on another forum thanks to a guy called 'e-whizz' and this what I did to make RAID 1 work on a mac mini server with LION server.
You can easily configure the second drive on a mac mini server for a Mirrored RAID 1 set with Lion Server without either reinstalling or erasing your existing setup.
The initial setup process takes about 30 minutes, though the rebuilding of the mirror disk will take several hours, depending on the amount of data you have on the drive. It took around 3 hours on a new mac mini server with lion server installed, nothing else configured.
Before you start, please ensure you have a current backup of the server. Getting the following commands wrong can render you server unusable.
What you need to use is the command line version of Disk Utility, diskutil.
Before you start, clone the hard drive. You can use SuperDuper (or similar, I have used SuperDuper) with copying all files onto a USB memory stick. If Lion is freshly installed, 8Gb will do. SuperDuper will create a bootable copy on the USB.
Boot the mac mini from the external USB. To do that, reboot and hold down the option key while restarting. You will see a window, select the USB drive to boot from.
Launch the terminal and type the following command:
diskutil list
This gives you a list of all the drives and partitions your system knows about.
You need to find the Server HD partition (the first disk) and the HD2 partitions (the second disk). These are the two main ~500GB drives. You will be using the disk IDENTIFIERs when issuing the diskutil commands. For a stock standard Mac Mini Server, the commands below are correct, but if you have previously changed the volume names, or repartitioned at any stage the disk identifiers and volume names may differ.
First enable RAID mirroring on existing Server HD volume. This will create a single disk, unpaired mirror, without affecting your data.
Using this syntax:
diskutil appleRAID enable mirror disktomirror
where disktomirror is your disk identifier for Server HD
On my mac mini server, Server HD was disk0s2, so I used this command:
diskutil appleRAID enable mirror disk0s2
You now need to run diskutil list again to see the disk identifier for the new RAID volume. The new RAID volume will be listed as disk# on its own at the bottom of the list.
On my mac mini server this was disk3 (disk 2 was the USB I booted from, disk 0 the first disk and disk 1 the second disk)
Next add the disk HD2 to the Server HD raid mirror volume (on my mac, as I said before, this is disk3) as a new member.
This step will erase disk HD2 and begin an auto repair of the Server HD.
Using this syntax:
diskutil appleRAID add member newdisk raidvolume
replacing newdisk and raidvolume with your particular disk identifiers
On my server this was:
diskutil appleRAID add member disk1s2 disk3
To follow the progress of rebuilding the mirror set, type
diskutil list
It will show you the progress in % of the rebuilding under status
Once finished, reboot and your RAID 1 is up and running and you have also a working backup on your USB (coz' that's where you booted from ;-)
After reboot you can check the status of your RAID with
diskutil appleRAID list
Both drives should show ONLINE under status, interestingly, the device node for the RAID changed on my mac mini server from disk3 to disk2
That's it

How many users on Mac Mini Server?

Good morning,
Apple's recent changes to the Mac Mini line have thrown a wrench in a project plan I've been working. One part of the project needs a quad-core computer (FileMaker Server) and so I'm having to either search for an older model or switch up to a Mac Pro.
The other part of the project involves bringing a Mac-based server in for directory and user services, including mail. I had planned to use the high-end Mac Mini Server but that option was removed. The office I'm supporting is about 15 people (usually a little less on the network) and most of their work will actually be done against the other computer running the FileMaker Server-based application. I was not expecting a big load against the Mac Mini Server. But these changes got me wondering, what are others' experiences with Mac Mini as a server for 12-15 people? I'm happy with qualitative and quantitative data, but I would like to know which is which. In general:
     For how many users have you provided directory and user services (built in to the OS) using a single Mac Mini?
     What were the specs of the Mac Mini (year or model, speed, CPU config, RAM)?
     Other thoughts?
In essence, I need to understand if people have successfully used dual core processors as Mac Mini servers in environments of 12-15 people. I've done it using a 2012 Mac Mini Server with 5-6 and the loading seems to support further growth, but would like real-world experience.
Thanks.

Dutch Apple employee told me that Mac OS X 10.6 Server has also Windows Terminal Services equivalent.
But this is not !
Not yet (?) available in Snow Leopard Server.

Is there a way to access my iTunes library that's stored on my Mac Mini Server at home over the internet while I'm away on business?

Hello.
I've done a bit of searching on Google and have come up empty so far and am looking for your help.
Here's my situation:
I have my iTunes media files stored on my NAS on my home network along with my Mac Mini Server with the iTunes library files stored in my Dropbox folder. While I'm at home I can access all of my files without any problems from either my Mac Mini Server or my Macbook Air; however, I recently moved to San Diego for work and would still like to access the media that's on my NAS at home remotely from my Macbook Air so I can sync my iPhone and watch movies.
Is this even possible? If so, how would I go about setting this up?
Thanks!

