OSX Server without gui

Hi all,
I am considering using a mac mini as a web server and, why not using Mac OSX Server.
I am wondering if OSX is able to boot without launching the user interface. Doing this, all ressources will be allocated to the web server processes...
Thank you for your answer.

When Mac OS X Server loads, it takes you to the login window, but that's the only GUI that loads until a user logs in. Simple testing shows this uses virtually no CPU so it shouldn't impact any server processes.

Similar Messages

FTP Access on OSX Server via a browser

I have a number of ftp clients set up which can succesfully upload/download files using ftp client software (Fetch/Easy FTP).
I have a windows user who wants to upload his stuff via ftp in his web browser (IE presumably).
Not had any success (Guest access is disabled) with his account settings in browser though I can get in using same settings in ftp client.
Is this possible with the built in ftp element of OSX Server without having to install something like Rumpus?

IE is the only browser I know of that supports FTP upload via the web browser window. Most Mac browsers that I'm aware of simply pass the FTP connection off to the Finder to deal with.
The Finder, of course, doesn't support FTP upload.
So unless your clients are comfortable working in the command line, you're going to need some additional software. That software could be as simple as an AppleScript application that performs the upload, but you're going to need something.

How do I install Mavericks without invoking the OSX Server Plugin?

How do I perfrom a clean install of Mavericks from the Recovery Partition without it automatically installing, and then invoking or executing the OSX Server Plugin that ultimately results in rendering open directory operable as well as the server. I have ignored this continously, but the other day I went into the terminal and typed ARP -s that lists the shortname for the host of my MacBook Pro and it gave a totally different name than what I had given it in the wi-fi network interface under the WINS tab. More importantly, I do not want to install open directory nor the osx server plugin as it opens up more complexity than I want to deal with. Any suggestions is greatly appreciated. BTW, below are the steps I performed for installing Mavericks.
1. Powered on the MacBook Pro and then hit the Option key.
2. This took me into the Recovery Partition, whereby I went into the Disk Util and erased or formatted the hard-drive.
3. I then clicked out of the Disk Utility and went into the Recovery Mode by clicking on reinstall the current OS.
4. I went through all the prompts and the system downloaded a current version of Mavericks.
5. After completion, I turned on my Macbook Pro and went through the prompts to install Mavericks.
6. This is all I did, and I didn't download the OSX plugin nor invoke it in the new version of the Operating System.
I just assumed that it was a standalone version until I found the server for osx running with open directory invoked, the server invoked, along
with other components relative to a new standalone version.
Again, my question is simple: How can I reinstall Mavericks without it downloading and automatically
iinvoking the components as described above?

Hi. Because both Mavericks and Windows 8 are still new, they may not be free of error. Apple needs more time to perform more tests to ensure that these two different OS's will work properly without getting in conflicts. If it's posdible, I highly recommand you to downgrade back to Lion or Mountain Lion and install Windows 7 (if you have a copy of it). In my experience, all advises from Genius Bar members and computer articles confirm that Windows 7 will work on Macs with Lion OS. It should also work on Mountain Lion. Besides Boot Camp, you could try to virtualize Windows OS and its applications by using VirtualBox, CrossOver and other VMs. I already have an Oracle VirtualBox but I would like to try Boot Camp since it allows me to enjoy almost all Windows features that may be limited in VMs.

Reinstall osx server 10.3 on an xserve G5 without vga card.

Reinstall osx server 10.3 on an xserve G5 without vga card. How can i software restore the server without a vga card?

"How can i software restore the server "
If you mean restore as in reloading an existing config from a disk image. If you have a bootable diskimage on an external drive of your xserve, and if you have another Mac you may be able to boot the xserve in targeted disk mode and just use disk utility on the second Mac to restore the image from the external drive to the internal drive of the xserve. Restore without erase works the best for this...sometimes you will get a copy error on the last file...not sure what the error really means...but it does not seem to be a real issue.

Does Apple host business web pages without the OSX Server?

Does anyone know if Apple hosts business web pages other than what you would get with the iWeb app and MobileMe without the OSX Server?

I would suggest using a third party hosting service "I use IX Web Hosting. MobileMe simply does a domain mask. IX Web Hosting offers reasonable pricing, unlimited bandwidth, & dedicated IP addresses just to name a couple features.

Apache virtual host with OSX Server?

