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NAS with Mac OS Server

A

AlexEng

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 18, 2013
7
0
I will soon be adding a Mac Mini Sever to my house (I'll probably wait for the updates though).

I have a question on how I should be setting up storage for each user.

Currently we don't have a server, but we do have a synology NAS. My girlfriend and I each have our own laptops (both Macs) that we do not share. One user per computer. Upon login, the mac automatically connects to the NAS and mounts it and that's where everything is saved. Each user has their own "drive" or partition on the NAS.

Anyways, we will soon be adding a Mac Mini Server and an iMac to the household.

I am wondering how I should set up the storage for each user. I.e: Should I:
1. Use a similar situation that I currently do, where each user automatically connects to their NAS drive upon login OR
2. Connect the NAS directly to the Mac Mini Sever, and let it control the user drives. This way the Sever would act as the file server, and use the NAS as the storage.

Which would be better?

Side note: I will not be buying the "Mac Mini Server" - but a maxed out Mac Mini then install Mac Server on it. Because I have the NAS as storage the 2 TB of storage in the "Server" model won't be used. So I am better off getting a maxed out standard unit with flash storage.
 
Last edited:
phrehdd

phrehdd

macrumors 601
Oct 25, 2008
4,311
1,311
AlexEng said:
I will soon be adding a Mac Mini Sever to my house (I'll probably wait for the updates though).

I have a question on how I should be setting up storage for each user.

Currently we don't have a server, but we do have a synology NAS. My girlfriend and I each have our own laptops (both Macs) that we do not share. One user per computer. Upon login, the mac automatically connects to the NAS and mounts it and that's where everything is saved. Each user has their own "drive" or partition on the NAS.

Anyways, we will soon be adding a Mac Mini Server and an iMac to the household.

I am wondering how I should set up the storage for each user. I.e: Should I:
1. Use a similar situation that I currently do, where each user automatically connects to their NAS drive upon login OR
2. Connect the NAS directly to the Mac Mini Sever, and let it control the user drives. This way the Sever would act as the file server, and use the NAS as the storage.

Which would be better?

Side note: I will not be buying the "Mac Mini Server" - but a maxed out Mac Mini then install Mac Server on it. Because I have the NAS as storage the 2 TB of storage in the "Server" model won't be used. So I am better off getting a maxed out standard unit with flash storage.
Click to expand...

I am unsure why you need a "server" in your mix. Seems that you can just continue the path you are going where you use the NAS for storage for each user (you and your girl friend).

To exploit the server, either all your devices log into the server which talks to the NAS or the server simply creates the shares on the NAS and you directly access the NAS. Neither of these scenarios has any advantage to what you have now.

A server can be an access path to the internet where you put some security in the server so before anything gets to your devices, the server hopefully does its job. The Mac Server is not particularly worthy of such a job and getting a Firewall type device would better serve you in that capacity.

Hopefully this helps a bit (sorry I am very tired and if the above is unclear, feel free to PM me).
 
talmy

talmy

macrumors 601
Oct 26, 2009
4,726
332
Oregon
I agree that adding a server to the mix doesn't make sense, and I've been using one for over 3 years! If you are happy with the NAS, just buy that iMac and have it access the NAS directly.

If you really want a server (and there are lots of things a server can do that a NAS cannot), sell the NAS and just attach external drives to the server. For file sharing, use it like your current NAS. It will most likely perform faster.

There would be, in this case, no reason not to use the internal drives in the server Mac mini. However the Mac mini Server is a bad buy, giving you only the $20 server app and an additional 1TB drive for the additional $200. CPU performance is not going to be an issue, so the base mini, or even a used mini, is the best way to go here.
 
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