If you’ve been enjoying our Using Apple OS X Lion Server as a Home Server series, then make sure you pick up a copy of the accompanying eBook. You’ll find additional chapters and information on using OS X Lion Server to power your digital home that won’t be available here on the site, and with all of our walkthroughs available in one convenient document (ePub or PDF), it’s far easier to install and configure your server without having to click backward and forwards to the website.
- Introduction
- Choosing Your Hardware
- Features
- Installation
- The Server App
- Storage and Network Configuration
- Users and Groups Configuration
- Profile Manager and Macs [eBook Exclusive]
- Profile Manager and iOS Devices [eBook Exclusive]
- File and Folder Sharing
- Shared Address Book [eBook Exclusive]
- Shared Calendar [eBook Exclusive]
- iChat Server
- Time Machine Backup
- Windows PC Backup [eBook Exclusive]
- VPN Configuration [eBook Exclusive]
- Websites, Blogs and Wikis
Before we dive into the Apple OS X Lion Server software, it’s worth pausing to consider your hardware setup – Mac hardware doesn’t come cheap, so you should carefully consider whether you wish to fully dedicate a new Mac to acting as your home server, or whether you’re happy to load OS X Lion Server on an existing machine. Now that Lion Server is available as an add-on download from the App Store, the latter is most definitely the more cost effective option.
A New Model
If you’re opting for new hardware, then let’s talk about the good news first. You can install OS X Lion Server on any new Mac model with a modern processor - Intel Core 2 Duo, Core i3, Core i5 or Core i7. Whilst Apple package up a version of the Mac Mini
Obviously it’s worth an immediate comparison with Lion Server’s competitors here with regard to processor requirements and the associated power consumption of your hardware. Windows Home Server 2011 will run happily on lower grade, cheaper processors with reduced power consumption, such at the Intel Atom. The higher quality NAS boxes out there are also shipping with Atoms, and that’s likely to translate into cheaper running costs for a machine that is likely to be powered on 24/7. We’re hearing of many readers building WHS 2011 hardware around Intel Core i3 and i5 processors – especially where media transcoding is a requirement – and the power consumption delta is reduced here.
The other comparison you’ll wish to make on hardware is, of course, price. Apple hardware may look great, but with the cheapest Mac shipping today at $599 (the single drive 2.3 GHz Mac mini) you’ll certainly find cheaper PC hardware out there. This won’t be the lowest cost home server hardware you’ll find.
With regard to other specifications OS X Lion Server is restricted to machines with 2GB RAM, but again, all of the new Mac models available today ship with at least that amount of memory, so you’ll be fine picking any model off the shelf.
Using an Existing Mac
Of course, if you already have a number of Macs around the home that meet OS X Lion Server’s hardware requirements, then one of the major changes in this new version of the product will come in very handy indeed. Rather than position Lion Server as a separate, dedicated server platform, it’s now available as an app that can be downloaded and installed on any compatible Mac. That means you can nominate one of the Macs on your network to act as the server. That’s right, the paradigm is rather different. Rather than the traditional concept of servers and clients being different machines, think of OS X Lion Server working as an administrative layer on top of one of your existing clients. All of that client goodness remains on the machine, and you can use it as you would any other Mac on the network – it just happens to be able to manage certain features on your other Macs as a bonus.
It’s this option that we’ll be investigating in our OS X Lion Server series.
Re-purposing an Old Mac
In the same way that thousands of you have re-purposed an old PC for use as a home server, you may be thinking of dusting off that old Apple Mac that’s sitting in the garage for use as your OS X Lion Server. Unfortunately, that’s not going to be an option, unless you’ve previously scrapped a relatively modern Mac. The base operating system, OS X Lion needs a relatively beefy processor as discussed earlier. Without at least an Intel Core 2 Duo on board, you won’t be able to install Lion, and without Lion, there’s no Lion Server.
Of course, the Internet wouldn’t be the Internet if someone hadn’t tried (and apparently succeeded) in hacking around to get Lion working on Intel Core Duo and Solos. For the truly committed, there’s an option available but expect some bumps along the way.
Hackintosh
Whilst Cupertino does its very best to lock OS X to Apple hardware, it is possible (for the hardcore tinkerer) to run the operating system on standard PC hardware. Welcome to the world of the Hackintosh. Running this kind of installation is out of scope for us in this series, but there are plenty of guides and walkthroughs available online, with Lion installation guides emerging now. Google is your friend. Expect a healthy dose of frustration, and a few glitches along the way post-install. But it’s certainly a cheaper option than buying new hardware.
A Question of Storage
So, you’ve figured out what you’ll be using as the base hardware for OS X Lion Server. But there’s one other hardware factor to work out. The average Mac boasts sleek lines and strong aesthetics, but beauty comes at the expense of utility. How many hard drives are fitted to your Mac? Hang on, I’ll have a guess – one, right? It’s probably not that large, either, is it? Even if you’ve plumped for Apple’s Mac Mini Server, you see that the base spec offers only two 500GB drives – hardly storage central.
If you only have a small amount of data stored on the network, you may well be able to fit your Mac Backups and media library on your nominated server’s hard drive. But more likely, you’re going to need to figure out a storage expansion option. Again, there are a few options available to you, depending on whether you wish to have one centralised pool of storage attached to the server, or whether you prefer to split your storage across the network.
Across the network? We’re talking here about Apple’s Time Capsule
music, videos, photos and docs) and your computer backups. You could prioritise physical storage on the server for your media, and allow Time Capsule to look after the backups. Time Capsule is network device which combines a 2TB or 3TB hard drive with a dual-band 802.11n router. Switch out your existing router with the Time Capsule, and it’ll appear automatically on your clients (and indeed the server too) as a target backup disk for Time Machine.
The alternative option is to expand the storage on the server itself. Whilst you could upgrade the server’s existing internal hard drive, you may well be better off attaching an external hard drive or disk enclosure. The disk enclosure route offers the most flexible option for future expansion as well as data protection, with the ability to add more disks, or swap out existing disks for higher capacity models over time. Many enclosures offer built in RAID protection too, mirroring the data stored on one drive to other drives in the array.
The fastest connection to a direct attached storage array is likely to come via Apple’s all-new Thunderbolt connector, which offers two simultaneous bi-directional file transfer speeds of 10 Gb/s (compare that to USB 3.0′s 5 Gb/s speed in one direction). The only issue here is that Thunderbolt compatible storage devices are thin on the ground, and expensive. Right now, you’re limited to the Promise Pegasus
In terms of more traditional options, you’ll be looking for connecting your storage device via Firewire 800 (theoretical throughput 800 Mbps) or the slower USB 2.0 connect0r (480 Mbps). Most modern devices that support Macs will offer both connectors, and we’d recommend the Firewire 800 option. It’s worth taking a look at the LaCie Quadra
Our Selection
So, to recap, what hardware will we be using for our OS X Lion Server project?
Base Computer: Apple iMac 21.5″ Desktop
Additional Storage: Drobo S
Don’t worry if you’re wondering about the 8GB RAM fitted to the iMac. That was just specced up at the time of the build for future expansion. You’ll be absolutely fine with 2 or 4GB on board, as well as a slower processor.
With the hardware sorted out, join us in Part 3 of our series, we’ll take a look at the features to be discovered in OS X Lion Server and assess their relevance for the home.