I have been running OSX Server for a while now, and just recently I decided to get McMyAdmin for my Minecraft server. The web client for McMyAdmin runs on port 8080, but I wanted it on port 80. I wanted to use it with my domain, so I just created a sub domain and pointed it to my server. The problem is that OSX Server apparently doesn't let me use port 80, even when websites are turned off. I decided to delete Server and just use plain apache. This worked until I realized that my website was only accessible locally. I have all the correct ports forwarded, etc. But I get the error:
Response Error.
Technical description:
502 Bad Gateway - Response Error, a bad response was received from another proxy server or the destination origin server.
when I try to connect from outside my network. This is probably just some simple thing I missed but it would be nice if someone could just point out what I did wrong here. Back to the point, I want to know how to run the proxy to my web client on port 8080 AND ALSO run OSX Server with or without apache virtualhost.
Thanks in advance,
Eamon

Web is stupidly easy - Apache has extensive support for multiple virtual hosts in a single server and will happily support as many domains/hostnames as you can throw at it.
Mail is a little trickier since it needs to hook into some kind of directory server to validate user addresses.
Mac OS X's Open Directory does support this, but it's a little cumbersome (basically every user has to exist in the main Open Directory domain as well as having a secondary email address(es) in the other domain(s).
This can get especially tricky when you have users with the same shortname in different domains - for example if you give [email protected] a secondary email address of [email protected] and you then get a new user [email protected], you can't give the third 'joe' the address 'joe' in Open Directory since that's already taken. This means he'll have to login using different credentials from his email address. Confused yet? You bet.
If you're prepared to eschew Open Directory you can just use Postfix's built-in support for virtual hosting, but it's a little more complex to setup and support and is entirely command-line based (i.e. there's no GUI for setting it up or supporting it).
So, for that reason you might be prepared to setup multiple virtual machines for each domain. It really depends on how much the domains are related (if at all).

QuickDNS on OSX Server 10.4.6

Hi,
I'm having probems with a server 10.4.6 running QuickDNS. The server cannot resolve its own 192.169.0.1 IP address. It passes the query up to the root servers.
Is anyone running QuickDNS on OSX Server successfully?
Does Apple's BIND and QDNS interfere with each other?
Does Server Admin show DNS as active even though you have only used QuckDNS to configure it, and not SA? (It does on mine)
I was emailing with Men&Mice support but the line went dead at their end without resolution.
Thanks,
b.

What IP do you use for DNS in Network config?
Use only the servers own IP.
"192.169.0.1" : This is a typo right?
If SA show DNS as active or not I don't know. Shouldn't matter.
If you installed "the whole package", "named" is upgraded to 9.3.x and I belive put in the same directory as (overwrites) 9.2.2, /etc/named.conf is "altered" and config files/folders put in /var/named and subfolders.
QuickDNS installed named is started by stuff in /Library/Startupitems/mmSuite (even under Tiger - no Launchd yet, haven't tried 5.1 though).
I don't know but maybe /etc/hostconfig still use DNSSERVER=-YES- so if that is used maybe that tells SA and/or QDNS what to do (show the green light?) . I have to check.
And I had a running with 10.4.6 SA DNS config and a delegated/25 (128-25.xxxx....) reverse zone last week. It actually works now - both the reverse and the GUI not overwriting stuff in /etc/named.conf and /var/named.
In still don't understand how to enter stuff in the reverse zones in SA though (can't see any).

Will I have OSX Server in my App Store if I buy a "Mac Mini with OSX Server"?

I am planning on buying Mac Mini for a Home Media Server, and I am curious if the OSX Server will be added to my account. Or do you think I would better get the same system configuration without the OSX Server, then buy it from the App Store? Is there going to be a difference between the two different processes.

It won't automatically be added to your account unless you supply your account details when you buy. But once you've received your server you can phone Apple Sales and give your details (including order number or server serial number) and they should add Server to your account for you.
What you actually get will be identical.

Does simple file and folder sharing on an iMac work with OSX Server?

Hi There
I wonder if I should install OSX Server on an iMac wher several users work on the same files and folders.
My question - before I do something I might regret:
Does simple file and folder sharing on an iMac within several users really work with the help of OSX Server?
All I want to be able to do:
Admin creates a new folder1 and gives it read- and write access for user1 and user2.
User1 creates a subfolder1 in folder1, and a document1 in subfolder1.
User2 edits document1. Later Admin edits document1.
All these simple editing of files and folders (and subfolders) within a main folder should be possible. This is not possible now.
Is everything clear? I'm not a network specialist or something, I just want to give some co-workers access to some data on my computer without problems.

