Mac Server Here we go!

D

dashpuppy

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
May 5, 2010
Messages
6,163
Well, i have decided to DITCH my windows 2003 home server, and buy a mac mini server. its 1000$ and it has the os and the hardware all together.

Few reasons why i piced the mac mini server :

SMALL! SMALLLL!!!!!!!
Low power consumption,
SPACE!
HEAT!
I think i said small ?

What my server is going to be doing :
ARD
AFP
HTTP ( few internal sites )
ical
storage for my quickbooks accounting software & email.

The server won't be a email server, instead i will be installing entourage email client and it will pick up all my email from all 3 domains that i deal with.

The server will also share my folders for my data :
Photos
Music ( itunes )
pdf's doc files etc etc
Invoices

My boss said that my new sonic wall will be here this week some time, so i will be using that for my firewall & av gateway solutions etc etc.

I should be able to afford my server & Lacie 2 tb drive soon for my file storage, ( unless i find something different ) I have a 1tb drive for now that i will use timemachine software built into the server for backups.

I will have a VPN connection for me to ARD into, however i have to research that more too, because i want to be able to connect to it from a IPAD if i get one.

Now the one down fall to this choice is, i can't just ARD/RDp into it like i can when im on the road from anyones computer :( with rdp i can just connect to it from any windows box if i had a windows 2003 server.

Stuff i will have to figure out soon.

Thoughts and solutions are always welcome :)

J'
 
i thought that was one place apple still wasnt shining, was it's server OS?

has it changed alot from years back?

also dont lacie drives tend to be overpriced vs getting your own external enclosure and buy your own drive for it?
 
MrGuvernment said:
i thought that was one place apple still wasnt shining, was it's server OS?

has it changed alot from years back?

also dont lacie drives tend to be overpriced vs getting your own external enclosure and buy your own drive for it?
Click to expand...

I might do that also, it's cheaper :) i really want NAS drives and about 4-5 of them all with 500gig drives in them. ( i have my reasons for this )
 
Here is the network drawn out.


Screen%20shot%202010-07-04%20at%205.32.15%20PM.png


I'm still researching my NAS drives. and remote issue from where every i am etc etc.
 
I am not understanding the need for the mac server, imo, there is zero value to be had with a mac server over a windows server. There is a lot more that can be done for a lot less on a non-mac platform.
 
sc0tty8 said:
I am not understanding the need for the mac server, imo, there is zero value to be had with a mac server over a windows server. There is a lot more that can be done for a lot less on a non-mac platform.
Click to expand...

I don't want to have all my valuable data from my business on my laptop, however i want to be able to access it from anywhere, ie create invoices, quotes etc etc.

The mini server will also be used for my house for the apple tv, thus one reason for a 500gig or 1tb drive :)
 
sc0tty8 said:
I am not understanding the need for the mac server, imo, there is zero value to be had with a mac server over a windows server. There is a lot more that can be done for a lot less on a non-mac platform.
Click to expand...

Maybe he wants a Mac. I just bought one of the new Mini Servers for a HTPC.
 
NetJunkie said:
Maybe he wants a Mac. I just bought one of the new Mini Servers for a HTPC.
Click to expand...

I have a mac, i have 2 macbook's one pro one non. I used to have a g4 400mhz mac server running 10.5 server ( or 10.4) it ran flawless and ran fine for years, but i donated the box to a elderly lady who's g3 died and well, i really didn't need the g4 server.

Now i miss my apple server, so i will soon implement one again :)

J'
 
Man DP, you're a machine. Have you slept at all the last 2 weeks?! lol.

Why can't you use Apple Remote Desktop.

There are plenty of remote alternatives though like VNC.

Shane
 
Hallis said:
Man DP, you're a machine. Have you slept at all the last 2 weeks?! lol.

Why can't you use Apple Remote Desktop.

There are plenty of remote alternatives though like VNC.

Shane
Click to expand...

I can use ARD, however remoting from a pc to the mac is the problem :) and not many customers are going to allow me to install VNC on their computer so i can see mine :)

J'
 
dashpuppy said:
quickbook run on linux ?
Click to expand...

It does on windows.

You could try wine under linux and see if it works.

I still say get a server that can virualize with. Install esxi. Install whatever servers on that, win2k3, win2k8r2, windows 7, and I think there are a few osx/leopard vm's floating around out there.

You Canadians are funny, beady eyes, floppy heads, and pro mac attitude!

Guess who hates macs?:)
 
sc0tty8 said:
It does on windows.

You could try wine under linux and see if it works.

I still say get a server that can virualize with. Install esxi. Install whatever servers on that, win2k3, win2k8r2, windows 7, and I think there are a few osx/leopard vm's floating around out there.

