Posts Tagged "server"

Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way

Posted by Don Kruse on Jan 7, 2010 in Tech | 0 comments

For a variety of reasons the main server room for the firm I support is located in an electrical “closet” in the headquarters building’s basement. There is no AC, only a powerful blower to introduce fresh air to the small space. This has meant that the servers have always been sucking in very warm air, frequently very dusty, and sometimes literally full of small flying bugs.

To make things a little stranger there is an actual properly built server room also in the basement. However, it is a very large room that was obviously set up for the oil company that used to occupy the building in the 1990′s. Currently this “server room” is used for filing storage for client discovery and up until a few months ago the room was quite full of file boxes. I gave my IT Admin the job of figuring out how we could fit in a 4-post server rack inside this room without losing any storage space for the files. Seems difficult since the room was full but when I looked at the way things were in there it seemed like there was a lot of wasted space.

Mac mini as a Server Finally Official

Posted by Don Kruse on Nov 11, 2009 in Apple, mac, MacGeek, server, Tech | 0 comments

There are many situations where a rack mounted 1U or 3U server just doesn’t fit into the budget or specific needs of a business. Many of us Apple IT guys have been using and/or recommending the Mac mini with Mac OS X Server installed as a great way to keep within budget while still retaining full network services.In fact I have an earlier post about using Mac minis in a 24/7 environment.

So Apple finally made it official a few weeks ago an now has a Mac mini server. It fits the bill for many business uses, creative uses, as well as even for a simple home network server.

In fact one business makes it their business to use Mac minis almost exclusively as their servers, providing web hosting and other services to their customers.

Little Productive Machines

Posted by Don Kruse on Nov 22, 2007 in Apple, Tech | 0 comments

The Apple Mac Mini is a workhorse computer in the offices I support. I use them as network servers, workstations, and media center hubs.

The Mac mini as a network server:

I had a need in late 2006 to provide local network servers in three satellite offices. This was necessary so that local DNS and Open Directory (OD) authentication could be provided. I also had a great need to provide a local software update service and a network share for the Help Desk to store third party updates, user backups, and other administrative files. As the firm I work for is all Mac based my choices were limited to some kind of Mac system or possibly something that could run Linux. The other consideration is that two of these remote offices don’t even have a closet or room in which to locate the server so size was also a factor.

I had read about many instances of Mac minis being used as “servers” or in mobile installations so I decided that a Mac mini would be the way to go. It is nearly silent, extremely compact, has all the necessary ports and the fact that it can survive in a moving vehicle while operating means that it is durable. I confirmed with Apple that the mini could run Apple Mac OS X Server and found a neat external hard drive to provide necessary additional storage space.Once everything was installed and updated the new Mac mini network servers were set up to provide DHCP, DNS, OD (LDAPv3), Software Update Service, and a network share. Having all these services running on a local server rather than some being provided by the router (DHCP and DNS) and OD being provided from the headquarters has had a big impact on network reliability and performance.What did this cost?

• $749 Mac mini with 2GB RAM
• $159 LaCie mini Hard Drive and Hub
• $149 Small 15 inch LCD display
• $80 Compact heavy duty keyboard (for server or POS use)
• $879 Apple Mac OS X Server – unlimited clients
• $2016 TOTAL cost

These remote offices previously had been a support headache. The basic SonicWALL routers would often slow to a crawl, DNS requests would time-out, and the only “fix” was to ask someone in the office to power cycle the routers to restart them. Sometimes they would take 7-15 minutes to come back online if they were overheated.The Mac minis have not had one single issue. They serve as OD replicas for the OD master located in the central HQ, they provide DHCP and DNS without fail and the Software Update Service allows the Help Desk to run updates to the client machines during business hours something that was impossible before as the internet connection would slow to a crawl. The only downtime is when they need to be restarted after an update or if there is a power outage.

I am not suggesting these as replacements for an Apple Xserve or other type of network server workhorse. If you were serving up large numbers of files you would find the minis disk access and performance too slow and the external power adapter might have trouble dissipating heat under a severe load. Yet in the situation I needed them in they are performing great and have reduced the time to fill network service requests and completely eliminated unscheduled downtime.