So what you need are recursive permissions.
I suggest you create a group and add user1 and user2 to that group. You can name that group whatever you want, but for now i will call it FSUsers
Execute this in terminal. Replace FSUsers with your new group
sudo chmod -R +a "FSUsers allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextat tr,writeextattr,readsecurity,file_inherit,directory_inherit" /Users/Shared/*
Replace /Users/Shared with the location of your shared folder. Make sure you keep the /* at the end (this allows all subfolders and files to get the same permissions.
If you need to add people to the share just add them to the FSUsers group, the FSUsers group should should also be allowed in the sharing preferences.

File locking with OSX Server & Microsoft Word

We have a small office LAN based on a Airport Extreme bases station. Periodically Microsoft Word reports a break in connection to the shared folder where we store documents to get disconnected. When that happens and the user reconnects to the share, the user gets the file read-only message for the Word document that was open at the time.
I have found that in order to clear the read-only flag, I have to restart the server and open the Word file on the server with the ID of the user who was editing the file on the remote computer. Only that seems to clear the file locking that causes the file to be read-only.
I cannot figure out a less drastic way to release the lock file. I don't see any hidden temp files in the same folder as the document that is locked for editing found by ls -a or in the root direction of the shared folder in the .TemporaryItems/folders.<UID> that seems to be holding the lock.
I have run chflags nouchg <Word file> from Terminal, but that seems to have no effect either. I also used xattr to see if there were any locks held that way, but I don't see anything that way either.
File sharing to Macs only, which are configured just to use AFP through OSX Server.
Does anyone understand how the file locks of Word documents can be released directly with out restarting the server?
I should add that the underlying problems seems to be WiFi related. The behavior is that the WiFi connection seems to break long enough that the shared volumes disconnects. Outlook also causes a break. This behavior seems to have started with 10.9 and the purchase of new Retina Display MacBook Pros. I turned off AppNap on the Office applications but that is not clearly helpful. I also have been told the problem seems more likely to occur when Word is open in the background and another program like Outlook is in the foreground.
Any suggestions appreciated.

Apple write an operating system and also produce file sharing software as part of that to be used as a file server. Apple provide documentation for third-party software developers on how they should write software to work with Apple's software and also give those developers early access to new versions so those third-party developers can test and if needed make adjustments and issue updates to cope with any Apple changes.
Some third-party developers are good at dealing with this, some are bad, and some totally ignore what Apple does and give the impression they don't care if their product works properly or not. I think we can all judge where Microsoft sits.
It appears Microsoft have never paid any attention in particular to how Apple expect file-locking to be handled when accessing files on a Mac server. There have been problems for years and years and years with Office. Two other problems I have seen which seem different to yours but probably related are -
With Office documents it is supposed to be possible for more than one person to edit the same file at the same time, consider it a miracle if this actually works
With Office in particular Word, there is an auto-save function, unfortunately the way this seems to be implemented it seems that Word creates a new temporary file each time it auto-saves the document and keeps all the previous temporary files open still, this eventually means potentially over a hundred temporary files are open - just for one Word document and you can then hit a limit on the total number of files you are allowed to have open at the same time. At this point further auto-saves fail, and you also encounter great difficulty doing a real full save of the document.
I do not hold Apple completely blameless over this issue, it is likely their file-locking implementations change too often, and have inadequate documentation, however even considering this a company the size of Microsoft with the amount of sales (and profit) they derive from Office for the Mac has no excuses at all for failing to put the effort in to resolve any such clearly critical problems.
We could go on and on about other areas where Microsoft don't play by the (software) rules. Even in Windows Office does not obey the standard print dialog rules Microsoft specified themselves!
Unfortunately not only is Office for Mac upgraded infrequently, but even when new paid for upgrades are released Microsoft have a history of still not fixing bugs. It goes without saying that a mere free update is even less likely to actually fix a bug, typically such free updates only address security issues. The next version of Office is going to be Office for Mac 2014 see http://www.macworld.com/article/2106643/microsoft-will-release-a-new-version-of- office-for-mac-this-year.html
One area I confidently predict Microsoft not to resolve in Office for Mac 2014 is that fact that Word for Mac still does not support right-to-left languages like Hebrew and Arabic. This is despite the fact that OS X itself has supported this for years and years, and despite the fact other Mac programs support this including the free TextEdit and Pages - both of which can read Word files. Some people may remember that at one point the Israeli Government temporarily banned all Microsoft software over this issue. See http://apple-beta.slashdot.org/story/03/10/15/2215249/israeli-government-suspend s-microsoft-contracts This issue goes back over TEN years!!
I note that Microsoft has now taken their OfficeForMac blog offline, probably due to the weight of criticisms. I would not say it is due to out-right anti-Microsoft hate, that war ended long ago. We just want products that work. I myself do use Microsoft products, even at home - where they are the best solution, so I use Microsoft Media Center for example. Sadly this is now being neglected by Microsoft.

