Mac Mini share display/keyboard/mouse with iMac?

[d21mike]

I need to setup 2 or 3 "server" type work stations. I am thinking of one iMac and 2 Mac Mini's. I seldom need to login to any of them but my current Mac Mini does not work well if not plugged into a display. Would be nice to have an iMac that I could switch to access the mac mini's from.

Any ideas?

 

[chickenwingfly]

I don't fully understand what you want to achieve but if I got it right, then this comes into mind.

 

[d21mike]

That looks interesting but was thinking of a hardware solution. Not sure what they call it but I connect my MacBook Air to my Cinema Display and use the dual display. My keyboard is USB connect to the display. So was wondering is this was a iMac instead of a Cinema Display could it work similar. But instead of my MacBook Air use a Mac Mini. And somehow toggle between similar to using a KVM.

 

[chickenwingfly]

I see. Well to be honest I don't know if it would work with an iMac, since its monitor wouldn't expect any "input signal" as it's all packed in there, right?

Then I guess you could use a KVM switch and some kind of capture solution (ElGato, Hauppauge) to get the input from the mini, but then (and I don't know if this is good or bad) it would show up as a window on Mac OS, not really the full signal (and so at the same time you could look at both screens, since the mini's would be embedded on the capture software window). If more than one Mini then one could use an additional display switch (Monoprice etc) to connect all Minis to the same capture hardware.

Of course this solution would be totally energy inefficient, more expensive and more clutter to your desk.

 

[bigbird888]

Screen sharing would one of the simplest. Doesn't need anything extra.

http://jamieorc.wordpress.com/2008/03/23/setting-up-a-headless-mac-mini-without-a-monitor/

 

[d21mike]

Screen sharing would one of the simplest. Doesn't need anything extra.

http://jamieorc.wordpress.com/2008/03/23/setting-up-a-headless-mac-mini-without-a-monitor/

I do use Screen Sharing for my current 1 Mac Mini. In my first post I mentioned it does not seem to work well (reliable) when not plugged into a monitor. Some say you can just use an adapter to fake it out. I was able to get it working without a keyboard/mouse and monitor but it would stop responding from time to time. And since it is at my office it is not easy to simply drive to the office to reboot. This is the reason for looking for something where it would be more reliable. Right now I have it connected to a monitor (19" or 20") using a display port to vga adapter but the screen size is not large enough on my 27" monitor. Maybe I could fix that if I was logged on locally. Anyway, I need at least 2 or 3 Mac's to be used as remote servers at my office. This may grow to more later so using Mac Mini's for this would be the best. I currently have 3 Windows Servers using a KVM Switch which works pretty well. I may just go this route but was looking for other options.