Got a Core Duo Mac mini? A spare Mac (Any Mac will work, but an old, cheap Mac Mini can usually be found for around $100 on eBay if you don’t have one. How to use a Mac mini as a home server, part 3 – software. * – note that you can just about fit 1 12.5mm height drive in this Mac mini, but most 4Tb 2.5″ drives are 15mm height and will not fit. The VPN service on macOS Server is using L2TP over IPSec as it's authentication module, so simply select that version of VPN when you set up your clients. I actually started on homeserver path through mac mini. “How to Work with the EU Institutions” – a book chapter, and the online launch event, Borders on the ground, borders in people’s heads, How could the EU solve the night train conundrum? This is why. Tech Specs. Todays video is how I put my 2012 mac mini to use as a personal home server. It's very good for large files. With time on my hands due to the Coronavirus lockdown it was time to finally get around to doing it. All you have left to do is connect with your various client devices! Hi, I'm curious to making my own Plex Server at home. Set up Mac mini, migrate your data, and then get in-depth help with all of your computer’s built-in apps and features. You could of course make a completely separate Apple ID for your server, but then you have headaches with 2FA and app purchases, so I have stuck to using my own Apple ID and my partner using this for Home Sharing. Could you create a folder for other things to store on that disc that aren’t Time Machine? Both my MacBook Pro and my partner’s MacBook Air will have 2 Photos libraries – a small one for everyday use that will reside on each Mac (and act as the System Library in each case, and in my partner’s case will also synchronise with iCloud). We each have iPhones as well, but that’s not important for this story. In Germany on ebay.de or eBay Kleinanzeigen (the latter is like Gumtree or CraigsList for the non Germans reading). Well, as I have found, having a mac mini and working as a home jack of all trades server provides loads of great advantages. With the goal of a small, quiet, affordable, lightweight box without a keyboard, mouse or screen, the choices available to us narrow down quickly. Welcome back to the channel. And here Apple’s bind-in to store photos in iCloud is even stricter than for music and for films. I will definetly try it myself as well. I have a mac mini in the home, a Late 2012 Mac Mini, with 16GB RAM, 256GB Internal SSD, and a 500GB internal HDD. I’m getting my Mac Mini set up as primarily a docker container host running 5-6 different applications. Adds Connectivity and Capabilities to Your Mac mini—Connects two high-performance PCIe 1.1, 2.0, or 3.0 expansion cards to the Mac mini . Have you encountered this issue at all? See Tech Specs. We have a guide for setting up Xcode 9 Server that may be helpful.. Resilio is a file sync server built on bit torrent technology. I thought that I would share my (limited) experience in this area. EXCLUSIVE: Government’s Own Deal Analysis Scorecard Reckons UK Won 43% of Negotiating Issues, 40% Were Compromises, 17% EU Wins https://order-order.com/2020/12/24/exclusive-governments-own-deal-analysis-scorecard-reckons-uk-won-43-of-negotiating-issues-40-were-compromises-17-eu-wins. The server component enables these services to run on supported Mac hardware with an installation of macOS Mojave--which also serves as Apple's latest desktop client OS- … How to Use Your Mac as a Server: Turn your Mac Mini into a server! Create a home viewing centre. It’s hard to draw any solid conclusions from this project yet – the whole thing has just been completed, and it will only show its worth (or not) over the coming few weeks. I want to use this little guy for making backups from my all macs using Time Machine over the network and also as file server. Your dedicated Mac is always in the cloud. Procure a massive fleet of night train carriages and lease them to operators, How to find a flat in Berlin – the sequel, The Express on Germany’s Coronavirus stats – a classic of the fake news genre, Starmer’s steady stability – I’m not sure this is enough, €21.95 to make your webinars a whole lot better, Fixing persistent WordPress image upload problems – and saving some disk space too, What the 4 major events in the past week mean for Brexit, A transition period with the UK out of the EU is too complicated to agree - so extending Article 50 needs to be