newbie here, do I need OS X server program

R

rckaplaman

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I work for a small company that uses macs for graphics and pc's for other stuff. I have a 1.25ghz G4 (mirror doors) and is our "data server".

Do I need to have OS X Server to have multiple connections to share data off that G4 computer? I do not need the other apps that come with OS X Server, I just want to share the content on the drive to dozens of users.

Since I can already share the info off the G4 with the standard OS X, just if I have dozens of people getting info off the drive I do want to cuase problems.

Will having the OS X Server speed up the transfer or connectivity on the G4?

Any advise or suggestions would be helpful

Thanks
 
i suggest you just use SharePoints to allow better control over who gets what and how.
 
Are you wanting a two way filesharing, or are you just sharing the content of you documents one way, i.e. like a rudimentary webserver?

Out only method could be to provide the files in a directory that the webserver can dish these files out from, its not as nice. Your could put a front end onto he documents you want to server from the webserved.

If you want to go both ways, ther are numerous ways of doing this, but all require more work than Apple's filesharing:


nfs - should allow any number of connections (http://sial.org/howto/osx/automount/)
nfsmanager - I've used this and it work just fine

Once the connection has been made everything behave just like a normal Fileshared Disk.

ftp - CaptainFTP, there are quite a few GUIs for this service.
you can use a browser to share stuff as well, the process puts a remote disk on your desktop.

On the server enable FTP in sharing.
Launch Safari -> type ftp://SERVER_NAME_OR_IP
You will be asked for a USERNAME and PASWWORD

Pop a window will appear and the contents of the remote directory will appear. Its slower, but hey its free and so is NFS
 
I guess the real question is, how many dozens? :)

Also, are these users continually interacting with the server? For example, is this a matter of a group of folks that grab a bunch of stuff for the day and then copy back at day's end, or are they continually relying on that server for all their work, all day long?
 
OS X Client (normal version) allows 10 connections. OS X Server (server version) allows either 10 or unlimited connections. So as long as you don't need over 10 simultaneous connections, the client-edition should work just fine for what you want to do. If you have more than 10 simultaneous connections, you need to get the unlimited version server edition of OS X.

Good rule of thumb...if you have a machine that's going to use it (the file server), consider it one connection even if it isn't simultaneous. Better safe than sorry.
 
What about if they are all connecting via IP and not appletalk. does IP connection have the same limit of 10?

Is the limitations a OS X thing, or appleshare or???
Thanks
gordon
 
Not sure if its an AppleShare thing or how many people can login to your machine. NFS does not by default have these limitations. You can set up NFS using NFSmanager.
 
One other thing to consider. The further away you move from a standard use/configuration of a client licensed machine, the less support you'll have from Apple. Simply starting out, since it is a client license, support will have no issue asking you to initialize your drive for troubleshooting an issue, while a server licensed machine, they'd be much more delicate in their ways.

If this machine houses important data to your company, there's really no replacing a true OS X Server, when you add up the addition of support, etc...especially if your a smaller business, I'm sure you don't want to have to spend hours of your own time trying to fix every nagging issue that you'll encoutner.

Just my $0.02. :)
 
rckaplaman said:
What about if they are all connecting via IP and not appletalk. does IP connection have the same limit of 10?

Is the limitations a OS X thing, or appleshare or???
Click to expand...

I'm not 100% sure, but all the documentation I've seen is very clear on the 10 client limit for the client-edition and 10c server-edition of OS X. I have heard that it's a total limit, regardless of protocol being used.

When I get home later tonight I'll look around on my backup drive. I have a bunch of docs somewhere on there from Apple that deals with networking, the protocols, etc.

How many computers (approx.) are being connected and how (AFP, SMB, etc.)?
 
the point being that NFS and SMB obviously don't have the same user limitations as AFP on OSX.
 
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