The office iMac -- which we'd been using as our intranet web interface for years and years -- is on its last legs, and we've finally been able to convince the boss of this. The CRT is messed up; it's turned greenish, for one, and when you start it up, parts of the screen get all jittery and don't calm down for a good 30 minutes or so. Oh, and the clock appears to be shot. It's always December 31, 1969 now.
So clearly, we need something new, or in other words, I need something to recommend to el jefe. The thing started out as a simple FTP server but over the last year has evolved into our company's "data center". Lately we've been forwarding most http requests to another Mac in the office, a 450MHz G4 PowerMac, which is a capable machine but also happens to double as somebody's workstation. If we were just replicating this setup I'd tell 'em to get any old thing, but I want a real, dedicated server this time, particularly since there doesn't seem to be any end to the new demands we keep piling on it. Whatever we get will be running the following:
Apache (mod_cgi, mod_perl), FTP, postgresql database server, Portfolio NetPublish server, Tomcat, Retrospect. And, it has to be a Mac.
The number of users we have is relatively small (maybe 10 people), but will be growing; it may eventually be used company-wide, which would mean several dozen. Our current server is used for intranet database applications and for both network and internet file storage and transfers (these tend to be files in the range of 1 to 50 MB); also backups. In the future, I'd like to implement an automatic archiving system for both internet and intranet users. This would require significantly greater storage space than our current setup (a few TB would probably suffice), and would involve larger and more frequent file transfers.
Now, it seems apparent to me, just based on the fact that all of this stuff already runs adequately (if a tad sluggishly) on a very old G4, that we don't need some top of the line product. One of my coworkers is pushing for an XServe, but really, isn't that a bit of overkill for our setup? Would OS X server be helpful to me or are its added features intended for more complicated, demanding data centers? Then again, would an xserve and os x server have definite advantages? I'd like some input mainly because ours is the only Mac office I've ever worked in, so I have no points of reference, or anyone's expertise or experience to call upon. I mean, I'd just as soon get an eMac and a few of those LaCie drives and be done with it, but maybe in so doing I'd be limiting myself in some way that's not apparent right now...? Or maybe I'm just being led astray by all the marketing
Your thoughts are appreciated.
So clearly, we need something new, or in other words, I need something to recommend to el jefe. The thing started out as a simple FTP server but over the last year has evolved into our company's "data center". Lately we've been forwarding most http requests to another Mac in the office, a 450MHz G4 PowerMac, which is a capable machine but also happens to double as somebody's workstation. If we were just replicating this setup I'd tell 'em to get any old thing, but I want a real, dedicated server this time, particularly since there doesn't seem to be any end to the new demands we keep piling on it. Whatever we get will be running the following:
Apache (mod_cgi, mod_perl), FTP, postgresql database server, Portfolio NetPublish server, Tomcat, Retrospect. And, it has to be a Mac.
The number of users we have is relatively small (maybe 10 people), but will be growing; it may eventually be used company-wide, which would mean several dozen. Our current server is used for intranet database applications and for both network and internet file storage and transfers (these tend to be files in the range of 1 to 50 MB); also backups. In the future, I'd like to implement an automatic archiving system for both internet and intranet users. This would require significantly greater storage space than our current setup (a few TB would probably suffice), and would involve larger and more frequent file transfers.
Now, it seems apparent to me, just based on the fact that all of this stuff already runs adequately (if a tad sluggishly) on a very old G4, that we don't need some top of the line product. One of my coworkers is pushing for an XServe, but really, isn't that a bit of overkill for our setup? Would OS X server be helpful to me or are its added features intended for more complicated, demanding data centers? Then again, would an xserve and os x server have definite advantages? I'd like some input mainly because ours is the only Mac office I've ever worked in, so I have no points of reference, or anyone's expertise or experience to call upon. I mean, I'd just as soon get an eMac and a few of those LaCie drives and be done with it, but maybe in so doing I'd be limiting myself in some way that's not apparent right now...? Or maybe I'm just being led astray by all the marketing
Your thoughts are appreciated.
