Server novice

[ajameson]

I'm getting grief from someone in the office who used to work for a large corporate and is used to working from / with a server. We're a small business with 4 macs and a PC and i thought that maybe we should investigate this a bit further. I think i know what the benefits are but maybe you guys could iron out some of the fogginess ... some questions

Do i need to run server software? Or could we just network to a machine that was nominated as the server?
Do i need an X-serve or could i use an existing mac (we have a spare DP 867 with 480GB of internal staorage that we could use)

Would we log into this machine and run the files there or do they run on each desktop?

What would be the best way to back up this central filestore?
What is RAID (i know what it stands for but not much else) and do we need it?

Could we run our website from the machine?

Any thoughts & suggestions ... we don't really need to do anything super sophisticated but would like to avoid duplication of the same files (3 or 4 times often!) and work towards better back up procedure

Thanks

Andy

 

[MisterMe]

Re: Server novice

Originally posted by ajameson
I'm getting grief from someone in the office who used to work for a large corporate and is used to working from / with a server. We're a small business with 4 macs and a PC and i thought that maybe we should investigate this a bit further. I think i know what the benefits are but maybe you guys could iron out some of the fogginess ... some questions

Do i need to run server software? Or could we just network to a machine that was nominated as the server?
Do i need an X-serve or could i use an existing mac (we have a spare DP 867 with 480GB of internal staorage that we could use)

Would we log into this machine and run the files there or do they run on each desktop?

What would be the best way to back up this central filestore?
What is RAID (i know what it stands for but not much else) and do we need it?

Could we run our website from the machine?

Any thoughts & suggestions ... we don't really need to do anything super sophisticated but would like to avoid duplication of the same files (3 or 4 times often!) and work towards better back up procedure

Thanks

Andy

A business does not run servers just to run servers. A business runs servers as central repositories for its data and applications. In your environment, server-stored applications are run on local machines where your data is used. With your office having only four computers, buying a new dedicated server will increase your hardware costs by at least 25%. Quite frankly, it is probably an unnecessary expense. Your office can get the same benefit from your existing hardware. I presume that your computers are already networked. You can set up shared folders (or directories) on each worker's computer or on just one. Give each worker access to the shared data he/she needs.

 

[5300cs]

If you have a spare G4 desktop as you say, go with that. I have an Xserve because I was lucky to get a really good deal on one, but without a rack enclosure or a separate room, it's going to be REALLY noisy. Mine is The Xserve RAID machines are VERY expensive, too.
The G4 desktop should be OK.

 

[Rower_CPU]

Depending on the services that are needed, an OS X client could serve you just fine (pun intended).

For small web and file sharing needs, OS X client is good enough.