I wholeheartedly disagree. I have several small business owner friends who have gone the PC route of setting up small networks in their business and have turned into logistic nightmares where this would fit in perfectly. I thin kthe halo effect is going to hit this segment soon and big. Kudos to Apple for having a product like this.
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Apple Updates Mac Mini and Adds Server Option
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I wholeheartedly disagree. I have several small business owner friends who have gone the PC route of setting up small networks in their business and have turned into logistic nightmares where this would fit in perfectly. I thin kthe halo effect is going to hit this segment soon and big. Kudos to Apple for having a product like this.
Ask them how they feel about that price when they complain about their PC acting up
I will also be watching the refurb/clearance section carefully over the next few days, hopefully they will put the older models on clearance.
So, we're a small Windows-based company (10 in the office, 3 remote salespeople). I'm a die-hard Mac guy, former editor/animator, but not an IT type. We use MS Dynamics (formerly Great Plains) for our ERP and Act for CRM, with a third party company helping with each. We are seriously considering switching from Windows/Dynamics/Act to Mac and NetSuite.
All that being said, it looks like this Mini Server would be just what we need as any serious number crunching would be done on the cloud. Near as I can tell, all we would need is email hosting, some minor data storage (.docs, .xls, some small (<20MB) database files, etc), and a way to send software updates to the desktops and remote laptops.
Any thoughts on this set-up?
All that being said, it looks like this Mini Server would be just what we need as any serious number crunching would be done on the cloud. Near as I can tell, all we would need is email hosting, some minor data storage (.docs, .xls, some small (<20MB) database files, etc), and a way to send software updates to the desktops and remote laptops.
Any thoughts on this set-up?
That depends on your usage. It won't cut it as a video server that is for sure.
Like you though I'm kinda mad as I was really expecting or I should say wanted a multimedia server. Ideally a device that provided 2TB of RAIDed storage in the base model with expandability. It kinda looks like a cheaper Mini and a Ethernet accesses Drobo is the way to go. I've also flirted with the idea of just getting an XServe.
Dave
I'm mixed on this. Obviously it won't cut the mustard for a video or iTunes server as the storage is like of puny. If those two drives could be set up in mirroed RAID configuration I could see strong sales to the developer community as a source code control server and other uses. Not everybody needs terabytes of server storage 500 GB is suitable for a number of server uses.mini server has no optical disk, low end hard disk is too small
Like you though I'm kinda mad as I was really expecting or I should say wanted a multimedia server. Ideally a device that provided 2TB of RAIDed storage in the base model with expandability. It kinda looks like a cheaper Mini and a Ethernet accesses Drobo is the way to go. I've also flirted with the idea of just getting an XServe.
Dave
My $287 Inspiron 546s are running great.
You seem to be in the minority every sub $500 PC owner I know is always complaining about stalls crashes and bad performance. I guess I should pose that question to everyone I meet to get an accurate assessment of sub $500
I have a bunch of nurses using them as their desktop machines. They're using Internet Explorer 8 too because the government and insurance companies hate everything else.You seem to be in the minority every sub $500 PC owner I know is always complaining about stalls crashes and bad performance. I guess I should pose that question to everyone I meet to get an accurate assessment of sub $500
We replaced their Pentium 4 towers with these machines.
xServe is best, but you could just get an external FW 800 like OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Dual RAID
Swap out one drive and add a PCI-E 16 slot
and you would have a customer.
I'm not interested in a mini for file serving, but I would have been interested for an affordable GPGPU solution add-on.
and you would have a customer.
I'm not interested in a mini for file serving, but I would have been interested for an affordable GPGPU solution add-on.
I have a bunch of nurses using them as their desktop machines. They're using Internet Explorer 8 too because the government and insurance companies hate everything else.
We replaced their Pentium 4 towers with these machines.
Same machine? (Inspiron 546)
Lots of people talking out their butts about what 'business' needs.
Until recently, I owned a 15-person travel agency (now sold), and was CEO, IT manager, and help desk, along with 1000 or so other job titles. The business sold about $10 million a year in travel - still small-ish, but hardly a trivial business.
Back in 2004, I purchased a dual G5 Xserver to act as the do-everything server for the company. e-mail, website, Filemaker, shared files, backup for critical files on the windows-based desktop machines, etc. All our desktops were Windows-based.
