Got a PowerMac G3 and want to use it as a server

[Juventuz]

I managed to get a free 400mhz G3 PowerMac today and want to use it as a server of sorts. I currently have an external firewire HD that stores music, movies, games, apps, etc that I hook up to my PowerBook. I want to take that HD and drop it into the G3 along with another nice size HD (yes I'm aware that I have to upgrade the PCI Controller card to do it) or two to store all my movies, music, tv shows etc on. I don't really care for using it for anything else. I want my powerbook to be the computer that controls the G3.

I've got a NETGear wireless router that's got 4 ethernet ports in the back that I can plug into as well so networking shouldn't be a problem.

Pardon my ignorance, but what do I need to do in order to make it into a "Server"?

 

[mus0r]

I've got a G3 450MHz that I'm using as a server. I have OS X.4 Server running on it doing AFS, Web service, NetBoot/NetRestore, FTP, Print service, and Windoze services. I added a 160GB HDD (and may get a SATA controller, since I have an extra SATA drive) and it's got 512MB RAM.

Not bad for a 7 year old computer

 

[Dreadnought]

You don't need anything more! Update the G3 with os X and configure it. And the more Ram it has, the faster it goed, especially with os X. 512 is the minimum. BTW, with this machine, you can't get a firewire network to work, but hearing about your router, I don't think you want that.

 

[Juventuz]

OK, I just upgraded it to the latest version of OS 10.3, I'll be picking up another 246 megs of RAM later today and dropping it in.

How do I configure it so my Powerbook is the main computer and acts as the "master" drive while the G3 acts as the "slave" drive?

 

[7on]

I would do everything over Firewire sharing in the Sharing Prefpane - unless of course you get a gigabit ethernet card for that G3.

I don't believe the 400mhzs need an upgrade to work with larger drives, but I may be mistaken.

Good job on the grab! I got my 400Mhz a year ago for $200

 

[Juventuz]

No firewire in the comp, for some reason they removed it

Also, I've got an ethernet card in it and the G3 is currently plugged into my router.

 

[kalisphoenix]

You have a Revision 1 IDE controller? Dude, that @#$%ing sucks. I was thinking you got a pretty good deal until I figured that out

If FreeBSD had more resources and better support for PPC, there's no question what I'd advise. I think FreeBSD is the best server OS out there, and in addition to that it's a lot easier to use than OpenBSD/NetBSD, and obviously more stable than Linux and OS X. Linux's 2.6 kernel scales almost as well as FreeBSD (meaning for your uses they're indistinguishable)... but FreeBSD doesn't have the level of support for PPC that I'd like. PPC is "tier 2" or something like that, which means I guess that they don't take it as seriously as x86. Not that I can blame them, really, there are probably a total of six other people in the world who want to run FreeBSD on their Mac.

I "test-drove" OS X Server and thought it was pretty lame, actually, aside from the netboot utilities and such. For web and file serving, you don't need anything other than OS X Client. I suggest (if you want to get more serious than that) that you install Fink and get used to the countless CLI server programs available for UNIX. Takes some mucking around, to be sure... Fink is the best compromise of UNIX software with OS X's features, even though it seems very out of date at this point. I have high hopes for Gentoo OS X, but knowing from experience that building a server on Gentoo is like building a mansion on a raft....

 

[ph0rk]

If you're going to the trouble to set up a server; do yourself a favor and buy an extra external drive and make a RAID 1 mirror set.

(trust me).

also: pick your OS before you make the RAID set; $%@#$ RAID sets made in tiger (10.4) are NOT compatible with 10.3. *shake fist*