New to server software-need set up for family

[driphone]

Hi everyone,

Pardon me in advance for asking what may be a very basic question.

How can I best set up/use a Mac Mini Yosemite server (late 2012, i7, 16 GB RAM) to be used in a household of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids) with 3 MacBooks, an iPad, 4 iPhones and one Apple TV which is connected to our TV and main sound system. I do have a library of over 30,000 photos/clips and a decent size iTunes library.

Thank you,
Sam

 

[marzer]

Hi everyone,

Pardon me in advance for asking what may be a very basic question.

How can I best set up/use a Mac Mini Yosemite server (late 2012, i7, 16 GB RAM) to be used in a household of 4 (2 adults, 2 kids) with 3 MacBooks, an iPad, 4 iPhones and one Apple TV which is connected to our TV and main sound system. I do have a library of over 30,000 photos/clips and a decent size iTunes library.

Thank you,
Sam

For starters, what do you want to do? What sort of capabilities do you want it to provide the house?

In my case, I have a Mac mini server connected to the TV in the theater room. It has 12TB of DAS shared out on the network. With it I provide iTunes streaming to 4 Apple TVs, 3 Mac computers, an Airport Express feeding three ceiling speaker pairs throughout the house and several iOS devices.

The server is also common/shared file storage as well as a Time Machine service for backing up all the computers in the house. The software update caching for Apple software is also a nice feature that services all the Apple devices. And then there's some network services running that provide Dynamic DNS mapping, OpenDNS mapping and StreamToMe server so the family can access the iTunes library over the Internet.

Just to give you an idea.

 

[Les Kern]

If you can't think of something to benefit, perhaps you don't really "need" it? Understand that I mean this statement with the utmost respect... I have one as well (and pretty close to the same number of devices you have) and I use it to host my web site using Drupal, but it's really just a plaything, a hobby. My Time Capsules are much more suited to backups with Time Machine, and it would be a shame to "waste" the Mini for mere backups (although I am a HUGE believer in at least 3 different backup paths). My main Mac Pro is the epicenter of my house, thats where sharing of media happens, the Apple TV is just pretty much a conduit. So if you like to tinker, try something you'd enjoy. If not, you might be adding a level of complexity that would detract from your tech experience. I suppose the best use of that Mini is as you hint at: A media center.

 

[driphone]

If you can't think of something to benefit, perhaps you don't really "need" it? Understand that I mean this statement with the utmost respect... I have one as well (and pretty close to the same number of devices you have) and I use it to host my web site using Drupal, but it's really just a plaything, a hobby. My Time Capsules are much more suited to backups with Time Machine, and it would be a shame to "waste" the Mini for mere backups (although I am a HUGE believer in at least 3 different backup paths). My main Mac Pro is the epicenter of my house, thats where sharing of media happens, the Apple TV is just pretty much a conduit. So if you like to tinker, try something you'd enjoy. If not, you might be adding a level of complexity that would detract from your tech experience. I suppose the best use of that Mini is as you hint at: A media center.

Thank you for your input. I forgot to mention that I have a Synology NAS (mirrored disks) for Time Machine backups plus 2 other external HDs for additional photo/video back ups. By Media Center do you mean photos, videos and music? And if I do use it as a Media Center how do I point the laptops to the Mac Mini libraries?

 

[smartmoney]

an Airport Express feeding three ceiling speaker pairs throughout the house and several iOS devices

I'm was just looking to figure this out. Can you elaborate on how you have this hooked up? What kind of amp are you using? one single AE? how do you control what room the music flows through? etc.