[FX.php List] Economical Mac Server setup

[Bob Patin]

While I agree with Troy and used some Mac Minis for a short while, I  
have to caution against using a consumer-grade machine for running  
company business.

My biggest concerns are the disk speed (4500 RPM) and heat; I know  
that Mac Minis are designed so that they dissipate heat, but they're  
not meant to be used the way that a machine is used when it's doing  
database calls all day. Granted, I've got 6 Mac Minis and have only  
one that has ever caused trouble, but balanced against (at one time)  
40 Mac servers and one hardware failure out of 40 machines, and then 6  
Mac Minis and one hardware failure...

I know that's anecdotal evidence, and I also know that a lot of people  
use Mac Minis for servers (so much so that there's a company that  
specializes in hosting Mac Minis) but the question in my mind is: Do  
you want to run a company's business on a machine that was designed to  
do home computer tasks, or do you want to rely on a machine that is  
set up to run 24/7?

My 2 bits... :)

Best,

Bob Patin
Longterm Solutions LLC
bob at longtermsolutions.com
615-333-6858
http://www.longtermsolutions.com
Twitter: bobpatin
iChat/AIM: bobpatin
FileMaker 9 Certified Developer
Member of FileMaker Business Alliance & TechNet
--------------------------
FileMaker hosting and consulting for all versions of FileMaker
PHP • Full email services • Free DNS hosting • Colocation • Consulting

On Feb 10, 2009, at 12:16 PM, Troy Meyers wrote:

> John,
>
> This may only be worth 2 cents.
>
> I like Mac Minis. Others may say they are unreliable, but I think  
> that was an issue with the hard drive in early models, and I haven't  
> experienced that at all, and they are so inexpensive new that a used  
> machine is only a bit cheaper. For quite a while we used one Mini as  
> the FM server, WPE, and Apache machine. We are currently using two  
> of them, one as the FM server (advanced) and the other as the WPE 
> +Apache. We doubled because our site is getting much more popular.  
> Both are 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duos with 1 GB RAM. Neither have MacOS X  
> Server -- nope, they are just consumer machines running Leopard.  
> They work great. I've used them since FileMaker Server 8, but we are  
> currently on 9, and are testing 10 on a spare.
>
> -Troy
>
>> I am setting up a economical fm/web server for my client.
>>
>> I have been trying to get an old Dell Windows 2000 server set up  
>> for FM
>> Server 8 advance and iis to host FM files and FX/PHP. Among some  
>> other
>> headaches was the PHP install. I am not novice when it comes to PCs,
>> servers, Macs etc. and this process was the most frustrating setup I
>> have ever come across.
>>
>> I gave up.
>>
>> I am going to buy a used Mac to host Apache FX/ PHP and FMSA. I know
>> there is a min configuration for FMSA but is there a min config for
>> Apache / PHP on OSx? There will be only a hand full of users logged  
>> on
>> from FM Clients and 1 or 2 web clients.
>>
>> Any 2 cents is appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> John Funk
>
> _______________________________________________
> FX.php_List mailing list
> FX.php_List at mail.iviking.org
> http://www.iviking.org/mailman/listinfo/fx.php_list