If I build out a Mac OSX Server install on a Mac Mini and then when it's ready for production I image the disks to an XServe, is there any reason the resulting system won't just work? Assuming I'm able to keep the same IP address are there any other issues I should be aware of? I'll be running minimal services, just AFP, SMB and Open Directory.
TMI: My Intel XServe is full of cruft. Was originally a G4 XServe running 10.3, upgraded to 10.4 then migrated to 10.5 on the Intel XServe. I'd like a clean start, but can't spare the XServe downtime while I build out the install, can I just use a Mac Mini for dev and then switch to the XServe for production.
If you can use MacOS X Server 10.6, you could use the Server Migration wizard and have a clean migration over to the Intel XServe
http://images.apple.com/server/macosx/docs/Upgrading_and_Migrating_v10.6.pdf
I can't think of a reason this shouldn't work.
The only thing I know of to watch out for is the difference in network interfaces. Since en1 will be a wireless interface on the Mini, it'll be configured as such the first time you boot the Mini. If you then boot the same volume (or a clone) on an XServe, and en1 is suddenly the second physical ethernet, it can have trouble reconfiguring to match the new reality. I haven't tried this in quite a while, so I'm not sure how well Snow Leopard copes, but IIRC you used to have to blow away /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInterfaces.plist to get it to work right. Or that may completely destroy the network setup, I haven't tried in a long time...
Do you have a Mac Pro to build the new server config on? Since those also have two (physical) ethernet ports, it'd avoid this issue entirely.
Actually I believe you need to set up LOM because only XServe has (had) a proper hardware. Server monitor will IMHO refuse to work without proper LOM settings
It might not work if your serial number is hardware specific but besides that I can't think of anything. It should just recognize the new hardware.