You Canadians are funny, beady eyes, floppy heads, and pro mac attitude!

Guess who hates macs?:)
Click to expand...

you hate macs :)

Maybe in a few years ill do what you suggest, then ill have the time patience, and space for a loud noisy server that can do all that. FOr now i'll grab a mac mini :)
 
Unfortunately there arent many alternatives that you can use without installing something. Especially if you need access to the GUI. Now if you just need access to the command line well that's a horse of a different color. Telnet baby!!!!

Shane
 
Hallis said:
Unfortunately there arent many alternatives that you can use without installing something. Especially if you need access to the GUI. Now if you just need access to the command line well that's a horse of a different color. Telnet baby!!!!

Shane
Click to expand...

SSH! :)

Unfortunately, i'll need a gui, wonder if there is something out there yet that works on the ipad and will allow me to ARD into the mac server.

J'
 
dashpuppy said:
you hate macs :)

Maybe in a few years ill do what you suggest, then ill have the time patience, and space for a loud noisy server that can do all that. FOr now i'll grab a mac mini :)
Click to expand...

My server is quiet.

It is a dell sc440 with a core 2 e6600, 6 gigs of ram, 1.2tb raid 0 array and 3 disks attached for a total of 2.2tb of storage, dual port intel nic trunked to my switch.

Runs esxi with 6 vm's running.
 
I have a friend that is actually writing such an app for the ipad. It's a long process though.

There is a VNC for iPhone/iPad i believe.
 
Hallis said:
I have a friend that is actually writing such an app for the ipad. It's a long process though.

There is a VNC for iPhone/iPad i believe.
Click to expand...

There are a few vnc clients for the iphone, along with a few rdp clients as well.
 
Few reasons why i piced the mac mini server :

SMALL! SMALLLL!!!!!!!
Low power consumption,
SPACE!
HEAT!
I think i said small ?
Click to expand...

With all those NAS drives you are not saving much in power, heat, or space. Just get a small PC case and be done with it IMO.
 
What are your objectives?

You are all over the map on what you want. In other threads you mention you want to learn and play around with stuff.

What do you want?
What is your budget?
What are your needs for storage?

server does not = loud or power hungry or huge unless that is what your goal is.

For what you are wanting to do a decent core 2 duo or a celeron/core i3 would get the job done. Dell offers a few tower servers that meet the above that are fairly affordable. Since this is going to be used at home and not have a ton of traffic, you can go w/o raid and use sata, add a few large disks, and be done.

Get a technet account and install win2k8r2 on the server. Install the hyper-v role, use a disk for your vm's, and use the rest for storage. Decent setup to start with and has a path for upgradeability. Dell t100 or t110 would be a good option. I have a t100 in my office, along with a vostro 400 desktop, and I don't hear either one. Set the bios to use the advanced power features of your cpu(speed step) and it will be quiet and won't generate a ton of heat.

Mac mini server=$700 USD, core 2 dou, 2gb ram, no upgrade path.

Then, you want to add a 4bay box, some decent drives, etc. This adds more clutter, heat, cords, etc.

Dell T110, 4gb ram, 250gig hard drive, and xeon X3430=478 before tax/shipping USD

$70 USD for a 1tb drive, depending on speed/brand, should be able to a total of 4 drives in it with the default config(may want to double check this)
$110+ USD for 2tb drives

Install the OS on the 250 gig drive, get 1 drive that is quicker for your VM's, 7200rpm 640gig should be decent to start with. Pop in 2x 1.5-2tb drives. Setup shares on your large drives. Install whatever OS as a terminal server to setup your email client/accounting/productivity software in, and bam, done.

Buy TechNet for $200 to have software to test and learn with.

So you're talking a ballpark of $1100 to get you:
Dell T110, 4gb ram, 250gig os drive, xeon x3430, a 640gig wd black for vm's, and 2x 1.5tb drives for storage, TechNet to get your hands on software to test/learn with, and a server that is going to have an upgrade path for time to come.

Not a bad little setup to use and to learn on, and everything is inside of 1 box so you don't have stuff scattered everywhere, you don't need multiple power bars with multiple cords running all over.

If you need more disks yet, add a sata back plane to it.
 
^^ seems like a much better option, since all those add-on drives and such make the point of getting the mini , pointless...
 
MrGuvernment said:
^^ seems like a much better option, since all those add-on drives and such make the point of getting the mini , pointless...
Click to expand...

was going to grab a drobo, its small and would be perfect for the allotted space that i have.!

we will soon see tho..
 
