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Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server

Category:Technology -> Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server

Adventures with the naked Mac Mini Server

Apple’s basic Mac Mini Server (mid 2010) configuration is one of the best deals going in tech. Mac OS X Server v10.6 Snow Leopard with an unlimited client license (the only option) costs US$499 on its own—the Mac Mini Server with Snow Leopard Server is US$999. Think of it as paying US$500 for the software and US$500 for the hardware. It’s a tiny, quiet, and relatively cheap solution for a small business, a small workgroup, a home media and file server, or a co-located server providing internet services. Best of all, it’s adequately powerful and only draws about 14 watts of power when idle.

For any of these solutions there’s no need for a monitor, keyboard, or mouse. You can run your Mac Mini Server(s) naked, like I do. Just order the Mac Mini Server from the Apple store. Be sure to order the basic configuration; Apple’s RAM prices are notoriously high and at the time of this writing the 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with two 500GB 7200-rpm drives and NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics is the only option.

At the same time you place your order for the Mac Mini Server click on over to Crucial and order two 4GB 204-pin 1066MHz DDR3 PC3-8500 memory modules. As of this writing that’ll set you back about US$125 with shipping (compared to Apple’s US$400).

While you’re waiting for your memory upgrade to arrive, go ahead and install the Admin Tools CD that came with your Mac Mini Server on the Mac(s) you’ll be using to remotely administer your server(s).

Mac OS X 10.6.x Snow Leopard Server procedures

1. Upgrade the Mac Mini Server’s memory
2. Establish a remote connection to the Mac Mini Server
3. Initially configure your Mac Mini Server
4. Install the PEAR PECL libraries for PHP
5. Install and configure cron
6. Install and configure Drupal
7. Install and configure WordPress

Mac OS X 10.7.x Lion Server procedures

1. Install Xcode
2. Configure PHP
3. Install the PEAR PECL libraries for PHP
4. Install the MySQL database
5. Configure MySQL
6. Install phpMyAdmin
7. Install and configure cron
8. Install and configure Drupal
9. Install and configure WordPress
10. Set up and configure wiki collaboration services
11. Repair PostgreSQL
12. Install and configure Homebrew
13. Install useful Homebrew components
14. Install and configure ownCloud

Mac OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion Server procedures

Apple released Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion and its Server component on 25 July 2012. We’re working on determining what works, what needs updating, and all the rest.

Update: Friday, 3 August 2012 1:45PM CDT: Following its familiar pattern, Apple’s release of Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion/OS X Server was perhaps a little premature. We’re running into all sorts of small, nit-picky problems. These problems are enough to make backing off on any major updates here for a while longer seem worthwhile.

Update: Saturday, 4 August 2012 2:10PM CDT: I should have known better. I’ve been using Macs since 1984 and I’ve never, ever been able to install a major operating system upgrade (e.g., OS X 10.7x to OS X 10.8) in-line. Each time I’ve tried there seems to be no end of small (and sometimes large) issues. I’m going to have to reformat and reinstall everything—both our MacBook Pros and the Mac Mini Server—from the bare metal up, as usual. Thanks loads, Apple.

1. Reformat and reinstall
2. Upgrade to Mac OS X 10.8x Mountain Lion
3. Recover from Mac OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion/OS X Server 2.x update
4. Upgrade to the most recent version of XCode
5. Install X window system (X11)
6. Upgrade to Mac OS X 10.8.x Mountain Lion Server
7. Configure an SSL certificate
8. Configure external Domain Name Service (DNS)
9. Configure external email service
10. Add Google Analytics tracking code to wiki
11. Install and configure Homebrew
12. Install and configure useful Homebrew components
13. Remove Homebrew components that are deprecated or no longer used
14. Configure PHP
15. Configure the PEAR/PECL libraries for PHP
16. Install RVM, Ruby, and Rails
17. Install the MySQL database server
18. Configure the MySQL database server
19. Migrate MySQL and webserver data
20. Configure Apache for “clean” URLs
21. Install phpMyAdmin
22. Install phpPgAdmin
23. Bring back Save As…
24. Configure a git repository
25. Install and configure ExpressionEngine
26. Install and configure ownCloud
27. Install and configure StatusNet
28. Install and configure ThinkUp
29. Install and configure Zenphoto
30. Install and configure WordPress
31. Install and configure Drupal
32. Install and configure ProjectPier
33. Install and configure ImpressPages

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