The sessionstore.js file only exists while Firefox is closed. During shutdown, Firefox writes out that file based (I think) on recovery.js as of that point. When Firefox starts back up again, it reads sessionstore.js and deletes it. So if Firefox is running, it's normal not to see sessionstore.js. Anyway, sessionstore.js is going to be empty now.
Shadow Explorer might already have done this for you, but just in case...
You could try the previous versions feature. This is harder to get to on Windows 8 and 8.1, but I have read about a roundabout way. I can't test this myself, but here's what you do:
Let's say you have a Windows Explorer window open to your current Firefox profile folder. This is something like (with your username and semi-random profile folder name):
C:\Users\''username''\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\blahblah
Click in the address bar and change the C: to
\\localhost\c$
to yield (with your username and semi-random profile folder name)
\\localhost\c$\Users\''username''\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\blahblah
Press Enter to reload the folder contents that way.
Now when you right-click recovery.js, recovery.bak, backup.js or sessionstore.js and choose Properties, there should be a Previous Versions tab. Usually the most recent previous version dates back to the last time Windows created a restore point (e.g., system update or possibly scheduled on a more frequent basis).

Access Mac Mini Server (profile management) through reverse proxy

Hi,
Newbie in Mac's world and yet trying to make it more complicated as it is.
As we recently (last month) decided to equip our sales force with iPads, they were configured through Apple Configurator tool running on a dedicated Mac Mini Mountain Lion.
Now, I'd be keen in moving this configuration to the Profile Manager, part of the OSx Server plugin. So far so good.
Problem is the following : another web server is already on the LAN using both 80 and 443 ports. So all incoming traffic on those ports was routed to this other server. As Mac Mini Server default http/s ports may not be altered, I installed a reverse proxy server (Oracle VM - Ubuntu 12.04LTS - pound), configured to deal differently traffic on those ports according to the domain name (host) of the web request (header). Each 'local' server has been allocated a domain name. Just to be clear, traffic is now routed by the WAN/LAN router, for those ports, towards the reverse proxy, configured to reroute the traffic to the correct destination.
So far so good, it works like a charm, except... as soon as we enter https protocol on Mac Mini Server Profile Manager.
Access from an iDevice to the Mac Mini Server Profile Manager login page is fine, but as soon as password is confirmed, safari is pending and finally a message 'An internal serer error occured. Please try later again' appears.
Looking to both reverse proxy system log and Mac Mini profilemanager.log files to trace the problem, the following lines are produced at this particular moment :
reverse proxy system.log
Jan 15 14:44:03 reverseproxy pound: 91.... GET /devicemanagement/console/apple_theme_v2/en/da56af0a69e733b259dac3991419fa928b4 94a56/resources/images/sprites/me_controls.png HTTP/1.1 - HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Jan 15 14:44:03 reverseproxy pound: 91.... GET /auth?redirect=http://osxsrv.fiks.net/devicemanagement/api/authentication/callback HTTP/1.1 - HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Jan 15 14:44:04 reverseproxy pound: 91.... GET /devicemanagement/api/authentication/callback?auth_token=336952DE-BDDE-4390-82F 7-8475B79FB2D3 HTTP/1.1 - HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
Jan 15 14:44:04 reverseproxy pound: (b7680b40) e500 can't read header
Jan 15 14:44:04 reverseproxy pound: (b7680b40) e500 response error read from 192.168....:443/GET /profilemanager/ HTTP/1.1: Success (0.007 secs)
Jan 15 14:44:08 reverseproxy pound: 91.... POST /devicemanagement/api/magic/get_updated HTTP/1.1 - HTTP/1.1 200 OK
OSx Server profilemanager.log
Jan 15 14:44:05 osxsrv ProfileManager[1748] <Info>: Processing MagicController#do_magic (for 91.... at 2013-01-15 14:44:05) [POST]Jan 15 14:44:05 osxsrv ProfileManager[1749] <Info>: Processing MagicController#do_magic (for 91.... at 2013-01-15 14:44:05) [POST]
Jan 15 14:44:06 osxsrv ProfileManager[1748] <Info>: Completed in 492ms (View: 0, DB: 6) | 200 OK [http://osxsrv.../magic/do_magic]
Jan 15 14:44:06 osxsrv ProfileManager[1749] <Info>: Completed in 687ms (View: 0, DB: 5) | 200 OK [http://osxsrv..../magic/do_magic]
Jan 15 14:44:07 osxsrv ProfileManager[1750] <Info>: auth_token doesn't exist
Jan 15 14:44:07 osxsrv ProfileManager[1750] <Info>: Filter chain halted as [:verify_auth_token] rendered_or_redirected.
Jan 15 14:44:07 osxsrv ProfileManager[1751] <Info>: Processing MagicController#do_magic (for 91.... at 2013-01-15 14:44:07) [POST]
Jan 15 14:44:07 osxsrv ProfileManager[1751] <Info>: auth_token doesn't exist
Jan 15 14:44:07 osxsrv ProfileManager[1751] <Info>: Filter chain halted as [:verify_auth_token] rendered_or_redirected.
Jan 15 14:44:07 osxsrv ProfileManager[1751] <Info>: Completed in 4ms (View: 1, DB: 14) | 403 Forbidden [http://osxsrv..../magic/do_magic]
Jan 15 14:44:07 osxsrv ProfileManager[1748] <Info>: Processing MagicController#do_magic (for 91.... at 2013-01-15 14:44:07) [POST]
Jan 15 14:44:07 osxsrv ProfileManager[1748] <Info>: auth_token doesn't exist
Jan 15 14:44:07 osxsrv ProfileManager[1748] <Info>: Filter chain halted as [:verify_auth_token] rendered_or_redirected.
Jan 15 14:44:07 osxsrv ProfileManager[1748] <Info>: Completed in 45ms (View: 1, DB: 43) | 403 Forbidden [http://osxsrv..../magic/do_magic]
Jan 15 14:44:07 osxsrv ProfileManager[1750] <Info>: Processing MagicController#do_magic (for 91.... at 2013-01-15 14:44:07) [POST]
Jan 15 14:44:07 osxsrv ProfileManager[1750] <Info>: auth_token doesn't exist
Jan 15 14:44:07 osxsrv ProfileManager[1750] <Info>: Filter chain halted as [:verify_auth_token] rendered_or_redirected.
Jan 15 14:44:07 osxsrv ProfileManager[1750] <Info>: Completed in 55ms (View: 0, DB: 1) | 403 Forbidden [http://osxsrv..../magic/do_magic]
Jan 15 14:44:08 osxsrv ProfileManager[1749] <Info>: Processing AuthenticationController#callback (for 91.... at 2013-01-15 14:44:08) [GET]
Jan 15 14:44:08 osxsrv ProfileManager[1749] <Info>: Redirected to https://osxsrv..../profilemanager/
Jan 15 14:44:08 osxsrv ProfileManager[1749] <Info>: Completed in 149ms (DB: 5) | 302 Found [http://osxsrv..../authentication/callback?auth_token=[FILTERED]]
I guess the '302 Found' is causing or explaining the problem.
I agree this might not be a Mac issue, so I still knock your doors hoping some of you could at least give a hint for what to search for !
If the pound configuration file is of interest, just ask, but this is pretty trivial, saying basically listen these protocols (http/https) on these ports (80/443) and according to Header content (check destination host) and reroute packet to LAN device (with given LAN IP address).
As the default port(s) of the Mac Mini Web Services may not be altered (so far I know), I guess I am stuck using 80 and 443 anyway.
Maybe should I invest time in changing my other apache server ports to some more exotic 8080 or 88 or whatever so Mac Mini Server Profile Manager default ports 80 and 443 are maintained and can be easily and directly rerouted to my Mac server without any reverse proxy along the way.
Thanks in advance for your help
Alx

