OS X Server Too much trouble?

[zamzmith]

The IT support professional from Progent said, "For only ten workstations it's too much trouble to use the server OS."

So now our lovely Xserve is doing nothing more then any Mac could have done except fit in the rack nicely.

Opinions on the Progent pro's thinking?

Thank you very much.

 

[miles01110]

The IT support professional from Progent said, "For only ten workstations it's too much trouble to use the server OS."
...
Opinions on the Progent pro's thinking?

Not enough information to answer the question. What do these 10 workstations have to do?

 

[zamzmith]

Not enough information to answer the question. What do these 10 workstations have to do?

Graphics. In house graphic art department for large company producing advertising, labels, boxes, brochures etc. by the ton all year. A graphics factory.

Lotus Notes, for in-house IT to spy on emails, and logon to the Internet somehow via a login (proxy server?). And there's a hundred PCs on the LAN but I don't know if the graphics people ever need to share files with them but they all come up under "Shared" in the finder window sidebar. In-house IT is super paranoid.

 

[miles01110]

Graphics. In house graphic art department for large company producing advertising, labels, boxes, brochures etc. by the ton all year. A graphics factory.

Ok, I meant what do they have to do in terms of networking. Share files, for example?

 

[zamzmith]

Graphics. In house graphic art department for large company producing advertising, labels, boxes, brochures etc. by the ton all year. A graphics factory.

All graphics files remain on server, so all clients are opening, working on and saving files across network. Frequently files are shared peer-to-peer via the drop box.

Lotus Notes, for in-house IT to spy on emails, and logon to the Internet somehow via a login (proxy server?). And there's a hundred PCs on the LAN but I don't know if the graphics people ever need to share files with them but they all come up under "Shared" in the finder window sidebar. In-house IT is super paranoid and Mac haters.

 

[chrfr]

OP, you aren't providing enough information. The Mac users are only sharing files between themselves?
Given that the company is providing mail and internet services, the IT consultant is probably right.
Further, for 10 users, an Xserve is massive overkill.

 

[zamzmith]

Ah ha, I'm starting to see. If the graphics team is not going to use the Xserve for email, web serving, iChat, iCal, etc. why have it.

They do work in smaller teams collaborating on large projects but there are ways to do that without OS X Server. The features, like the Wiki Server, are awesome but I don't think any one would use it.

I got too wowed by the Apple hype!

Thanks

 

[logandzwon]

Hi zamzmith,
Sounds like these poor Mac users are being treated like second class citizens in your environment. OS X plays very nicely with other OSes, but often Windows admins refuse to be of any help. What your consultant is possibly thinking of is tieing OpenLDAP into your ActiveDirectory. That would be a bit of a hassle for ten users. However, you can simply add all the macs to AD directly. You loose some of the features of being able to settings like shares and permissions, updates from the server, but that should really be a big deal if you don't use them anyway.

OS X server 10.6 is very useful, but it sounds like you already have most of your collaboration tools, (email, instant message, calendar, web hosting) provided by another team. You could use it as an AFP share for you team, or use it as part of a back up solution for your team.

 

[foidulus]

If the files in question are pretty big I wouldn't necessarily rely on SMB to do the sharing, it's much slower than it's non-windows counterparts(namely NFS)

If there is going to be a lot of sharing of big files I would recommend you get a Linux box to do the job(and despite what any MSCE tries to tell you, Linux is INFINITELY easier to set up than any MS server garbage)

 

[bartzilla]

Hi zamzmith,
Sounds like these poor Mac users are being treated like second class citizens in your environment..

I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion from the OP's posts.

 

[Eric-PTEK]

If the files in question are pretty big I wouldn't necessarily rely on SMB to do the sharing, it's much slower than it's non-windows counterparts(namely NFS)

If there is going to be a lot of sharing of big files I would recommend you get a Linux box to do the job(and despite what any MSCE tries to tell you, Linux is INFINITELY easier to set up than any MS server garbage)

So speaks someone who does not understand what a server really does.

If all they are doing is simple file sharing then yes, it is overkill, and overpriced.

Windows servers can handle the sharing and there are several tools out there that will allow AFP on a Windows 2003/2008 server, we use one. Extreme Z-IP.

All the linux server people out there think servers are for file sharing, if you want to share files, get a NAS.

Servers are for managing your environment, running additional services and collaboration tools, etc, not just file sharing. Security, policies, automated setup, etc.

All things that Linux servers cannot even come close to offering what a MS server can. Their server products are rock solid as is their support of them.

I understand X server has decent management tools for the Mac but their hardware costs for smaller businesses are astronomical. The only financial advantage of Xserve is that it is unlimited users, so more users the more feasible it becomes.

Forget the emotional response to why Xserve isn't supported and look at the financial/business reasons. You need to hire someone with a totally different skill set, Apple's cost for on site 4 hour response warranty is absolutely insane, 20K per year. If you want phone support its $6K per YEAR!

HP's 4 hour response warranty on a decent sized rack server is around $700 and thats for three years, not one. Apple does not break out their hardware support, you must buy it as a bundle.

It does not make business sense.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

So will there be an x-server for sale soon?

What do you want for it?

 

[Silas1066]

The Xserve can do a number of things both for the Mac clients and the windows machines, such as:

1. Wikiserver
2. Squid proxy server
3. iChat services
4. Remote applications and access for iPhones

You can also configure Open Directory on it, and have the mac clients authenticate to both the windows domain and the Xserve.

Having an Xserve and a Windows Server in one office is like having a BMW and a Yugo in your garage.