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Apple Updates Mac Mini and Adds Server Option

MacDSmith2 said:
I would be interested in knowing how you set up the Server so that your outside internet connections "see" your web page, but are isolated from your internal network attached to your router/cable modem where your Server and HDD drives are.
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I'm only exposing port 80 (http). That's a basic 'check the box' field. My Mini Server will be hosted at a colocation facility, but if you had a home cable modem and router, you would only allow port 80 and send it to the Mac Mini's IP address.

This is all do-able with a traditional Mac Mini, and MAMP or MAMP Pro.
 
What is the best way to run a home server for all the Macs in a house including having access to itunes for different macs, photos, calendars. Is this the best option?
 
Albus25 said:
The mini gets the update love, but not the price drop

If that server was $800 and could do RAID 0/1, I'd be taking an expensive lunch break at the mall today...
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I think it can do RAID 0 or 1. I have one on order (out for shipping today!) and I plan to reinstall the OS on the two drives configured as RAID 1.
Did you mean RAID 0+1? If so, doesn't that require four drives?
 
The server option is great except for the price. Surely, I should be able to use the regular consumer Mac OS if I want to and that should come off the price. I don't really need OS X server to run my media library, and that's surely what most people wanting the extra HD space would be using it for.

Having said that, I did work in a small company that was running the server off of a mac mini about 2 years ago. There were only 4 of us working there, but it only went down once in the 6 months I was in that office.
 
gdc said:
I think it can do RAID 0 or 1. I have one on order (out for shipping today!) and I plan to reinstall the OS on the two drives configured as RAID 1.
Did you mean RAID 0+1? If so, doesn't that require four drives?
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I picked up my Mini Server yesterday and am configuring it now. I have not been able to configure it for RAID 1. I was skeptical because the drives would presumably be on the same bus, and I hadn't seen official mention of RAID. I will probably use the second drive for Time Machine and an external array for data.

If anyone learns of official support for RAID, please post.
 
MacToddB said:
I picked up my Mini Server yesterday and am configuring it now. I have not been able to configure it for RAID 1. I was skeptical because the drives would presumably be on the same bus, and I hadn't seen official mention of RAID. I will probably use the second drive for Time Machine and an external array for data.

If anyone learns of official support for RAID, please post.
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I think that is something that would require a reformat for. As you would probably have to set it up in Disk Utility before the OS is installed. I am sure the 9400M chipset has hardware RAID 0/1 support, but I don't see how one would configure it on the EFI side. How does one do it with the xServe/Mac Pro?
 
diamond.g said:
I think that is something that would require a reformat for. As you would probably have to set it up in Disk Utility before the OS is installed. I am sure the 9400M chipset has hardware RAID 0/1 support, but I don't see how one would configure it on the EFI side.
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I thought I saw a post somewhere suggesting that you had to boot from an external drive and reformat the drives to set up RAID.

Still waiting on an answer to this myself, as well as what options there are for reinstalling the OS from DVD, before ordering. The MacBook Air DVD drive has poor reviews, and seems limited to just working with the Air and the mini. I thought you could connect to a networked drive with the Air.
 
diamond.g said:
I think that is something that would require a reformat for. As you would probably have to set it up in Disk Utility before the OS is installed. I am sure the 9400M chipset has hardware RAID 0/1 support, but I don't see how one would configure it on the EFI side. How does one do it with the xServe/Mac Pro?
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I believe the MCP79A (9400M G) supports RAID on its own chipset controller. I'd have to dig around more for the mobile variant but there's plenty of documentation for nVidia's Media Shield for the 9400/9300.

RAID 0, 1, 0 + 1, 5, and JBOD support isn't that uncommon anymore. Though you might have to pay a little more to get 5 and JBOD. My $59 760G board supports RAID 0, 1, and 0 + 1.
 
I absolutely think this is worth it. In fact, I've been itching to get it ever since it was announced (yes, waiting 4 days has been painful)

I've run a linux server for my home for about 10 years. Integrating it with other linux clients and Windows clients have been a breeze. I thought that integrating it with a Mac OS X client (given the unix background) would be a breeze. Instead, it's been extremely painful. It's obvious that most mac programs do not expect to be operating from a networked home directory. Time Machine doesn't work on network accounts (ok, you can fix this with command line utilities) and until Leopard, it was EXTREMELY painful to set up an account to use an automounted NFS directory.