debated, In this world, a guy can build a self-driving car in a month in his garage, but it takes a city three years to plan to paint a cycle lane, How €93 million of EU money prevents Polish trains being used EU-wide, "We're standing up for Britain" or "We're all in this together" - ways to explain the EU budget, LabourList | There’s something intriguing about UKIP, A roundup of the #EUCO - Berlusconi Twitterwall story, Abject Eurostar communications and technological failure. Also for a lot of my training and teaching work I have large files that I need to share with clients – I will also use the Apache Web Server in MAMP Pro for this, with some sort of simple PHP front end – also to be finalised. But just as with the music, how do you share this? Free Shipping by Amazon ... Apple Mac Mini MD387LL/A Desktop - 2.5GHz Intel Core i5, 4gb Memory, 500gb Hard Drive (Renewed) ... home server … We’ve created this site to answer common questions about using a Mac mini as a server. Thanks. In this video I demonstrate every step I take to set up a Mac mini as my home server for file sharing, backup, iTunes duties and printing. Music, Films, Photos – the Plex alternative. The Mac mini is versatile enough to use as a home media server or small business workgroup server — you just want to make sure you're getting the right Mac mini for the task. I have three devices connected to our home network: Mac mini (2018) running Catalina Sounds like one of those “80% of UK law is EU law!” but “most of those are regulations about potato prices - so what?” sort of arguments of yesteryear. While I would quickly move to an iMac (as my main personal computer) that little Mac Mini is still going strong today as my home server. Just make sure it meets the minimum requirements for OS X El Capitan ) EXCLUSIVE: Government’s Own Deal Analysis Scorecard Reckons UK Won 43% of Negotiating Issues, 40% Were Compromises, 17% EU Wins https://order-order.com/2020/12/24/exclusive-governments-own-deal-analysis-scorecard-reckons-uk-won-43-of-negotiating-issues-40-were-compromises-17-eu-wins. I’m looking to park all of our music & photo files (and eventually video) and running Plex, most likely. Do read part 1 about the requirements and the hardware, and part 2 about the repairs and the network setup first. Many of you suggested a laptop. you can run itunes server, time capsule backup machine, it is also very friendly with rest of apple ecosystem. Is it safe to store all my data on this unsupported mac + couple of usb drives for backups and files. The new Mac mini (M1, 2020) is on sale now globally, and starts at $699 / £699 / AU$1,099 for the model with 8GB of RAM and 256GB of storage. But playing this music at home (and on the road as well if possible) – and indeed from multiple devices – is one of the central aims of the server project. Search for more topics. VPN Host Name: This is the hostname of the Mac that is hosting the VPN server and is what you will use to configure each of your VPN clients. So a late 2012 Mac mini it has to be. I can play music on my MacBook Pro or iPhone, with the file on the Mac mini, and the output is sent to the AirPort Express. These notes assume that you're starting with a pristine (factory default) Mac mini. It is one of four desktop computers in the current Macintosh lineup, serving as an alternative to the all-in-one iMac, and sitting below the performance range iMac Pro and Mac Pro.. I'm not sure if a 2018 Mac Mini would suffice for that purpose. I’ve been looking for a shared photo library solution for some time now and it’s quite frustrating that there is none. My main work and personal computer is a 2017 MacBook Pro with a 512Gb SSD, and I usually use that at my desk where it connects to a 2Tb WD USB 3 external HDD that contains old files, and a 1Tb USB 2 external HDD for Time Machine Backups. Here, and elsewhere on the net when travelling, “Home Sharing” has to be used, and is explained here – note this must not be confused with Family Sharing. But that still only has USB 2…), So where do you find an appropriate Mac mini? Thanks for documenting your media server project. Though Mac mini still has some use as a Mac server, or as a gateway Mac drug for PC switchers, when it comes to more intensive work you’ll inevitably choose a higher-end Mac or an iOS device. My idea is to sign into the Mac Mini with my Apple ID, and place the Photos library in the: Machintosh HD / Users / Shared folder with