Help with OSX server mail setup

Please if anyone can tell me what I am doing wrong, I would be very grateful. I have a company with an externaly hosted website and an an internally hosted email (OSX server). I have everything kind of working, but some things don't seem quite right. I'll explain below:
I have a purchased domain: mycompany.com hosted by godaddy.
I am using Godaddy name servers: ns65.domaincontrol.com and ns66.domaincontrol.com
The external godaddy DNS has an a name entry for my mail server: mail pointing to 123.123.123.123 (which is my companies external static IP address).
There is also a null (@) a name record for my website hosting service (squarespace) pointing to 456.456.456.456
There is a cName record www pointing to the squarespace domain "www.squarespace6.com" (know this is unusual, but it is how squarespace asks this to be set up and does not work otherwise)
There is an MX record with priority 10 and host name @ pointing to mail.mycompany.com
I have a airport extreme router with the appropriate ports forwarded to the OSX server.
The DNS servers on the router are pointed to the internal IP address of the OSX server
I did not change the domain name on the router (mistake?) it is currently san.rr.com
On the OSX server I have set up host name to be mycompany.comDNS is set up with primary zone being mycompany.com
Primary Zone entries include
nameserver = mycompany.com
machine record host name is mycompany.com and the IP address is the internal IP address of the OSX server
another machine record with host name "mail" and IP address is the internal IP address of the OSX server.
Finally, there is a mail exchanger record with mail server "mail.mycompany.com" and priority 10
There are 2 entries autocreated in the Reverse zone
Mail is setup and running on the OSX server providing mail for "mail.mycompany.com"
Users are setup with email address: [email protected] (note: without the mail subdomain - I think this is OK?)
I am using self signed certificate.
In my clients (windows Thunderbird, Mac Mail, iOS mail), the settings are for the incoming mail server host name to be "mail.mycompany.com" and the outgoing also to be "mail.mycompany.com"
I woud have expected this to be imap.mycompany.com and smtp.mycompany.com respectively, but it doesn't work when I input these values and works with the former. Have I set this up wrong?? imap seems to require SSL on port 993 and SMTP seems to require TLS on port 587.Outlook on PC gives me an error that after googling appears to be a problem with not recognizing a fuly qualified hostname form the SMTP client. I see the fix, but wanted to know if that meant that my server didn't have a fully qualified host name and whether I should change that rather than just remove that restriction???
The final problem is that my outgoing emails seem to be getting caught up in other people's spam filters too frequently. What is the main reason for this? Is it because I have set something up wrong and it brings up flags or is it simply because I am not a huge hosting company, or somethign else althogether?
If you've gotten this far, big thanks! If you can help me, even more thanks!

Well, actually they are both getting caught up in spam filters and bounced back. I actually realized that part of the problem is that I have a dynamic IP address, but it doesn't change. Regardless, on the bounce back it looks like hotmail and other domains are rejecting email from my IP and recognize it as dynamic. This was a test server that i would by physically taking to my business where there is a static business IP address (Cox).
Sorry for the very long original message, but it seems that most people don't post enough information for the problem to be solved in their original posts and I was hoping to provide as much detail as possible.
The other is the question of "are things set up right?" It seems strange to me that both my outgoing and incoming servers are "mail.mycompany.com" and not imap.mycompany.com and smtp.mycompany.com and I wonder if this is going to cause me to have problems?
Is it a problem that my email addresses are [email protected] and not [email protected]?
Was I supposed to change the domain name on the router?
Also is it going to be a problem that I am using a self signed certificate?

