Mac based sever solution

What other clients and servers are you using?

 

How much storage? 2 TB? 4TB? 10TB?

 

windows servers are quite good at being basic file storage units at a very competitive price.

I don't think you will be able to make any reasonable ROI argument that a Mac server in your situation is worth the extra money. Especially since no one (it sounds) is a real expert on managing either type of network or server environment.

 

Sounds like you need a 2.0Ghz C2D mac mini over in the corner connected to a RAID external 2TB drive.

Your best bet (and as cheap as the 4K PC setup you were quoted) pick up the OWC Mercury Rack Pro 2TB RAID with double redundancy for $2199.99 http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/MR1FWU2R2.0T/ It has 4 internal drives all RAID protected so if one goes out, you loose nothing. Plus it has a full 2 year warranty also. Then go pickup a new C2D 20" 2.0 or 2.4Ghz imac ($1100-$1400) and set both up in the corner. Connect the iMac to your LAN network, and connect the OWC Raid setup to the mac with a FW800 cable. Install the included backup network backup software, and call it a day! Your total would be no more than $3599 for the entire setup! No need to buy the Xserve from Apple, which i assume is what Apple said that you needed to have. The Xserve is really useful for 3D studios and other multi-terabite installations where the power of the MacPro is needed to run not only backups, but file service, email hosting, web hosting, remote aurthuring, etc.


Since you said you don't need anything but a backup tool, get the above setup and you and your boss will be very happy. ( I know you'll be happy cause you'll have another mac running things!)

 

BS! Comparable wintel box of a similar quality actually cost more.

 

Um... what is this for?

Your question really can't be answered unless you give more background. Above someone assumes that you are going to run backup software on every client ('users') computers to backup local files to a network source. Someone asked what the client computers are, i.e. does everyone in your office use a Mac? or some PCs some Macs?

The big question, what will this server be hosting? Completed project files, seldom accessed? Works in progress, shared by teams of users, modified & updated constantly/daily? Individual user folders, profile backups, or even image backups of their machines?

If simply buying a new iMac and adding a FW800 external RAID enclosure to a new system was a valid solution, why not just add that to a computer rarely in use around the office... Although, several people trying to read/write video content simultaneously to that setup would probably not be fun for anyone.

There are NAS devices that simply add storage to your network. Maybe one of these is what you need? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network-attached_storage

 

Xserve will perform at close to 100% performance at everything even when near the performance limit. However seems like your company isn't in the market for that performance.

What you want for data protection is a RAID 5 or maybe RAID 6.
An example is: RocketRAID 3320 SATA RAID 6 Controller.

A good way is to get Refurb Mac Pro: $1,899, add the RAID card. (You can do it even with PowerMac G5) Get an inexpensive case but good power supply, and run your harddrives on the external case from the RAID card. 750gb drives are about $150 each now.

$1899 + tax (mac pro)
$150 x 4 or 5 (750 SATA II)
$150 to $450 (SATA Raid 5 or Raid 6 card)
$150 (case + cables)
No virus and no stealth windows update which results in forced reboot and loss of data = priceless

 

Actually enterprise 750gb SATA II drives with 5 year warranty might cost a little more than $150.

And if you do RAID, you need to get drives from different manufacturing batch.

 

From my experience, one of the main things overlooked is the network infrastucture itself, especially with file servers that are being constantly used.

How do these computers connect to the network, wired or wireless?

Are you using a router or a switch, is it gigabit?

If wired, is the cabling of sufficient quality?

 

If your mainly looking at a storage solution, yeah the setup mentioned will be more than enough. A MacPro + RAID card would do the job fine. Heck, my G4 xserve does the same thing very well.(though my RAID setup is a little simpler-no RAID card) The only thing I would suggest is to upgrade to the server version of OSX. It gives you a lot of flexability in setting up sharepoints and file sharing preferances.

 

Sounds to me like a NAS would do the job for thousands less.

 

Yes, of comparable quality. My point is that for what he was describing, they don't NEED a box as robust as the Xserve.

 

Yes, this is my point.

Consultant's idea of using an older box to just host a ton of storage could work as well and would seem to fulfill the needs described without needing Xserve

 

For myself I've got a PowerMac Dual G4 with 3 TB of internal storage with one SATA card (potentially close to 6TB internal if I upgrade to 1TB drives and many more TB if I have more SATA cards) and many external firewire drives. Gigabit wired ethernet is really inexpensive to set up. For wireless I have Airport Extreme Gigabit version with N.

Get a computer, it's much more flexible than a NAS box. You can also run a web server, sftp server, etc.

 

This is all true as well. And I should point out even though I work in IT, I am NOT a network / storage specialist and am just throwing out opinions (As we are prone to do on internet forums

It sounds like individuals like Consultant have Actual Real World Experience(tm) in this stuff and thus the original poster would be wise to listen to them instead of me