Read/Write permissions for everyone as well as enable File Sharing. Thanks. Source: iMore. Federico shares great tips and tricks for accessing and controlling a Mac mini from an iPad. I have a Mac Mini – Late 2014, 3GHz Dual Cor eIntel i7, 16GB 1600 RAM, 1TB Fusion drive. you can run itunes server, time capsule backup machine, it is also very friendly with rest of apple ecosystem. I also have an external 2TB HDD, and a 300GB External HDD. (Multiple iOS devices syncing to one common library accessed by multiple macOS devices) Hi. For most people, this is a great option to have their own dedicated Mac server … Apple - Mac mini Desktop - Intel Core i5 - 2GB Memory - 500GB HDD - Pre-Owned - Silver. Today I closed by Gmail account for good. The G4 was replaced by the first Mac Mini, then an Intel Mac Mini, and finally by a Core 2 Duo model. Is it safe to use the mac mini with El Capitan as home server? Royal Mail is not actually very good - so why whine so much? Your email address will not be published. You can for example set up and host your own free wordpress blog or make a gallery of your photos and share them with the world. Make sure you check the height of any drive before you order it! Might look at converting to server if I get a new more powerful PC. In comparison Mac minis from 2011 and earlier have only USB 2, and those from 2010 and earlier still have optical drives. easy to use Music Server for less than $1,000. Thanks for this guide! We are a two person household. If you only want to run mysql on mac … Our WiFi Router is a tp-link Archer AC1750 that is connected by ethernet cable to the modem-router provided by our ISP. Last but not least the occasional websites I still build could do with a staging server, and the home server might be able to act as that. All her other files and Time Machine Backups are on two 2Tb external HDDs connected as and when they are needed. The G4 was replaced by the first Mac Mini, then an Intel Mac Mini, and finally by a Core 2 Duo model. Set your mini up as a web/file server. Amazon's Choice for mac mini server Rinbers Top Hard Disc Drive Flex Cable for Apple Mac Mini A1347 Server 2nd SSD HDD Upgrade Kit 821-1501-A 821-1347-A (2011-2014) with Tools 4.3 out of 5 … Model: … Awesome! Music and films are going to need to be streamed to each of the MacBooks, and photo libraries loaded on each of the MacBooks. Mac mini comes with all-flash storage — up to a whopping 2TB SSD 18 for all your photo and video libraries, files, and apps. Xcode now includes Xcode Server. The simple guide to installing Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on a Mac, Trying to be better at online political debate (around Brexit, and perhaps more widely too). Testing conducted by Apple in October 2020 using preproduction Mac mini systems with the Apple M1 chip, and production 3.6GHz quad‑core Intel Core i3–based Mac mini systems with Intel Iris UHD Graphics 630, all configured with 16GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD. Hello. It costs €69, but offers a complete staging environment, especially for WordPress sites. … Here are instructions on how to build a high quality. All of the files for stages 9.-13. are backed up on an encrypted 2Tb WD Elements External HDD that is connected with USB 3 to the Mac mini – this is as simple to setup as Time Machine normally is. There is an obvious solution for this – MAMP Pro. Screens will let you use a Mac from your iPad or iPhone. I currently use my MacPro as a ‘plex/media server’ as and when I need it but I think it is time to set up something more suitable, and this looks like a suitable option for the short-medium term. DuckDNS offers free dynamic DNS that’s very easy to use. Find technical specifications — processor speed, storage, memory, and more — for your Mac mini model. 