[FX.php List] [OFF] Mac Hardware for FMS?

[Bob Patin]

Joel,

I know that lots of guys (Steven Blackwell especially) will tell you  
to get the fastest possible machine on the market, but in my opinion,  
the difference in response is not that huge when you go from a fairly  
fast machine to the latest & greatest.

Having said that, I have a couple of thoughts:

I'm not a fan of single-machine configurations for PHP web apps; I'd  
consider getting 2 machines, splitting the budget so that you can do  
so. Having said that, here are some options that I'd consider:

You can buy used G5 Xserves all day long on eBay, and I've bought a  
few and had excellent luck with all of them that I've bought. G5  
2.0ghz Xserves are dual-core, are really cheap to buy (I've bought  
cluster node machines for less than $500), and work great; you can  
find them all the time. The problem with cluster node machines though  
is that they don't have video cards, so you need another Xserve (not  
cluster node) to install the OS, then put the drive into the cluster  
node for operation.

Right now, http://www.macofalltrades.com has a used Power Mac G5/2.3  
dual-core, 250GB drive, not much RAM at all (you'd need to buy 4GB or  
so), for only $800, which is a great price.

If you're really wanting to stick with Intel Macs, you can also find  
used Xserves on eBay that are Intel Xserves, and there are always some  
great deals to be found. In the 12 years that I've been hosting, I've  
probably bought 40 used Macs on eBay, and have never been burned, nor  
have I ever bought a non-functioning machine.

New Mac Pros start at $2499; you could get 2 of those, but to me  
that's spending more than is really necessary.

If it were me I'd find some used machines; I've had excellent luck  
with them. In fact, when I started hosting CDML web apps in 1998 or  
1999, I got a used iMac to host a guy's solution. He still has the  
solution running, and that iMac has been sitting in the back of my  
server room for 12 years, running fine, for those rare occasions when  
he needs to access his old site. Why it's still there I have no idea,  
but the iMac has been up and running nonstop all this time... :)

Best,




Bob Patin


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On Sep 2, 2009, at 1:02 PM, Joel Shapiro wrote:

> Hi all
>
> Hardware's not my strong suit...
>
> I've got a new client that's contracted me to switch them from Lasso  
> to PHP.  Their current hadware/network setup (FMS + other duties on  
> 1 machine, Lasso/WebServer on another) is unstable and their IT  
> consultant is recommending they buy a new machine instead of trying  
> to clean up all the problems they're having now.
>
> I've recommended they switch to a one-machine FMS config and move  
> everything else to the other server.  The IT guy is suggesting they  
> get a new Mac Pro for the FMS machine for $3700, but that seems  
> excessive to me.  (Is it?)
>
> (The IT guy regularly "likes to have a second hard drive in there  
> mirroring the primary one, to lessen the downtime potential".  I  
> already got him to exclude the live DBs from his nightly SuperDuper  
> clone backups, but it seems to me that for an FMS-only machine, it's  
> really only necessary to regularly backup the DBs and maybe the  
> logs, and everything else on the machine can be "cloned" just  
> whenever the OS or website is updated... since everything except the  
> DBs should remain constant... right?)
>
> I'd appreciate any thoughts or recommendations.  Can you think of  
> other Macs that would be fully sufficient but not as expensive?
>
> TIA,
> -Joel
>
> ## CLIENT:
> - Nonprofit agency w/ 12 FMP users, although rarely if ever all at  
> the same time.  A couple users work in the DB all day long.
> - Their FM/PHP website is used 24 hrs/day for class registrations  
> and "store" purchases.  They receive up to 40 orders per day through  
> the site.
> - DB was migrated to FM9 by their previous FM consultant, and  
> contains 25 .fp7 files.
>
> ## CURRENT FMS MACHINE*:
> Power Mac G5
> Dual 2 GHz
> 3 GB DDR SDRAM
> OS X Server 10.4.11
> *This machine is also used as a file server and had been used as a  
> Now Up-to-Date server
> Lasso/Web Server is on an even older machine (I can't get specs  
> right now)
>
> ## RECOMMENDED FMS WPE MACHINE:
> Mac Pro $3,699.00:
> Two 2.26GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
> 6GB (6x1GB)
> 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
> 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
> NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512MB
> One 18x SuperDrive
> OS X Server 10.6.x*
> * Snow Leopard would require them to get FMS10; they have FMS9 now.
>
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