Oh, don't get me started on the fact that it's basically impossible to share calendars, address books, and iTunes libraries without a server. I still can't share address books and calendars using my linux server solution (I've tried LDAP for address books, and that really doesn't work well. I gave up trying to serve up things from linux before CalDEV became an accepted standard)

Yes, an affordable mac server is extremely welcome.

Here's my concerns. I still don't know how well the Mac OS X server software really works for networked accounts. I want my "users" (wife and kids) to be able to log into any machine and not really care about which machine they were on last. Thanks to Apple's forced obsolescence, I have Tiger, Leopard, and Snow Leopard machines running. ARGH!

Oh, another problem. I'm planning to get the big external RAID option that Apple sells, and I would like to run my mac mini under RAID 1 for redundancy purposes. However, I'm willing to bet that the machine comes set up as RAID 0. How am I supposed to reformat into RAID 1 without the external superdrive? Hopefully they sell these under each option (i.e., RAID 0 and RAID 1)
 
diamond.g said:
I think that is something that would require a reformat for. As you would probably have to set it up in Disk Utility before the OS is installed. I am sure the 9400M chipset has hardware RAID 0/1 support, but I don't see how one would configure it on the EFI side. How does one do it with the xServe/Mac Pro?
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I highly doubt it does but if it does it will not be hardware raid but fakeraid/softraid. That would be a Windows thing and not supported on OS X. Leaves the option for hardware raid which isn't possible considering the form factor and thus we end up with software raid in OS X which can be done by using Disk Utility as well as some 3rd party tools. The Xserve/Mac Pro have a raid card in them which can do hardware raid. You can configure those raid cards by using the raid utility (Applications/Utilities).
 
dyn said:
I highly doubt it does but if it does it will not be hardware raid but fakeraid/softraid. That would be a Windows thing and not supported on OS X. Leaves the option for hardware raid which isn't possible considering the form factor and thus we end up with software raid in OS X which can be done by using Disk Utility as well as some 3rd party tools. The Xserve/Mac Pro have a raid card in them which can do hardware raid. You can configure those raid cards by using the raid utility (Applications/Utilities).
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Can the OS drives in the Mac Pro/xServe run on the hardware raid card?
 
pmjoe said:
I thought I saw a post somewhere suggesting that you had to boot from an external drive and reformat the drives to set up RAID.

Still waiting on an answer to this myself, as well as what options there are for reinstalling the OS from DVD, before ordering. The MacBook Air DVD drive has poor reviews, and seems limited to just working with the Air and the mini. I thought you could connect to a networked drive with the Air.
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FYI, I got RAID 1 working on my Mac Mini Server WITHOUT REINSTALLING or even touching the DVD.

Details here:

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=8705018
 
diamond.g said:
Can the OS drives in the Mac Pro/xServe run on the hardware raid card?
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I assume they do. Unfortunately "assume" is the only thing I can do as I have no further experience with those specific RAID cards and booting from them (others do so search around if you want a definite answer). For what I can recall from one of the earlier Xserve (the G5 model) models was that it was indeed possible just as it is on every other server you can buy. Since every other server/machine with software RAID or hardware RAID is able to boot from such thing I would find it highly unlikely and very very strange and idiotic if the Mac Pro/Xserve did it any different.

The RAID card in those machines does hardware RAID, the OS (read: OS X) won't notice anything of this and won't need any support (debatable considering TRIM support when using ssd's). The OS just sees a disk it can use to install itself on. As long as the drives are SATA or SAS you can use them for RAID. Be sure to use the same types and that there are no problems regarding RAID (some disk may have a drop in performance when used in a RAID array).

@MacToddB: nice post about setting up RAID. You can skip the backup if you have any means of installing OS X Server on it. You can setup software RAID by using Disk Utility in the OS X installer. Otherwise backing up the current installation and restoring it after setting up RAID is your only option.
 
Snow Leopard Server dvd's in the box

MacToddB said:
I just picked up a Mac Mini Server from the Apple Store! I'm about to set it up for web serving.

I'll let y'all know if I have any newsworthy info. Any questions or things I should look for, take pictures of, etc.?
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Hi Todd,

I'm just wondering if the mac mini comes with the standard generic Snow Leopard Server dvd in the box - OR - whether it comes with a mac mini build dvd that won't necessarily work on or boot other intel macs (whether they might be other mac minis or macbooks etc). To be clear, I guess I'm asking if the dvd is an actual SLS disk or if it's tied to the mac mini?

