# Creative thread: What can I do with a Mac mini Server ?



## chevy (Oct 21, 2009)

The purpose of the thread is to find a good usage for a Mac mini that has no optical drive but comes with Mac OS X Server edition.


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## #1 Rhapsody (Oct 21, 2009)

Run a webserver


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## Satcomer (Oct 21, 2009)

Setup your own email Domain.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Oct 21, 2009)

- Serve files to a home/office network
- Rid yourself of your router and have finer-grained control over DHCP and DNS
- Rid yourself of your co-lo and/or hosting company
- Share printers on a network and manage them in a consolidated way
- Distribute large software updates to many computers easily
- Trade your 1/2/3U rack server for a more space-efficient design

Pretty much anything you can do with a server, you can do with the Mac mini server, just in a smaller form-factor.


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## nixgeek (Oct 21, 2009)

It definitely seems as it could be a great server for a home network, espcially with how simple OS X Server has been with the management tools.  If you need something beefier than that, you can always opt for the Xserves.  But for home or small office, I think this is a nice and affordable server option.

It could also be a REALLY nice media server for one's home.  Imagine the AppleTV with similar specs?


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## chevy (Oct 21, 2009)

Yes Nixgeek, that's exactly where I am. How can I exploit it for "normal" home usage. I cannot use it to share my iTunes library, I already have TimeMachine on all my computers to save the data to on external disk, I have one AppleTV that is too small and that could be this server but the Man mini has no HDMI output, I have one Airport but Mac mini cannot replace it as it has only 1 Ethernet plug. I mean, it's a very good idea to have two disks and no optical drive, but why doesn't it come with the connectivity of an Airport Extreme plus USB and FW ?


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## Scoops98 (Oct 21, 2009)

The Mac Mini won't work for DHCP as you need dual network cards, unless you went with  a USB NIC.

There really isn't a "home" usage for a Mac server.  Mine runs DHCP, file sharing, FTP, VPN, and hosts my business's, Java based with a MySQL database, web help desk.

It's more a "fun" thing for a home network.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Oct 21, 2009)

Scoops98 said:


> The Mac Mini won't work for DHCP as you need dual network cards...


Not really true at all -- a server with a single network port can, indeed, serve DHCP to a network.  In fact, we have one here at work that does exactly that -- one network port, serving DHCP to the network.

I think what you meant was that a server with a single network port cannot be a gateway.  A "gateway" implies that traffic flows in one port and out the other, and vice-versa... typically a gateway has one network port connected to the internet ("external" interface), and the other port connected to the local network ("internal" interface).  Internet traffic then flows through the gateway to and from machines on the local network.

Still, the Mac mini does have two network "ports" -- an ethernet one, and an AirPort one.  It's completely possible to have a DSL or Cable Modem (or any other kind of internet access) hooked into the ethernet port, then manage DNS and DHCP over AirPort to wireless clients.


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## Scoops98 (Oct 21, 2009)

I see what you mean.  You're right about it just running DHCP.  But to say replace your router is a bit deceptive.  Using Internet sharing over Airport is sorta backwards.  All of your network services take a performance hit, not to mention that it isn't the say as an actual access point.  Plus, not all machines have a wireless card.  A $20 USB NIC would take care of all that, using it as the WAN connection, leaving the potentially Gig built-in NIC as the network side connection.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Oct 21, 2009)

I'm not suggesting using "Internet Sharing" per say.  Internet Sharing is a dumbed-down version of simple routing for those that lack true server software.  The Mac mini would be almost a perfect replacement for a router that requires only wireless access (precisely the setup I use at home, btw).  You get much more fine-grained control over the "sharing" of the internet connection when you use true routing software (as is included in Mac OS X Server), such as control over DNS, DHCP, SNMP, firewalling, spam filtering, traffic shaping, QoS, etc.

I don't use a single ethernet port on my Airport Extreme other than the WAN port.  In this light, if I required finer control over my wireless network, I could replace my entire router with a Mac mini without losing a single feature, and gaining quite a few more features (such as UNIX permission-level control over file shares, managed FTP access, web serving, etc.).

