Help me set up G5 Xserve...

[bluemonkey]

My company just bought a G5 Xserve, and I would like your input as to how best to set everything up. Aside from an old Mac used as an FTP server, we have never had anything like this. My boss has delegated the assigning of folder and users and what not to me, and I would like the expert opinions of various Mac Rumors members. First, a little info about what it'll be used for...

I work for a small printing company that also offers high volume copies. We have 9 employees total, and handle everything from walk in customers wanting 50 copies to large companies needing to change their identity. I am the only designer and there are various production personnel downstairs, as well as two owners and two sales reps. I was thinking it would be nice to keep all the commercial data on the server, along with clip art libraries, and possibly a collection of archived files that currently occupy about 25 CD's and 10 DVD's. The end goal is for the people downstairs to bee able to retrieve siple files without bothering me if it's not necessary (i.e. a PDF file of a reorder job with no changes), thus streamlining our work flow.

I would like to hear from those of you who actually use a server, and are very comfortable with it. I know that if we spend a lot of time setting this up just right, it wll prevent endless headaches later. I would like to know some of the problems you faced setting yours up, and what I should watch out for.

Also, if you need to know anything else about our work flow or anything like that, I'll gladly tell you.

Thanks a lot,
Jason
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[dudeami]

If your company has tasked you with the administration of this server, I do not think it that it would be unreasonable to request some appropriate training. You may have to troubleshoot your server in the future, and it would be better for you to have a good working knowledge of the software, rather then relying on forums. This probably isn't what you wanted to hear, but I would recommend that you ramp up your skills on OS X server. This might be a good way to start.

http://train.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Registration.woa/wa/displayCourse?courseID=ewoJInByaW1hcnlLZXkiID0gewoJCSJjb3Vyc2VJRCIgPSAiMjE4NzciOwoJfTsKCSJlbnRpdHlOY W1lIiA9ICJBSVNUQ291cnNlIjsKfQ%3d%3d

Also remember, if you are an administrator, good backups can save your job. Backing up to tape, and at least locking those tapes in a media fireproof safe is a good first step to a backup solution. Including daily, weekly and monthly tape rotations and off site storage of weekly and/or monthly tapes is a more advanced solution. When pricing a good backup solution, ask how valuable the data is to your company. The cost of a good backup solution is usually small when compared to the cost of recreating your data from scratch.

This would be a good option for your backups.

http://www.dantz.com/en/products/macbusiness.dtml

[bluemonkey]

dudeami,

Thanks for your reply, but I don't believe I'll be administering our new server. My boss just wanted my input as to how we should tell our IT guy to set things up, since I work here and he doesn't. Also, we have ordered a new tape drive (bought previous tape drive in 1992), and we bought two hot swappable hard drives for the Xserve. We will keep some stuff here in a fireproof safe, and other things in a safe deposit box offsite.

I guess I just wanted some general information about how to organize the data, as well as some "whatever you do, don't do..." type of advice.

Thanks,
Jason
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