Mail Setup at OSX Server issues

I have several devices (iPad, iPhone, Desktop and Laptop) that access my email accounts (Personal-POP and Business-IMAP accounts) without any issues.
I'd like to use my Mac Mini OSX Server as a main client to all these emails account and collect emails and distribute it at my local network.
Is it possible? I'd like to use all resources from my ISP that can handle with virus, security ... but at the same time I'd like to keep local at this OSX Server all messages that we usually send and receive when we are using local network at office. I read manual several times but is not clear for me if this feature is available.
All suggestions will be welcome.
Edison

OS X Server and most mail servers do not include the ability to collect mail from remote servers, though it is possible to build a somewhat precarious scheme based on forwarding messages from the remote servers involved. Google's mail service and its gmail client do have the ability to retrieve mail from other remote mail servers without resorting to forwarding mail around, but you'd need to integrate something like imapsync or fetchmail to perform this on OS X Server. (Related — my old replies to related questions here in the forums will often mention imapsync, as well.)
In general when running a mail server that's accessible to the Internet, you'll need DNS and also static (fixed) IP from your provider for OS X Server and this is the preferred and most reliable means, this if if you want to send outbound mail through the server, or you'll need to relay your inbound and outbound mail through one of the relay services providers. Static IP and proper DNS can also be a factor when receiving mail from some of the more cautious mail servers around. Failing to have IP and DNS correct mails mail sent from your server can be dropped, and sometimes mail sent to your server will be dropped before being passed to your server.
OS X Server does include some spam- and malware-related capabilities and various Postfix, Amavis, ClamAV and related pieces to keep a lid on most typical spam shenanigans, though you might want additional services or the replacement of the OS X Server mail server with the mail package from Kerio.

OSX Server on a Powerbook?

I have a very small-load server need: We are two designers who want to share a common project folder from remote sites. VPN would seem to be a good approach (more on that below), so I would like to see if I can set up a cheap OSX Server using an old 500Mhz G4 Powerbook. I would attach a FireWire 400 external disk that I already have, so the hardware cost is zero. $500 for the server, and I am there. But:
1) No PowerBooks are listed in the supported hardware requirements, although less-powerful boxes like a G3 tower are. I don't know if this is because it just didn't occur to Apple that anyone would want to use a PowerBook for this, or if there is some intrinsic hardware limitation (lack of 2 NICs? The iMac is listed, and I could probably add one on the CardBus slot anyway.)
Has anyone run OSX Server on a PowerBook, or know of any reason you definitely can't?
2) I have no experience managing servers of any kind, and no time to become very savvy, which is why I am looking at OSX. Hoping that if all I ever want is a simple file server with VPN, it won't become a second job for me and I can just let it run in a closet somewhere. Is this a fantasy?
3) I don't know if the PowerBook will prove to be just too slow for even our relatively low-load needs. It is somewhat pokey running Tiger as an accounting machine now, but acceptable (and I figure a fair amount of that load is Aqua, which shouldn't be giving it a workout when used as a server). Any thoughts?
4) Almost forgot - if there is another solution besides VPN that would require less work, it would be great. We are currently trying out FolderShare, which is kind of perfect (we each have local folders with all project files in them, and FolderShare keeps them synced between machines - like having two "masters") except for one thing - it is notoriously unreliable. Slow incremental changes seem to be working ok, but toss it a 2Gb folder with a few thousand files, and it just seems to lose track of what it is doing and quit syncing altogether, even through restarts.
VPN would allow us to maintain a master project folder on the server, then we would need to design some kind of checkout system, which I am not looking forward to finding, setting up, or administering, either.
Thanks in advance for any and all thoughts.
PowerBook G4 500Mhz/1Gb Mac OS X (10.4.6) Server newbie, long-time small office Mac/Win admin

Thanks for your helpful reply - I am going to take a look at Sharepoints and see if it might be the ticket. It looks promising.
In response to your other questions:
Network setup: We have two locations, one of which would be the host location. We each have simple wifi local networks each using a Qwest dsl router, with NAT, WPA Personal, MAC listing, and SSID turned off. That's about the depth of my network security ability. I hoped that Apple might have a clear walkthrough of how to set up Server for our needs. That was as much plan as I had.
The file sharing has to be as transparent as possible, so standard Finder/Open&Save dialog operations are necessary. That's what is great about FolderShare (despite its critical reliability flaw), and why an FTP solution won't work. We just have hundreds or thousands of file operations every day, and can't take time out to manage files through another app.
Thanks also for the heads-up on configuring the fireall to accept connections from only the standard remote site(s). It would be great to be able to access it from the road as well, but if there is no way to do that without creating a significant security risk, we can live without it. (Is there any way to do so?)
Cheers,
Allen

Small business network w/ or w/o OSX Server?