I understand that a network that _requires_ wired clients may not have as much a need for a mini as other networks, but that doesn't mean that the mini wouldn't have its place among bigger, beefier servers as well.

I have to agree with you, if I may mangle your words a bit, that the Mac mini would not make a stellar, high-throughput gateway... but it would still make a mighty fine server if your needs don't require saturating a gig-e network with mountains of traffic.


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## #1 Rhapsody (Oct 21, 2009)

ElDiabloConCaca said:


> I don't use a single ethernet port on my Airport Extreme other than the WAN port.



Don't you have problems with the limited amount of data that Wifi can provide?  I know with my Wifi router, if I was downloading a linux iso over wifi, my other wifi connected devices would suffer greatly.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Oct 21, 2009)

Not really -- I have the dual-band Airport Extreme, so I can have 802.11g devices online at the same time as 802.11n devices without suffering the speed penalty involved with having a mixed-mode network.

I have two 802.11n devices and four 802.11g devices, with an 18mbit internet connection.  I can reliably download at about 2.0MB/sec on my 802.11n devices (getting a Linux distro in approximately 10 minutes) while simultaneously gaming on the 802.11g devices without lag.

It took a while to upgrade my equipment to do this, but it works great.  I don't typically need to copy multi-gigabyte files from one computer to another (streaming works a charm), and if I did, I've always got a spare cord I can whip out at any time (although I haven't needed it yet).  Copying a file in 20 minutes instead of 4 isn't a huge deal to me -- the speed of my network doesn't make me any more or less talented than I already am or am not.

"Big ups" to the Airport Extreme -- a pretty awesome and robust wireless router.


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## icemanjc (Oct 21, 2009)

ElDiabloConCaca said:


> Not really -- I have the dual-band Airport Extreme, so I can have 802.11g devices online at the same time as 802.11n devices without suffering the speed penalty involved with having a mixed-mode network.
> 
> I have two 802.11n devices and four 802.11g devices, with an 18mbit internet connection.  I can reliably download at about 2.0MB/sec on my 802.11n devices (getting a Linux distro in approximately 10 minutes) while simultaneously gaming on the 802.11g devices without lag.
> 
> ...



I need to get one of those Airport Routers sometime. I have a netgear wireless N Router, but it only runs at 130 mbps when its set to only wireless N so who knows whats going on.... It works fine for streaming from my laptop to media server, but sometimes lags. Though I wired up the house with gigabit ethenet for the desktop computers which works really nice.

I'd probably use the Mac Mini for a main media server to connect to the tv since the AppleTV can't plant mkv or avi files.


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## typsarud (Oct 23, 2009)

I accept: The Mac Mini won't work for DHCP as you need dual network cards, unless you went with a USB NIC. There really isn't a "home" usage for a Mac server. Mine runs DHCP, file sharing, FTP, VPN, and Java based with a MySQL database.
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## ElDiabloConCaca (Oct 23, 2009)

typsarud said:


> I accept: The Mac Mini won't work for DHCP as you need dual network cards, unless you went with a USB NIC.


First of all, you only need a single network connection to do DHCP -- as I stated earlier, we have _exactly_ this setup where I work: one machine that does nothing but DHCP, with a single ethernet port.  You do NOT need two network ports to do DHCP.

Still, that doesn't matter at all, because the mini _does_ have two network ports: an ethernet port and AirPort.  There, done, DHCP in a gateway situation: internet comes in on ethernet, and DHCP goes out over AirPort.



> There really isn't a "home" usage for a Mac server.


What's good for you may not be good for others.  The Mac mini server edition does, indeed, have _many_ home server uses.  If you like, I can rattle off 10 or more implementations that would be great for home use.


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## chevy (Oct 23, 2009)

Some security basics.
First layer (connected to WAN) : Firewall 1
Second layer (connected to Firewall 1) : Proxy with DHCP, NAT
Third layer (connected to second port of Proxy) : Firewall 2
Server should be either connected to FW 1 if it is to manage a web server or on local side of Proxy if serving files for local users

All this could be put in a single enclosure. Like a Mac mini. But it NEEDS several Ethernet ports.


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