How difficult is it to setup Mac OS X Server?
We are a small office of about 4 people, and we would like to have a 27-inch iMac (Core 2 Duo) setup as a server and workstation simultaneously, using Mac OS X Server.
This might seem like overkill (and stupidity at the same time), but here is the situation:
- we want to convert our whole office to Mac, only one full-time PC left
- we will not use its mail server
- we might use its chat server
- we want it setup to provide VPN
- we are a small office so I don't see how the server can be overrun with too much traffic.
How difficult would it be to set it up in this way? I have a fairly advanced knowledge of Mac OS X but have never encountered Mac OS X Server. I think I would be able to set it up, but what are the probable pitfalls that might come up?
Has anyone else been in a similar situation?
// edit:
I forgot to mention that the Mac must be used as a file server, storing the files locally, but maybe on a separate partition?! (That's why we thought of an iMac because of the big HDD)
We have been using an external HDD on a Windows machine up until now, and have not had mentioned problems with it so far (crashes and lost data), so I really doubt that Mac would display these problems, especially with the upped specs and the better operating system.
Unfortunately our company can only afford one workstation now, so what do you guys think would be the best? Would an iMac suffice as a workstation/server for now?
// edit 2:
Also, we are based in South Africa, and Mac Minis with Snow Leopard Server are very hard to come by. They are not available online here and I gather they would have to be specially ordered through the Core Group (official Apple importers).
I would be much more tempted to buy a Mac mini as a dedicated server, you can hide it in a corner where it's less likely to be put to sleep/rebooted/stolen or messed up over time through normal use. Also they're available with OSX server from day one rather than having to buy the OS on its own. They do a dual disk version now too.
As for how hard they are to set up, well for file and print services they are ridiculously simple, the email and VPN services are simple as well, if you have a decent enough grasp of DNS. I've not personally setup any chat service so can't comment.
It is indeed hard to find much information on OS X Server. As far as I can tell, Mac OS X Server is essentially Mac OS X + some Unix software + some nice graphical interfaces to this software (located in Applications -> Utilities -> Server). To tell you the whole story: the User Migration assistant is the only piece of software that I could not find on OS X Server (and it apparently should not be used with OS X Server).
Administration tasks are much simpler with OS X Server than with OS X, at least for standard configurations.
I have been happily using OS X Server as a workstation over the last month. I can't see any difference with Mac OS X.
I've used OSX Server for all of the things you listed. I usually test on Mac minis, and then deploy on Xserves (never on an iMac though). Regardless, I would not recommend using it as your day-to-day workstation.
However, I'm not sure you need OS X Server at all. You can use a regular iMac with OS X pre-installed. Get a big external hard drive and share it using regular file sharing over AFP. You didn't mention if you want to tie all your user accounts together with Open Directory. For an office of 4 people, I don't think you need to. You can easily just create accounts for each of them on your iMac, and they can all log in with AFP.
For your other services:
- Openfire is a jabber (ie: iChat) server that can be run on regular Mac OS X. It is far better than the one included with OS X Server.
- OpenVPN is similarly a far better VPN server than what is included with OS X Server. And Tunnelbrick is a GUI for setting it up!
Either of these servers could be installed on your iMac, or they can be installed on an old Linux machine. If you've got an old clunker that you can run Ubuntu on, that would be ideal.
I really like Mac OS X Server for a lot of things. Particularly for Open Directory, User/Computer/Preference management, and Portable/Network home directories. But for some services, the open-source offerings are simply better.