Creating fileserver - Is this possible?

[mrsir2009]

Hey guys, I want to know if its possible to have a few Macs, and set it up so everything that is saved on the Macs is saved on a server (not on the Mac's hard drive).

So say I had a XServe and 10 or so Mac laptops, could everything be saved to the server and not the computer its being done on. But then the Macs can all access the files they saved to the server.

I don't want you to tell me how to do it. Just if its possible or not, and if it will be slow as helll

Cheers!

 

[RedReplicant]

Yes, but I don't know how involved it is. Google Active directory.

 

[hakuryuu]

It is possible. And the speed of it depends more on whether you have the laptops connected via wireless or gigabit ethernet. A bunch of macs connected to OS X server via AFP will be more than quick enough.

Active Directory has nothing to do with a bunch of macs. Open Directory is OS X Server's method. Both are based on LDAP but AD is for Windows primarily.

 

[RedReplicant]

Fair enough, just knew it could be done with AD, wasn't aware of the more proper way.

 

[mrsir2009]

Well, since there aren't going to be tons of Mac laptops, only 5 to 10 or them, I'm going to use a Mac Mini Server instead of an XServe. A Mini Server with 1TB HDD would manage I reckon. And yes, they will be connected via wireless airport. A couple of Questions though:

•How much RAM would I need in the server? And would the amount of RAM affect the preformance?

•Would the speed on the HDDs affect preformance? (5400RMP or 7200RMP)?

Peace!

 

[lanceh5]

MacMini server

mrsir2009
When you get this set up please let us know how it is working. I want to do the same thing with my home network to access files, photos, etc with ethernet and wireless. I am thinking of Cable modem > Airport Extreme > Switch > MiniServer.

 

[Les Kern]

•How much RAM would I need in the server?
as much as it can hold

And would the amount of RAM affect the performance?
Yep

•Would the speed on the HDDs affect performance? (5400RMP or 7200RMP)?
Yep

 

[Winni]

•How much RAM would I need in the server?
as much as it can hold

And would the amount of RAM affect the performance?
Yep

•Would the speed on the HDDs affect performance? (5400RMP or 7200RMP)?
Yep

Those are exactly my answers.

 

[ChrisA]

Well, since there aren't going to be tons of Mac laptops, only 5 to 10 or them, I'm going to use a Mac Mini Server instead of an XServe. A Mini Server with 1TB HDD would manage I reckon. And yes, they will be connected via wireless airport. A couple of Questions though:

•How much RAM would I need in the server? And would the amount of RAM affect the preformance?

•Would the speed on the HDDs affect preformance? (5400RMP or 7200RMP)?

Peace!

If you are connecting over wireless, then the network will be the bottleneck. Even a slow drive is faster than the network. If you use Gigabit Ethernet then the drive is the weak link so the drive's spped is seen by the end user. You don't need a lot of RAM, but RAM is cheap and Mini don't hld much. 4GB is best.