Mac mini server...

[John Kotches]

Ordered up stock, but I'll be swapping at least one drive with an SSD. Might swap them both. One will be for Mac OS the other for virtual machines. At various times I will be running windows 7, RHEL or CentOS and Solaris. Not all at once of course. The Unix flavors are for testing / education. I need to keep up to date on my skills.

I also upgraded the RAM (3rd party) to 16GB (Chipset maximum). Memory is Corsair and this is twice the officially supported amount. It should fly for my needs.

It'll be nice getting back to Mac, after an absence for a while. I like having Unix underneath it all and I often open a terminal session to do geek level work.

I just wish parallels desktop had a physical to virtual tool so I could copy the existing desktop win 7 instead of rebuilding. For the short term I might just use RDP.

Fun times.



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[nsafreak]

Seems like it should fit your needs pretty well. Minis just won't cut it for me as a server though, I tend to put large amounts of disk storage on my servers and I really am none too keen on the idea of having a bunch of external USB/Firewire drives. Kindof surprised that you are throwing on a Debian based distro on there, I'm a big fan of several debian based distros and far prefer the package dist tools available for it as opposed to yum & other RH distro tools

 

[John Kotches]

NSA:

I got the server version because it has the quad core cpu, not because I intend to use it for server functions. I already have a ReadyNAS for my house's big storage needs.

the only service I expect to be running normally is DHCP. it handled reserved/ static dhcp better than my router does.

Cheers,

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[Neutron]

I have to admit the Mac Mini is one small but powerful workhorse. Both my wife and I have 8GB a piece in our Minis and I've noticed it's a rarity for the Mac OS to even touch 1.5GB of that.

I would consider an SSD if there was an easy way to clone hard drives. I'm sure Mac OS makes it easy but I just haven't read up on it.

John, have you thought about using VMware Fusion instead? Last I checked it supports P2V.

 

[John Kotches]

There are professional reasons for using parallels as opposed to VMWare .

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[John Kotches]

Running on the 2x 500GB 7200 RPM drives right now. Not bad. Next weekend my project will be to swap the boot drive for the 128GB SSD. I might swap the secondary as well as once you are in there, you might as well do them both. The deciding factor will be how often I am running virtual machines, I really don't know yet.

Very speedy and running with 16GB of physical memory.

 

[rockymtnhigh]

John,

What did it cost you for the machine? (Not counting swapping to SSDs).

 

[John Kotches]

I paid MSRP for the server version, so $1000. The additional RAM / Parallels + 8GB flash was a bundle for $150. I already have the SSDs from prior Wintel laptops.

So, all in was $1150. I still have to have my wife pick up a copy of Win7 for Parallels.

This morning I configured up the DHCP server and shut it off of the router. This allows my to use Static DHCP for all of my "known" devices... and damn is IP exploding in the average household. I will freely admit my household is not average when it comes to IP connected devices. I have 26 devices in my static IP map. There'll be more after I configure up the virtuals.

It's not that I need to do this, I just like having our devices come up with predictable IP addresses. And setting up Static / Reserved DHCP addresses the devices ask for an IP address via DHCP and I magically give them the same every time.

It's for my convenience and not something most people would bother doing.

 

[nsafreak]

Neat, have the same setup going with my Amahi server. Is the Mac mini server using laptop parts? The only i7s I have found in the ARK that run at such a low clockspeeds are laptop parts. Makes sense I guess since it would be pretty tough to properly cool a desktop CPU in that small of a case.

 

[John Kotches]

Yes, the mini uses laptop parts.

So do a lot of devices these days. Most of the all-in-ones on the market do as well .

I haven't come near stressing it, and my biggest performance constraint is the mechanical drive.

I downloaded isos last night asks I'll be building out virtual machines later today.



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[John Kotches]

I have to get used to hitting the apple button instead of the control key for a lot of keyboard shortcuts. I haven't used MacOS for a while, but it isn't taking much effort to get back on this bicycle. Forgot how much I like that there's a full featured Unix OS underneath the covers. As a full time Unix geek it's a nice perk. There are somethings that are just easier from a command prompt.

I've decided I'm just going to replace the boot drive with an SSD. The virtuals run fast enough off of the mechanical spindle and most of my work will be done in MacOS. Does anyone know if you can use Time machine to back up 2 drives seperately... I'd like to essentially have off-line mirrors. Copy the 128GB ssd to the other and copy the 500GB to the removed 500GB.

I changed the Downloads to go to the mechanical drive so that I don't have a lot of "junk" collecting on the SSD. I download a boatload o' stuff so it would needlessly fill up the SSD. That's next weekends project, after I get the logic board removal tool. Makes the process much easier.

Quite pleased with my purchase and working on getting a really clean installation. Leaning towards a quad monitor stand with 2 monitors, the laptop and the mini mounted on the various monitor mounts.

Rule of thumb these days, buy the maximum amount of memory your system supports, it's inexpensive and you'll appreciate it in the long run. But don't pay the Apple price$ on ram, buy 3rd party

 

[rockymtnhigh]

I have to get used to hitting the apple button instead of the control key for a lot of keyboard shortcuts. I haven't used MacOS for a while, but it isn't taking much effort to get back on this bicycle. Forgot how much I like that there's a full featured Unix OS underneath the covers. As a full time Unix geek it's a nice perk. There are somethings that are just easier from a command prompt.

I've decided I'm just going to replace the boot drive with an SSD. The virtuals run fast enough off of the mechanical spindle and most of my work will be done in MacOS. Does anyone know if you can use Time machine to back up 2 drives seperately... I'd like to essentially have off-line mirrors. Copy the 128GB ssd to the other and copy the 500GB to the removed 500GB.

I changed the Downloads to go to the mechanical drive so that I don't have a lot of "junk" collecting on the SSD. I download a boatload o' stuff so it would needlessly fill up the SSD. That's next weekends project, after I get the logic board removal tool. Makes the process much easier.

Quite pleased with my purchase and working on getting a really clean installation. Leaning towards a quad monitor stand with 2 monitors, the laptop and the mini mounted on the various monitor mounts.

Rule of thumb these days, buy the maximum amount of memory your system supports, it's inexpensive and you'll appreciate it in the long run. But don't pay the Apple price$ on ram, buy 3rd party

Having NEVER used OSX before I got the mbp, I was surprised how short of a time it took for me to get used to the command-key. Yet, when I go to a PC, I am still able to switch back.

I don't use the terminal much, but I have really loved the way OSX works as a GUI. And I have learned my fair share of keyboard shortcuts. I was amazed by how many shortcuts there are, particularly since my image of apple was ALWAYS about a strange mouse. And the gestures in OSX on the magic trackpad are probably the most intuitive thing ever. I love it. And have external trackpads at home and at the office. Never use a real mouse anymore.

I think you are going to be very pleased with the SSD - it will make that machine FLY. It has been the biggest surprise for me with the Air.