A little over a week ago, Apple released the Mac mini server edition and a faster regular Mac mini, few were completely surprised. Speculation was rampant that there’d be an optical drive-less mini, and taking the existing form factor, swapping an optical drive with a hard drive makes sense. The fact that Apple is branding it as a server is interesting, though.
Obviously, the Xserve is the item in Apple’s lineup that you’re supposed to think of first when you hear “Apple server”, but it’s also $3000 and generally designed for those who have rack setups. Throw this fancy aluminum pizzabox next to your Cisco routers, your IBM servers, and your generic RAIDs. What about small businesses who get by with something a bit more consumer-level? What about home users who have a Mac network that Apple would appreciate? What about schools who have a computer lab and then various machines scattered around the building?
The Mac mini is perfect for this role. It’s small, quiet, low on energy usage, and looks nice next to Apple’s AirPort Extreme. Who needs the Time Capsule when you have a full-blown computer that is serving the other machines on the network (or Internet) with a number of resources.
Some may argue that the $999 price tag on the Mac mini server is a bit much, especially since the Mac mini starts at $599. That being said, it has a terabyte of storage among the two drives and can accomodate much more thanks to the FireWire 800 port and the 5 USB ports. Add in other features, such as 4GB of RAM, a 2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, and the other standard Mac mini connectivity options and you have a pretty capable little computer server.
Getting back to the original point, the Mac mini server is a tremendous value—priced at $999, you essentially get Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server and 270 MHz more, 2GB of more RAM, and 840GB more hard drive space for $400. The last time I checked, Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server was going for $499 by itself. Well played, Apple.
Without getting too much into the comparison of what kind of basic PC you could build for $1000 to use as a server, you have to take into account that Mac OS X Snow Leopard is for unlimited users. Microsoft’s server products are priced by the number of people using it, not to mention the actual costs for the additional licenses. Although a Mac mini legally could serve as many computers as you could connect to it, its target market will most likely not add enough to tax its resources. Even if they did, they are still only out the $999 for the Mac mini and Snow Leopard Server.
Pricing seems to be very competitive. We know the hardware is good (my G4 mini is stil plugging along after over 4 years of constant use and the Intel-based models still feature much of the same design). Snow Leopard’s newness aside, we know the software is solid. Many will argue that Mac OS X has an uphill battle in the server market among non-Apple users. Part of this is that it doesn’t have a Microsoft logo or necessarily have buzzwords like “Exchange” or “ActiveSync” that the PC crowd clings to. Another part of it is the perception that Linux is the only other server operating system that is used in the “real world.” What is Apple to do?
Apple needs to market the Mac mini server to the public. A lot. Most larger businesses interested in a server will look at the Xserve or other rack-mounted devices, but small businesses, education, and home users are on an even tighter budget. Market the Mac mini server as a tiny server that is full-featured, easy-to-use, and simple to maintain—the iPod/iPhone of servers. PCs, Macs, iPod touches, iPhones all playing nicely together on your network, set up by you. That has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it?
8 Responses to “The Argument for the Mac mini Server”
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10/29/2009 at 9:25 am
I fully plan on getting one for my home network. Years ago I had an iMac (lamp) that I had configured to host my own domain, and using virtual domains hosting about 4 different websites, and their respective E-mail. It was great. Eventually I needed a laptop for travel and couldn’t justify the two machines. Now I can. And the Mac Mini Server will allow me to go back to hosting my own web and E-mail servers, along with acting as a file server using WebDAV. Only this time with a much more robust server OS, instead of the client version of OS 10.3 (I think it was at the time).
I may even upgrade my D-Link router to an Airport Base Station, but the D-Link is still working pretty well, and is completely hands off for the past two years.
Now I just need to convince our VP of Operations and CFO for the budget approval (read: talk my wife into it).
10/29/2009 at 10:03 am
We installed the Mini Server the day after it arrived at our local AppleStore, replacing a Windows Server (that took up 20 times more space). We serve Macs and PCs.
The transition could not have been smoother.
10/29/2009 at 1:16 pm
If Apple were really smart, they would figure out a way to put two ethernet ports on the Mini Server (or Mini), so that it could be used as a firewall/gateway, etc. I guess what power users/consultants/small business people could really use to make small-scale servers would be something partway between a Mini and a Mac Pro, with some card slots, so that we could create servers for small business/residential use that could also do some work as firewalls, telephony managers, home automation managers, etc.
10/29/2009 at 1:44 pm
Considering the Server OS’s on the market and some of snobbery about them, too many people forget that OS X is based on and underpinned by BSD verion of Unix.
10/29/2009 at 6:09 pm
@ Rad Wagner: You just got me thinking about the two ethernet ports. I wonder if the USB/e-net dongle that Apple sells for the MacBook Air will work. Someone with a Mini server should try this and report back to see if this works or not.
10/29/2009 at 6:15 pm
Rad Wagner, they make USB to Gigabit Ethernet adapters.
10/30/2009 at 3:35 am
Apple’s USB/ethernet adapter works fine, both with OS X and Linux, as long as your need for speed is less than 100 Mb/s. It’s a good match for cable modems and leaves the Mini’s gigabit ethernet port free for faster LAN connections.
I’m using an Intel Mac Mini (2008) as a server to replace a Pentium III with a failing hard drive. It does a fantastic job running a full range of services with Gentoo Linux. KDE provides a slick desktop for it as well. I’m sure OS X server with the new Mini will do an equally fine job if that’s your preference for an OS.
The new Mini will take 8 GB of memory with the latest firmware update. But I’ve got no complaints with the 4 GB in my 2008 Mini or with the 500 GB WD Scorpio Blue hard drive that resides in it.
While the Pentium box did it’s job admirably for years, a major boost in speed when crunching numbers or data along with big power savings and almost complete silence makes this boy very happy with his Mini. My Mini’s about a fifth of the cost of the dual quad core box I have that was going to double as a replacement for my old server. But the noise and power demands from it, even when idle, made me reluctant to run it 24/7.
The folks at http://www.macminicolo.net are certainly impressed with the Mini’s performance. Their site offers some interesting insights as well as a picture of their Mini server farm.
12/15/2009 at 9:55 am
I think the best part of the new mac mini is the redundant hard drives. I wish the device would give you RAID configuration options at first boot.
Here are directions how to setup RAID1 mirroring on Mac OS X Server.
http://www.macminiworld.net/blog/mac-mini-server-raid1-configuration