Turned out the Xserver was MASSIVE overkill. Four years in, it rarely passed 20% CPU usage, and the combined system/primary storage was using about 50 gigs on an 80 gig mirrored primary drive.
The reality is that business users often don't really need much storage. e-mail, word/excel docs, etc. aren't big by modern standards. If you're not storing a few dozen ripped DVD's and an immense music and photo library, or working with video in some other way, files tend to be pretty small.
Similarly, the base version with 160gig HD is a natural for running the OS on the primary drive, and using an external array for bulk storage, which is a good way to go in any case. Or add another 160 and mirror. Or put in an SSD. or...
at what works out to $500 for OS X Server, and $500 for a mini-server, it's a heck of a deal, that should be attractive to all kinds of businesses as a primary server, as a backup, as a test or prototype server, to break off something that's currently on an over-used server, etc. Advanced home users will also find work for it...
Long story short, it's a mighty powerful and extremely flexible little unit at a very good price. I don't think they'll sell a bazillion of them, but they should sell a lot.
I remember reading that nearly every cluster of slot machines in Las Vegas has a Mac Mini in the base, acting as a server for the cluster... 1000's and 1000's of them for that use alone...
The REAL question is whether they've fixed the power plug for the Mini, so it doesn't kill the power every time you jostle the damn thing. That alone is darn near a deal-killer for the server role. 8^)
Until recently, I owned a 15-person travel agency (now sold), and was CEO, IT manager, and help desk, along with 1000 or so other job titles. The business sold about $10 million a year in travel - still small-ish, but hardly a trivial business.
Back in 2004, I purchased a dual G5 Xserver to act as the do-everything server for the company. e-mail, website, Filemaker, shared files, backup for critical files on the windows-based desktop machines, etc. All our desktops were Windows-based.
Turned out the Xserver was MASSIVE overkill. Four years in, it rarely passed 20% CPU usage, and the combined system/primary storage was using about 50 gigs on an 80 gig mirrored primary drive.
The reality is that business users often don't really need much storage. e-mail, word/excel docs, etc. aren't big by modern standards. If you're not storing a few dozen ripped DVD's and an immense music and photo library, or working with video in some other way, files tend to be pretty small.
Similarly, the base version with 160gig HD is a natural for running the OS on the primary drive, and using an external array for bulk storage, which is a good way to go in any case. Or add another 160 and mirror. Or put in an SSD. or...
at what works out to $500 for OS X Server, and $500 for a mini-server, it's a heck of a deal, that should be attractive to all kinds of businesses as a primary server, as a backup, as a test or prototype server, to break off something that's currently on an over-used server, etc. Advanced home users will also find work for it...
Long story short, it's a mighty powerful and extremely flexible little unit at a very good price. I don't think they'll sell a bazillion of them, but they should sell a lot.
I remember reading that nearly every cluster of slot machines in Las Vegas has a Mac Mini in the base, acting as a server for the cluster... 1000's and 1000's of them for that use alone...
The REAL question is whether they've fixed the power plug for the Mini, so it doesn't kill the power every time you jostle the damn thing. That alone is darn near a deal-killer for the server role. 8^)
We ran the original Great Plains, and instead of upgrading to PC's we went the NetSuite approach. We told them we wanted local consultants to assist since GP was 12+ years old. The transition would be substantial.
We worked with a consultant group, signed the deal, and NetSuite fired them without replacements. We tried to back out, and $8,500 settlement, three flights to San Fran later....we got out of the contract.
We now work with AcctVantage. A Mac "centric" solution that is cross platform.
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This makes me really want a mac mini server. I think that making the mini a server was an exellent idea since so many people are using the mac mini that way already. I've been contemplating buying a mini with an external drive to use as a media server but this makes it much more attractive since I wouldn't have to attach the external drive.
This makes me really want a mac mini server. I think that making the mini a server was an exellent idea since so many people are using the mac mini that way already. I've been contemplating buying a mini with an external drive to use as a media server but this makes it much more attractive since I wouldn't have to attach the external drive.
The prices for the non server minis are still a little too high, at least the top spec model actually looks to be worth the difference this time.
It would be nice if they sold the server version without the server OS though or allowed the no DVD/Twin HDD option (not actually checked if they do!)
It would be nice if they sold the server version without the server OS though or allowed the no DVD/Twin HDD option (not actually checked if they do!)