I looked into Drobos when i was getting ready to set my NAS up. Neat little things but I wanted a little more from my storage, If i were going to be awesome id build something with a built in e-SATA solution, or iSCSI,, mmmm SAN's.. *drool*

*snaps back to reality* ehem,, ok where was I?

Oh yah, Ive seen a LOT of used Drobos on ebay. I'm just not convinced that they are that great. Yet
 
sc0tty8,

How do you run 4 Vm servers on one box, and manage the ip traffic to each one ? Do you have to have a network card per vm ?

Been thinking about, if i bought the quad core zeon server with 8 gigs of ram and a pair of raided 1tb drives. Just wondering how this works if i did it.

J'
 
I hope you wiped that Mac Mini Server and RAIDed the HDDs. It comes from the factory with NO RAID1 config, just two drives hanging out there....

On another note, just wow...
 
Nasty_Savage said:
I have a Tiger server that has served me quite well, there are a number of features in the new OS Snow Leopard Server that are a hell of alot fun to play with. But my suggestion to you is look at one of these instead:

http://www.qnap.com/

I have this one and its quite awesome:

http://www.qnap.com/pro_detail_feature.asp?p_id=127
Click to expand...

Yes yes, i have looked at those :) I also have a legit copy of 10.6 and 10.5 a friend is going to give me his mac mini g4 1.5 for now to play with. See what i like about it and stuff.

Jase
 
dashpuppy said:
I have a mac, i have 2 macbook's one pro one non. I used to have a g4 400mhz mac server running 10.5 server ( or 10.4) it ran flawless and ran fine for years, but i donated the box to a elderly lady who's g3 died and well, i really didn't need the g4 server.

Now i miss my apple server, so i will soon implement one again :)

J'
Click to expand...

I just put a few shotgun slugs into a 450 blue and white g3 that had been running 10.3 server. Thing has been collecting dust for a while. We were out destroying hard drives and figured what the hell.

Anyway for the price of the 2 mini's I'd prob pick up the server one as well. If you want faster storage or a lot of storage(more then the internal support) then I'd look at something else though.

dashpuppy said:
quickbook run on linux ?
Click to expand...

The database server does. At least the enterprise one does. I've never tried it though.

MrGuvernment said:
^^ seems like a much better option, since all those add-on drives and such make the point of getting the mini , pointless...
Click to expand...

Yea pretty much.

Anyway I can't speak for the latest version of mac server although I've worked with some of the older ones. They seem to work fine although they really can't compair with windows server working with windows clients. Active directory just works better then pretty much anything else out there. Exchange is still a lot better then the open source options and mac os doesn't even use any one of the better options.
 
dashpuppy said:
sc0tty8,

How do you run 4 Vm servers on one box, and manage the ip traffic to each one ? Do you have to have a network card per vm ?

Been thinking about, if i bought the quad core zeon server with 8 gigs of ram and a pair of raided 1tb drives. Just wondering how this works if i did it.

J'
Click to expand...


What do you mean?

1 nic on my sc440 is for the modem. I believe this one is passed right to untangle, or on a virtual switch. Don't remember.

Then, there is a virtual network where all the VM's are connected to, and these are setup on the trunked connection to the switch. Necessary ports are forwarded to the required guests on the server.

Also, if you are going to raid your drives for your VM's to rest, you don't need huge disks, mainly quick. Then you just map what you need for large storage over the network, or, create another drive on a slower disk for storage, or, give the VM a full disk. There are a lot of options you can do. At work the mail/file server holds everyone's documents, their document folder is mapped to a folder on the mail/file server and permissions are set so only that user can access their files. Also disabled roaming profiles, some users have no shit, 25gigs of just docs.
 
sc0tty8 said:
What do you mean?

1 nic on my sc440 is for the modem. I believe this one is passed right to untangle, or on a virtual switch. Don't remember.

Then, there is a virtual network where all the VM's are connected to, and these are setup on the trunked connection to the switch. Necessary ports are forwarded to the required guests on the server.

Also, if you are going to raid your drives for your VM's to rest, you don't need huge disks, mainly quick. Then you just map what you need for large storage over the network, or, create another drive on a slower disk for storage, or, give the VM a full disk. There are a lot of options you can do. At work the mail/file server holds everyone's documents, their document folder is mapped to a folder on the mail/file server and permissions are set so only that user can access their files. Also disabled roaming profiles, some users have no shit, 25gigs of just docs.
Click to expand...

My question might have been typed wrong. Picture it like this.

You have one computer with one network card, and running windows 2008 server with say 5 vm's a few xp vm's a few windows 2000 etc etc. all running in vm on the 2008 server.

NOW, how does each vm get a ip address from one network card through the main server with out bottel necking it ?
 
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