Apple Mac mini MC408LL/A Snow Leopard Server

2 comments

1. 

   O. Sheley on December 10, 2009 at 1:26 pm

   Before my Mac transformation, I owned an Acer Home Server running WHS. It did its job very well; low power consumption, huge storage capacity, and remotely administered with ease. When I switched to Mac (great decision thus far) I wanted to use Time Machine to administer the backup of my MBP and my girlfriend’s iMac to ensure effortless redundancy and most importantly, ability to fully recover from a complete system failure. There are ways to use Time Machine with WHS and other SMB shares but these are not 100% effect; works for some and not for other. I didn’t want to believe I had a solid backup to only realize I had been fooling myself the whole time if I suffered a complete failure.

   Time Capsule is the recommended solution for most but it has okay write speeds, is not cheap and Time Machine like to consume the entire drive with backups. $500 for the 2TB means I’d be paying $300 for the router, no thanks. Wanting an Apple supported solution I looked at the new Mac Mini Server. Although it isn’t well advertised, a great feature of OS X Server is the ability to centralize your client Time Machine backups. The Mac Mini Server comes with 4GB DDR3, 2.53GHz Core 2, 2 x 500GB drives AND OS X Server for $999. My Acer WHS came with 2GB DDR2, 1.6GHz Atom, 1TB drive and WHS and cost $389. I was able to sell it for $300; now the Mac Mini Server is only going to run me $699. $200 more than the 2TB time Capsule AND it covers the needs of my Acer WHS? SOLD!

   Turns out, OS X Server is a little powerhouse and easily manageable system. On top of my core desired features, I also get my IPsec VPN solution. Configuring OS X Server is night and day easy as compared to Windows Server anything. If I was a small/home business, this little box would be at the TOP of my purchase list; the server hosts several collaboration services that are a steal for the total cost of this unit!
   
   I’m still deciding which FireWire 800 External to get so I can dramatically expand my storage capacity. The Drobo looks nice but the speeds appear low because it is a “RAID5 like” drive. Western Digital also has some very nice externals as well with higher speeds but is only RAID1/0 or non-RAID. People scream about the lack of eSATA but I don’t think it’s a deal breaker. Since the 1TB WD Blue is about to release, I will likely update the storage 500GB drive and do all of my data intensive tasks from there and do all of my backups and archiving on a massive external. Aside from the initial backup and a full recovery, the drive speed isn’t a real factor for Time Machine. If you need your system NOW, then you should be doing local Time Machine and not centralized.

   The only cons I have/had were no disc drive, but the only time you really need it is for recovery but with OS X Remote Install you’re solid! I’m having troubles with local DNS name resolution but that experience in probably unique to me and my “knowledglessness” with DNS behind NAT.

   I will update once I get an external and get everything up to snuff.
   

2. 

   Brian Stucki on December 10, 2009 at 1:54 pm

   The new Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server has just been wonderful. We already have about 100 of them running here at Macminicolo as production servers and they’ve performed great.

   A few comments on hardware:

   - In this machine you have two 500GB drives. By default, they are two separate drives. When you configure on startup, the default prompt is to have your services running on the drive called “Server HD” and the backups go to the drive “Macintosh HD2.” Of course you can change this to however you want, but that is the default.

   - You can also put the two drives in RAID 1 or RAID 0. To do this, you’ll need to boot from the restore disc that comes with the machine. Since there is no optical drive on the Macmini, you’ll either need to use the Remote Disk feature and take advantage of a Mac or PC drive on the network. (This works wonderful) Or you can purchase the SuperDrive for MacBook Air which plugs into the USB drive of the Mac mini and works fine. Personally, I’m not a fan of RAID, but I know others are.

   - This machine comes with 4GB of RAM, which is more than enough for most things. You can also upgrade to 8GB of RAM if you’d like to crack it open. This isn’t “officially” supported by Apple, but works well.

   - Like all other Mac minis before it, this machine is nearly silent. It’s wonderful in that sense. It also runs cooler since the optical drive is what produced most of the heat in the last ones.

   - For connectivity, you have a FW800 and 5 USB. For a display, you can use mini DisplayPort or mini DVI. (There is a mini-DVI to DVI converter that comes in the box.) And of course, the machine will also run headless without any problem at all.

   And now a couple mentions of software info:

   - This machine comes with a license of Unlimited Client Snow Leopard Server. That’s a wonderful deal since it’s $499 if purchased on it’s own. This is a full copy with no limitation. You’ll have the blue card with the serial in your packet.

   -The machine will also run Snow Leopard just fine if you’d rather install it on this machine and use your Snow Leopard Server license somewhere else.

   - For the first time on these Mac minis, Applecare also covers basic setup of Snow Leopard Server. (This is a separate, expensive option when buying an Xserve.) You can call AppleCare and they’ll help you configure your server. Very useful.

   Overall, these new machines are just fantastic. Our customers love them.