A couple of comments.
1.
Let Google or another cloud service do the E-Mail server for you. A good part of somebodies wages will go to managing your E-Mail system otherwise.
2.
I don't know enough about this new machine to comment on it directly so take conservative view of the hardware. It might be far cheaper to go to an XServe depening upon exactly what you are looking for.
Some of the problems/advantages associated a Mini as a server:
dis: very difficult to service!
Adv: external power supply that is fast to swap.
Dis: that power supply can come unhooked real easy.
Adv: low power laptop parts.
Dis: lack of dual Ethernet ports ( one to connect to a RAID)
Adv: very compact, you can easily put thousands into a room.
Dis: poor serviceability means having a hot backup is very important.
Adv: should work well in an Apple environment.
Dis: Apples server OS tech has been wanting in the past. SL might have fixed this?
Adv: a well know platform hardware wise
Dis: not many people target the Mac OS Server operating system.
Adv: Build apps in Cocoa
Dis: Apple is slow to adopt the latest open source shells and stuff. Where is Python 3.1 for example.
You can chew on that for awhile. Like all things there are many trade offs. In this case a simpler Mini with an external RAID might make more sense.
Dave
1.
Let Google or another cloud service do the E-Mail server for you. A good part of somebodies wages will go to managing your E-Mail system otherwise.
2.
I don't know enough about this new machine to comment on it directly so take conservative view of the hardware. It might be far cheaper to go to an XServe depening upon exactly what you are looking for.
Some of the problems/advantages associated a Mini as a server:
dis: very difficult to service!
Adv: external power supply that is fast to swap.
Dis: that power supply can come unhooked real easy.
Adv: low power laptop parts.
Dis: lack of dual Ethernet ports ( one to connect to a RAID)
Adv: very compact, you can easily put thousands into a room.
Dis: poor serviceability means having a hot backup is very important.
Adv: should work well in an Apple environment.
Dis: Apples server OS tech has been wanting in the past. SL might have fixed this?
Adv: a well know platform hardware wise
Dis: not many people target the Mac OS Server operating system.
Adv: Build apps in Cocoa
Dis: Apple is slow to adopt the latest open source shells and stuff. Where is Python 3.1 for example.
You can chew on that for awhile. Like all things there are many trade offs. In this case a simpler Mini with an external RAID might make more sense.
Dave
Why would this be a good thing?
(That's a genuine question - I'm thinking of buying a Mini and hooking it up to a TV or a monitor, but I've never owned a TV and don't know the first thing about all this DVI, VGA, HDMI stuff)
Why not?
After all, obscure companies like IBM, HP, Sun and so on use 2.5" SATA drives in many of their 1U rackmount servers.
Why the heck not? Lots of small companies use them, or similarly-configured small servers, and they do just fine.
Ever heard of FireWire? Consider attaching a drive or three set up as a RAID for storage.
People have been doing it for years.
On 7 Oct, i posted this photoshop hack job:
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/8609339/
How freaky is that!!!!
And it gets stranger... turn the $$ into ££ and they are also the correct price too on the UK store!!
https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/8609339/
How freaky is that!!!!
And it gets stranger... turn the $$ into ££ and they are also the correct price too on the UK store!!
If you place a server in the DMZ with a single Ethernet interface, then all traffic including administration of the server and connections from the server to the database which is normally in the internal network, they all have to talk via the same ethernet port. This means the same firewall gets involved each time. This reduces security.
Using the second port to talk to/from the internal network preferable over a second (and separate) Firewall, it allows you to manage your servers using the second interface and allow the server to speak with the databases in the internal network without worring about hackers crafting packets with spoofed IP addresses and also simplifies the firewall rules of both firewalls.
Just because a lot of busineses do things in a ceirtain way does not mean they should.
Just to give you an example ..... PCI-DSS regulation for credit cards recommends that all PCI-DSS servers be moved to a separate network with its own firewall in between the PCI-DSS servers and the rest of the internal network. Failure to follow the sugestion, makes the rest of the servers in the internal network also subject to PCI-DSS since they can communicate with the PCI-DSS servers. See https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/security_standards/pa_dss.shtml
There are many other standards for security and for privacy besides the above. Most large corporations that want no headaches use hosts with two Ethernet interfaces.