Keys Corner

I picked up a new copy of OS X 10.6 Server on EBay for 177 Euro (instead of the 499 Euro it costs if you buy it new from Apple) and have installed it on my 2006 Intel Mac mini. I had one issue at the start of the installation, whose solution is not obvious.

I started a headless installation from a second Mac. To do this, install the Server Admin application from the Admin Tools disk on the Mac you will be using to control the server from, and insert the OS X Server disk in the DVD drive of the server-to-be. The Server Admin tool will find your other Mac and ask for a serial number. Apple’s documentation says to enter the first eight characters of the server hardware serial number, which on an Apple X-Serve is on a label on the server body.

In the case of the Mac mini, there is no label, but if you can display the serial number using the “About This Mac/More Info” menu point under the Apple logo in the main menu. See the screen shot below.

However entering the first 8 characters just produces an error message saying the the serial number is invalid. In cases where there is no hardware serial number, you are supposed to be able to enter “12345678″, but this also produces the same error message.

I eventually hit on the idea of entering the complete serial number, which in my case was 11 characters long, and bingo! The installation started correctly. After the initial installation is completed, you can remotely access the server via the Server Admin tool using the first eight characters of the server’s serial number