Server for Beginner

[4rctic]

Hey out there,
my name is Angelo and im from germany, so im sorry for my english.

First off:
We've got a Fritz!Box 7490 providing all the Internet and phone stuff. I use a mac mini (el captain) and my macbook Pro Retina is on the way to me :3
My parents are both running Windows (8 & 10) on their notebooks. We all use 3 iPhones and 1 iPad. An AppleTV is also in the lineup.
Never done anything with backup or such.
Now I wanted to change that and im confused what to do:
The Mac Mini (late 2012) could be used as a BackUp and file server? Or should i consider buying a NAS /(WD MyCloud e.g.)?
The Goal is to have a Backupserver for TimeMachine (any Windows recommendations?) and a file storage with separate folders for everyone and a global folder for movies (Streamable to the ATV?) and Pics.
A mobile login to reach for data on the disk via the internet would be nice but it isn't necessary.

At last: It should be a cheep as possible but it should also be reliable. No need for RAID, but im likely to pay more for a good system.


Sinc.
Angelo

 

[barbu]

The Mac Mini (late 2012) could be used as a BackUp and file server? Or should i consider buying a NAS /(WD MyCloud e.g.)?

Hey Angelo, welcome. The mini would make a fine file server. You could attach an large, inexpensive external drive and share it via Sharing within System Preferences. You could create accounts for different people and set up folders within the external drive with the appropriate permissions for each account. You could enable port mapping from your router to enable access to the file shares from elsewhere on the Internet (for this, make sure your mini has a fixed IP address so your mapping works correctly). You could also purchase the Server add-on from the App Store for finer control over some of these settings.
Once the other computers have the share mounted, they can be configured to use the share for Time Machine.

 

[4rctic]

First of all, thanks for your quick reply

Is there a tutorial for the part with the port mapping and mounting the drive with the other computers ?

 

[barbu]

First of all, thanks for your quick reply

Is there a tutorial for the part with the port mapping and mounting the drive with the other computers ?

How port mapping is done depends on your internet box. I am not familiar with the Fritzbox or how it works. Look in the manual. It isn't difficult, particularly. You need to know the internal IP address of the mini server and the ports you want to map. For example, if you share via FTP, you would need to map TCP port 21.

You can also use Back to My Mac for this, but it would only be for your account. You would have to be OK with sharing your iCloud login with whoever is accessing the file share.

Mounting on a local Mac should be as easy as clicking the share from within Finder's sidebar. Mounting remotely can be done via Finder from the Go menu > Connect to Server (CMD-K).

 

[barbu]

I found this, take a look:

http://en.avm.de/service/fritzbox/f.../show/893_Configuring-static-port-forwarding/

 

[4rctic]

Thanks a lot! I'll have a look at it soon

Is there a benefit for
A Mac based server over a MyCloud ?

 

[barbu]

I persoanlly prefer using my Mac for managing the shares because the OS/security is more robust and I can have a finer degree of control over how everything works. That being said, the review i looked at here is very positive about the My Cloud features in general. It depends on whether you want to admin your shares through your Mac or through an interface on the NAS. It's possible that NAS interface might be easier to use for a beginner. On the other hand, it appear that some of the MyCloud features depend on going through WD's servers so your privacy may be compromised and you run the risk of them discontinuing the service at some random point in the future.
Also note that, with either solution, you will still need to set up the port forwarding through your router.

 

[Geeky Chimp]

Hi Angelo. We run a fair number of Mac Mini's with OS X Server for our business servers, providing a broad range of services. We've found Time Machine great to backup our Mac's and host all of our business files on OS X Server on the Mac Minis too. At Home I even have a Mac Mini Server backing up my home Mac's and providing DHCP/DNS etc as well as an iTunes Library for Home Sharing on our Apple TV's which works really well.