I have a small business with two employees and an intern computer station and we are badly in need of a better networking situation. Currently we have two ibooks that connected together in a LAN, and a powerbook at a remote location that is not part of the network. I need a way to connect all three computers together so we can share files efficiently and without the constant permissions problems that we are currently having with the two computers. In the current setup, one of the ibooks is the server/workstation 1, and the second ibook is workstation 2. Clearly I need to get a dedicated machine to function as a server, and I thought it would make sense to get OSX server.
However, when I went to the apple store to talk to a mac genius about it, the person I talked to told me that it didn't make sense to get OSX Server with my needs; I should just get a imac running Tiger (which is what all the workstations are running) and use it as a server by creating an admin account that the three users have access to. He also said that a mac mini wouldn't be fast enough for this purpose, I should get at least an iMac G5 or Intel iMac.
So here are my questions:
1) Will this work? If I create an admin account on a central server machine, can three users log onto it simultaneously to access documents? They won't need to run applications from the server, and the document types they will be running will be almost entirely Word, Excel, or Filemaker (nothing too intensive).
2) Will there be issues with multiple users opening documents at once?
3) How can remote logon work to this server? Unfortunately the network doesn't have a fixed IP adress.
4) What's the best solution for shared calendaring, preferably one that syncs to Palm devices?
5) Is a dual-core iMac the slowest machine that this setup should work on? Will it be fast enough?
Any ideas/advice would be greatly appreciated!

However, when I went to the apple store to talk to a
mac genius about it, the person I talked to told me
that it didn't make sense to get OSX Server with my
needs; I should just get a imac running Tiger (which
is what all the workstations are running) and use it
as a server by creating an admin account that the
three users have access to. He also said that a mac
mini wouldn't be fast enough for this purpose, I
should get at least an iMac G5 or Intel iMac.
So here are my questions:
1) Will this work? If I create an admin account on a
central server machine, can three users log onto it
simultaneously to access documents?
yes they can however to avoid the permission issues you would be best using a piece of shareware called Sharepoints in order to create shared folders or volumes in the same way OSX server does.
They won't need
to run applications from the server, and the document
types they will be running will be almost entirely
Word, Excel, or Filemaker (nothing too intensive).
2) Will there be issues with multiple users opening
documents at once?
there may be issues if 2 users opened the same document at once if they both need to write changes to the document. If 2 users opened the same document just to read it that would be no problem.
In my experience opening a shared spreadsheet will be locked as read only if another user is already editing it.
3) How can remote logon work to this server?
Remote login is done using a protocal called SSH. To learn how to setup SSH you can use this howto. You would need to configure the server with a fixed IP and do port forwarding from your router to that mac.
Unfortunately the network doesn't have a fixed IP
adress.
You can use a dynamic domain name check out dyndns.org.
) What's the best solution for shared calendaring,
preferably one that syncs to Palm devices?
Not sure I have never used a share calander.
5) Is a dual-core iMac the slowest machine that this
setup should work on? Will it be fast enough?
I used a 450mhz cube for 5 years as my file server, mail server, web server etc it is now all running on a 1.2 ghz g4 mac mini.
I use the mini without a monitor. I log in via ssh and run a VNC client over the ssh tunnel.

Moving a Time Machine backup from a directly connected external disk to that disk on OSX Server

I have an iMac that has been using an external drive for Time Machine (TM) backups since 2013, so there is a lot of history in the backups. I now have a Mac Mini running OS X Server, and would like to transfer the drive to the Mac Mini, but continue to use the drive as the backup disk, that is, doing TM backups via the TM service on the server. However, if I simply stop TM on the iMac, disconnect the drive, connect it to the Mac Mini, tell OS X Server to use the drive as a backup disk, and tell TM on the iMac to use the Server TM service, it seems that a new backup file is started, rather than continuing to use the old one (symptom: when I enter TM on the iMac, I don't see any of the previous incremental backups).
Is there a way to persuade OSX server to continue to use the old backup file, rather than start anew, losing my history?
Both the Mac Mini and the iMac are running Mavericks and the Mac mini is running the latest version of OSX Server.
thanks

What you are attempting is complex, and I am not certain whether it would be successful. I recommend you buy a new drive and start a new backup today, and set the old drive aside.
I have a somewhat different view of the benefits of what you are calling "History". I think that History just adds complexity to the Backup structure that makes it LESS likely you will be able to do a Restore. And Backups are only as good as their ability to do a proper Restore.
Copies of the currently-present files is all that Time Machine promises to keep -- older files that have been removed from the current source are not necessarily maintained on the Backup. In my opinion, a fresh, clean Backup from today is more likely to be able to Restore the things you need most -- without any error messages.
The most requested Restores are things Users broke or discarded today or yesterday, and those will be readily available tomorrow and going forward. In the event you need some really old copies of something, you can try to get them off the old Backup drive you set aside today.

OSX Server without gui

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