HI All,
i'm also using reverse proxy technique to publish my server to the internet. The ip is used by twice domains. The problem is by using the profile manager
after login it redirects the url to the Local Area network addresse instead to the domain.
How to configure this on OS X Server and the Profile Manager Service?
Kind Regards
Oemer

Is the Snow Leopard Mac Mini Server the right solution for my office?

I'm the de facto "sysadmin" for my small office, which usually just means I set up the wireless, configure network printing, troubleshoot little issues with Mail and MS Office products.
Currently, we have 4 employees all on iMacs. We share files through a slapped-together setup, where there is a public folder on our owner's iMac and we all share files there. There are a few problems with this:
- If the owner's computer is off, no-one can get to the shared files.
- The owner's computer has had some strange "permissions" issues so sometimes files in the "Public" shared folder end up being read-only, or "read & write" for "nobody".
- A 5th employee telecommutes on an iMac, and can't access the shared folder or files.
So, we're considering getting a Mac Mini Server to do file storage and sharing, both locally and with telecommuting employees (of which there may be more in the future).
- Is this the best solution to our needs - really just file sharing, no web hosting or anything like that?
- What level of access control / authentication can we do on the Server? For example, could we have a password protected folder on the server to restrict access?
- Would we need to upgrade our standard DSL service if we want to share files on the server with folks not on the local network?
- Am I biting off more than I can chew here, given that my technical knowledge is slim but I am the most computer-literate of anyone in the office, so I will need to trouble-shoot any issues that come up with the server?

For your stated goal, network-attached storage (NAS) or an always-on Mac client would be a simpler solution. Either preferably with RAID, and with provisions and storage for periodic archives.
A Mac OS X Server box is overkill. The Mac client boxes have 10-client sharing.
If you want single-signon and shared directory services and mail and web and various of the other pieces and services that are available within, then you can grow into a Mac OS X Server box.
A server is rather more to manage, regardless of what you choose. You're getting DNS and networking and other core pieces, minimally, and you're also responsible for many of the configuration settings and services and details that a client box receives from a server box. And you're definitely dealing with protections and such across multiple boxes.
For some other perspectives, there are various previous discussions of this posted around the forums. A search that includes NAS should kick over a few of these; this is a typical low-end alternative to running a server.

Cannot Search Mac Mini Server

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