Use MacMini Server for multi-hosting purposes?

Might I suggest that you do some basic research ?

Try reading up about the products that you're using to avoid having to learn how to do basic web server administration.

http://www.cpanel.net/
http://www.parallels.com/uk/products/plesk/

And then have a read of The Apache documentation.

And then ask yourself why a/ you want to use a Mac and b/ do you want to administer servers, or just use cpanel/plesk...

Correction

Hey djrod,

I really don't mean to be rude, but you're signature says to correct you if you use improper English, so I just thought I'd let you know of an error I saw.

In the title of your post, you used "porpoises" when you should have used "purposes". A porpoise is a type of animal that lives in the ocean, and sometimes in fresh water, I believe. You can read more about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porpoise

Again, I'm not intending to be rude, but just to help you out. Take care! Good luck with the web hosting!

steiney

assembled said:

Might I suggest that you do some basic research ?

...

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Agree with all of the above. Running your own server is just asking for trouble.

djrod said:

Hi, I'm a web designer and I have rented a shared server running linux with Cpanel, I'm wondering if I can do the same by myself with OS X server, in my current server I host all my customers websites, is there something like WHM / cpanel / Directadmin / Plesk, etc. on the Mac?

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-yes
-yes, OSXS comes with it's own tools, also, most of the tools you mentioned will work on a mac

However.... you will not save money. You will not save time. Your head will hurt. You might cause downtime.

My advice; Get a mac mini server as cheaply as you can find it. Use it at home for side project, not anything making you any money. In 3-6 months after you get used to it you can think about moving your buisness to OSXS.

Should I or should I not

djrod said:

Hi, I'm a web designer and I have rented a shared server running linux with Cpanel, I'm wondering if I can do the same by myself with OS X server, in my current server I host all my customers websites, is there something like WHM / cpanel / Directadmin / Plesk, etc. on the Mac?

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If all you are wanting to do is make some extra money for the bussiness then sign up for a gator host reseller account. I have done this for about 2 years. It costs $20 or so a month and you can resell the accounts to your clients for whatever they will allow. This allows you to maintain control but get someone else to do the work if something goes really wrong or if the server needs maintenance.

If however you are wanting more control then a mac mini server is an excellent way to go. You will want to co-locate it somewhere which will certainly cost more (figure at least $50 per month). But once the server is set up it will make deployment easier. Plus you can use additional tools that may not be supported by a general use hosting company.

I have been using a couple of Mac Minis for awhile now and love them. They are fast, easy to administer (or easier than most *nix servers), and not expensive in comparison. But it definitely requires additional work that reselling does not.

Go for it

Djrod,

I worked as a Mac webmaster for more than 10 years, and I started just like you. As they say above, you can expect a lot of pain, sweat and trouble if you go for your own server.

But the freedom you gain in return is just fantastic, as well as your understanding of all the challenges. You'll find all the tools you need to run a Mac server. Later you can add several servers and in a few years you'll be glad you made the decision.

But as the others say, go carefully and don't rush to implement things you haven't tested in and out. Always have an exact copy of the production server at home, that way you can try everything on your own development server before you go live. And if things go wrong (which will happen more than you'd like), you can test different fixes at home instead of experimenting wild with your customers' sites and turn everything upside down!!

You can get a Mac Mini Server and easily manage multiple websites on a single box. Its super efficient and works well. You can easily have multiple IP's, SSL certs, etc.

But if you want to give out user access to complex control panels you may want to think about loading CentOS5 and cPanel on a mac mini. The purpose of that is owning your equipment, loading the configuration the way you want, and keeping the amount of sites per machine down to a nice ratio. Then you can also do things like ksplice to keep the reboots down to a minimum.

BobbyCat said:

Always have an exact copy of the production server at home, that way you can try everything on your own development server before you go live.

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That's related to the big question I would ask about this. Where does this server "live". If you are planning to stick your production server in your house, please stop and reconsider. That is unless your clients are not businesses and don't expect business level SLAs.

These guys http://www.macminicolo.net/ specialize in Mac mini servers. By colocating your server with them (or even your ISP) you reduce latency, take advantage of better power filtering/redundancy, etc... etc....

B

balamw said:

These guys http://www.macminicolo.net/ specialize in Mac mini servers. By colocating your server with them (or even your ISP) you reduce latency, take advantage of better power filtering/redundancy, etc... etc....

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Another Mac Mini specialist would be these guys:

http://macminivault.net

There are options out there.