Thanks for the updates on what you've found so far, very helpful.
PaulP
 
ChrisA said:
That said, I'd prefer to have a BSD or Solaris based server with space inside for more and larger disks.
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That's a much different product. The x4140 is fairly awesome, but the Mac Mini fits a lot more readily on top of one's TV and doesn't sound like a 747 taking off.
But there are people who like Mac OS Server and this is a bargain. The OS costs $500 so in this case you gt the Mac Mni for only another $500.
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I've long wondered just what Apple adds in to OSX to make the "Server" edition - and if any of it is remotely worthwhile.
 
anthony11 said:
That's a much different product. The x4140 is fairly awesome, but the Mac Mini fits a lot more readily on top of one's TV and doesn't sound like a 747 taking off.

I've long wondered just what Apple adds in to OSX to make the "Server" edition - and if any of it is remotely worthwhile.
Click to expand...

Request a free demo CD and try it out in Fusion.
 
paulpuk said:
Hi Todd,

I'm just wondering if the mac mini comes with the standard generic Snow Leopard Server dvd in the box - OR - whether it comes with a mac mini build dvd that won't necessarily work on or boot other intel macs (whether they might be other mac minis or macbooks etc). To be clear, I guess I'm asking if the dvd is an actual SLS disk or if it's tied to the mac mini?

Thanks for the updates on what you've found so far, very helpful.
PaulP
Click to expand...

Thanks. It did come with a DVD, and printed instructions that mention the Xserve, along with a serial number to activate the license. So, if you're wondering if you could put regular Mac OS X on the Mini Server, and repurpose the OS X Server license, it appears possible. I don't know about the legalities, but it seems legit. You bought the hardware, and the license, and you can't run it on 2 machines simultaneously, so...?

It also appears folks are putting the OS X DVD and license up on eBay and getting about $200/$250 for it. So, for $750, you could have a Mac Mini with 1 TB and no DVD (or add $100 for the external). And FrontRow does indeed work, at least from the CMD-Escape sequence on the keyboard, but it doesn't ship with a remote. It appears to have an IR sensor, though. Just haven't tried it with a Mac remote.
 
anthony11 said:
Sure, I have copious free time to exhaustively hunt through an OS.
Click to expand...

And yet you want to know what OSX server adds on. If you cannot make a determiniation from Apple's own pages on OSX server, and you do not want to try it out, than what else do you expect of us?
 
SLS dvd

MacToddB said:
Thanks. It did come with a DVD, and printed instructions that mention the Xserve, along with a serial number to activate the license. So, if you're wondering if you could put regular Mac OS X on the Mini Server, and repurpose the OS X Server license, it appears possible. I don't know about the legalities, but it seems legit. You bought the hardware, and the license, and you can't run it on 2 machines simultaneously, so...?

It also appears folks are putting the OS X DVD and license up on eBay and getting about $200/$250 for it. So, for $750, you could have a Mac Mini with 1 TB and no DVD (or add $100 for the external). And FrontRow does indeed work, at least from the CMD-Escape sequence on the keyboard, but it doesn't ship with a remote. It appears to have an IR sensor, though. Just haven't tried it with a Mac remote.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that - but I'm confused now because in between posting here and your reply - I asked the same question to an Apple Support person here in UK - and he said that the mac mini for this server config comes with a dvd that will only work with the mac mini.

Anyway, I've just seen a copy of the generic SLS dvd in UK and it comes with a screenprint on the dvd itself that says "Install Disk Version 10.6" and "0Z691-6495-A". If you could kindly confirm that this is the same on your dvd then it's definitely the same dvd in your mac mini kit, and not a special build.

The difference in price here is about £100 if I buy the bundle mini and server versus buying them each as separate items - so your post might save a few people quite a few quid!

I thank you again, cheers, Paul
 
paulpuk said:
Thanks for that - but I'm confused now because in between posting here and your reply - I asked the same question to an Apple Support person here in UK - and he said that the mac mini for this server config comes with a dvd that will only work with the mac mini.

Anyway, I've just seen a copy of the generic SLS dvd in UK and it comes with a screenprint on the dvd itself that says "Install Disk Version 10.6" and "0Z691-6495-A". If you could kindly confirm that this is the same on your dvd then it's definitely the same dvd in your mac mini kit, and not a special build.
Click to expand...

The DVD says "Mac mini Mac OS X Server Install DVD Version 10.6 0Z691-6520-A". So it appears to be different.

It also says "This software is part of a hardware bundle purchase--not to be sold separately." and "This disc includes software that allows you to share an optical drive on a Mac or Windows PC, enables wireless migration, and provides a backup copy of Mac OS X Server."
 
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