11-12 are the golden years you can upgrade and still have somewhat recent OS. The Mac mini. No Creative Commons Image in this post. If you buy used mac mini for couple hundred, its not bad. 12. We play music wirelessly to an old 1st Generation Airport Express that is connected to the HiFi. I use cookies for some functions on website. I have the following setup: Mac Mini … I’ve also tried storing the photo library on a network share but even with wired connection, the access was terrible (close to 50gb data, never completed the project to import all my photos in there). All of those DVDs hanging around are going to be ripped and saved to the Mac mini. So how do you do this? The simple guide to installing Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on a Mac, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnBtXrofOLc, Trying to be better at online political debate (around Brexit, and perhaps more widely too). These must be comma-separated. Late 2012 Mac minis with core i7 processors go for over 300 Euro and that was more than I wanted to spend, so a core i5 2.5GHz is what it would have to be…. Mac mini, the perfect Time Machine backup destination. This old Mac mini could become your new server. Testing conducted by Apple in October 2020 using preproduction Mac mini systems with Apple M1 chip, and production 3.6GHz quad‑core Intel Core i3‑based Mac mini systems with Intel Iris UHD Graphics 630, all configured with 16GB of RAM and 2TB SSD. Tweet Share Share. Or delay via a mini Treaty? Sounds like one of those “80% of UK law is EU law!” but “most of those are regulations about potato prices - so what?” sort of arguments of yesteryear. Hello Apple Community, My question is, is it possible to turn an old Mac Mini (2012) into an Apple Photos home server? Required fields are marked *. Deal or No Deal Brexit by the end of the year? This will allow me to close down an ownCloud installation I have on my other regular web server for this purpose at the moment. The Mac Mini (stylized as Mac mini) is a SFF-class desktop computer made by Apple Inc. A Mac mini or Mac Pro are ideal candidates for server use, but you can run Apple’s server app on any Mac — so if you have an old MacBook Pro or iMac, you can use that too. I do not want 150Gb of music on my MacBook all the time (note: I will keep some mp3s on the MacBook, but just a few thousand), and I do not want to pay for enough iCloud storage to store them all there too. I have also experimented with Plex and Plex Media Server to do all of the above tasks – how to do it is explained here. The answer boils down to how you balance cost, speed and upgradeability. I have same 2012 Mac Mini but only a 1 tera internal drive (16 Gig of DRAM). Then we will each have a sort of Archive Library for older photos, and those two Libraries will be stored on the server. For years I have wanted a proper staging server for WordPress projects. USB 3 is always a good idea, as it makes attaching external hard disks much less onerous. Some of the media sharing has plenty of potential, but time will tell if it works out. First question - why is this even necessary? Retailing for $599 with a 500Gb storage drive inside, this little baby is all you need. Measuring a mere 1.4″ tall and 7″ wide and deep, this little faceless unit weighs in at 2.7 lbs, … Part 2 covers taking the Mac mini apart, installed the components, installing the latest version of macOS and sorting out the network, How to use a Mac mini as a home server, part 2 – hardware upgrades, accessing the Mac mini, and Dynamic DNS, How to use a Mac mini as a home server, part 3 – software. Installing Mac OS from a USB Stick is always the simplest way in my opinion, so a 16Gb USB Stick is handy to have around too, although not strictly necessary. Also as an External DVD Drive is currently connected so as to rip the few other CDs and DVDs I have here, these CDs will then be saved to the Mac mini library and then also accessible to the other devices connected here. Via streaming apps such as Netflix, or even through movies you’ve bought on … You can put an old iMac, Mac mini, or even laptop into service as a server with little or no financial investment. Though Mac mini still has some use as a Mac server, or as a gateway Mac drug for PC switchers, when it comes to more intensive work you’ll inevitably choose a higher-end Mac or an iOS device. The total cost of the project, software included, is something close to 500 Euro if you needed to purchase all of this from scratch. Well, it sort of does / did – Mac Minis. Your dedicated Mac in the Cloud. That is a total of 492 Euro. Is almost like the Photos app was trying to read the whole library at once. Price and availability. I have been running a Mac mini server for years. If you want to use transcoding go anouther route, choose Mac Mini as Plex server and DAS as media bank. Music, Films, Photos – the Plex alternative, How to use a Mac mini as a home server, part 1 – requirements and hardware, How to use a Mac mini as a home server, part 2 – hardware upgrades, accessing the Mac mini, and Dynamic DNS. While the Mac Mini does have wifi built-in, FrontRow’s network streaming over wireless leaves a lot to be desired. Well done! Your email address will not be published. Yes, 2014 Mac Minis have faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi, but that’s not what I am looking for. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. And upgradeable RAM is useful too. Key Features. Via streaming … This will ensure that your server stays on and connectable. See user guides. Go for a 120 or 240Gb SSD rather than 512Gb, just one backup disk rather than two, 8Gb of RAM rather than 16Gb, and you could bring this to something like 400 Euro in total. ; Click Update and allow your Airport Base Station to restart. Procure a massive fleet of night train carriages and lease them to operators, How to find a flat in Berlin – the sequel, The Express on Germany’s Coronavirus stats – a classic of the fake news genre, Starmer’s steady stability – I’m not sure this is enough, €21.95 to make your webinars a whole lot better, Fixing persistent WordPress image upload problems – and saving some disk space too, What the 4 major events in the past week mean for Brexit, A transition period with the UK out of the EU is too complicated to agree - so extending Article 50 needs to be debated, In this world, a guy can build a self-driving car in a month in his garage, but it takes a city three years to plan to paint a cycle lane, How €93 million of EU money prevents Polish trains being used EU-wide, "We're standing up for Britain" or "We're all in this together" - ways to explain the EU budget, LabourList | There’s something intriguing about UKIP, A roundup of the #EUCO - Berlusconi Twitterwall story, Abject Eurostar communications and technological failure. 1-16 of over 2,000 results for "mini server" Skip to main search results Eligible for Free Shipping. Thank you very much Jon for posting this article. It was working but the fan was going all of the time so I decided to add an SSD second internal drive and am having challenges fitting both drives in and getting it up and running. I have more than 28000 mp3 files, ripped from CDs I got rid of long ago. You won't even need the Mac OS X Server, just the Mac OS X Client, so there is no extra software to buy, just the Mac Mini and it's operating system. Especially for films and TV shows it might prove to be a better bet than the Apple options. Eventually the MacBook Air will also be backed up, via WiFi, to the 750Gb External HDD also connected to the Mac mini, but that has not yet been finalised at the time of writing – a guide how to do that can be found here. ; Connect using your various clients. We've been looking at home server options, and I think that the simplest answer may be the best - A Mac Mini. The simple guide to installing Ubuntu 14.04 LTS on a Mac Doing this with a USB cabled mouse and monitor is always easier. It’s pretty solid but they added bloat to the production that you have to wade through to get to the functionality that you want. Diverse PCIe Card Support—Supports pro video capture and playout, pro audio, 10 Gigabit Ethernet, Fibre Channel, SAS/SATA RAID controllers, and other PCIe cards . Check out the Mac mini on Apple's web store: here. Screens will let you use a Mac … A real advantage of the Mac mini over Drobo is that Backblaze will back up directly attached external hard drives but not network drives. The idea of running macOS Server may seem intimidating, but it offers a couple of features that are easy to set up and beneficial even in a home setting . Government blogs: the person behind the political face, The expat vote in the 2009 European Elections. This article is distilled from Paul's Post series, starting here. The iPhone was quickly followed by a Mac Mini in 2010 (a wonderful Christmas present). Part 2 covers taking the Mac mini apart, installed the components, installing the latest version of macOS and sorting out the network, and part 3 (forthcoming) will cover software installations! Brian Stucki published a great list of ways to use your Mac server… Message document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute( "id", "a8e05ddfee9be7b4f7e02ca59fa18ba7" );document.getElementById("fffcdaa31a").setAttribute( "id", "comment" ); Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. This upgraded display port supports both video and data connections and is capable of transferring data at 10 gigabits per second [source: Apple]. The Computer app on the Apple TV box provides a similar capability. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnBtXrofOLc From this I guess I need to put my HDD into an external case. The answer is rather similar – use Home Sharing. The iPhone was quickly followed by a Mac Mini in 2010 (a wonderful Christmas present). I have my Mini (as well as my server) plugged into a gigabit Ethernet … No Creative Commons Image in this post. Once you set up the external HD that’s connected to the Mac mini as the target for Time Machine backups, is it only available for that purpose? So my partner’s iPhone has her Apple ID as the main one, but my Apple ID for Home Sharing – because my Apple ID is the one that is set for Home Sharing on the Mac mini. Please note the general Creative Commons statement in the footer. Are you OK with this? And with speeds up to 3.4GB/s, 19 apps and files launch and load in an instant. on 02.05.2020 in Technology. Do read part 1 … The Mac mini. What you need to know. First, you’ll need to be able to reach the Mini from outside your network. My understanding is iTunes Match (or Apple Music for that matter), will only sync Music videos purchased in the iTunes Store. “How to Work with the EU Institutions” – a book chapter, and the online launch event, Borders on the ground, borders in people’s heads, How could the EU solve the night train conundrum? I have my Mini (as well as my server) plugged into a gigabit Ethernet switch. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. I need space for 2 hard disks as I will install a SSD drive for speed, and a regular hard disk for all the music and film files. I’ve been using Plex for 6-7 years for my movie and television collection. I might have 150Gb of music, but I have 500Gb of Photos. And if it could run the latest macOS that would be a plus too. I created new music and TV library files by adding media (without copying) from an external SSD (connected with USB 3.1 Gen 2). But Apple doesn’t build servers! If you buy used mac mini for couple hundred, its not bad. In the mid-90s I co-wrote a book about using Mac OS as a server, so the moment I could have a server in a closet in my house, I did it. So that’s all for part 1. For the sake of all the configuration I also of course need a keyboard, mouse and monitor. I have 3externals (4TB – file/Media Dump, 6TB for TimeMachine & 1TB unsed) which is currently my main reason but changing soon and knew there would be a use for this kit! The Mac mini is versatile enough to use as a home media server or small business workgroup server — you just want to make sure you're getting the right Mac mini for the task. Last but not least, does all of this work with the old AirPort Express 1st Generation that is connected to the hifi in the living room? Unless: https://youtu.be/eoAWobKCbho Looks like too much work to me. So you could manually add them to the Music app, but they wouldn’t be backed up to iCloud, or syncing to your MacBook if you were hoping to view them offline. The nature of the requirements above means this has to be an Apple server. In order to have your Mac mini server running smoothly, it is important to set a few options first. Is A Mac mini A Good File Server? Thanks for taking time to write about your project and share it. But there are a few series I have bought over the years, and some DVDs too. Please note the general Creative Commons statement in the footer. El Capitan doesn't receive security updates anymore. I have an old 2011 mini currently in pieces on my dining room table. Royal Mail is not actually very good - so why whine so much? Use Mac mini as a server The most popular server features—File Server, Time Machine Server, and Caching Server—are a part of macOS, so it’s easy to use your Mac mini as a server. Cloud Mac mini servers on-demand Your Mac in the Cloud With MacWeb.com, use a Mac from any location and any platform. These are the first Mac Minis to have USB 3, have no optical drive, have upgradeable RAM (2 slots for 1600MHz SO-DIMMs, so 2 x 8Gb max), and space for 2 2.5″ hard disks. Because of that, the Mac mini has become a favorite for people setting up servers, home media hubs, or another secondary device. We have a guide for setting up Xcode 9 Server that may be helpful.. Resilio is a file sync server built on bit torrent technology. How to use a Mac mini as a home server, part 2 – hardware upgrades, accessing the Mac mini, and Dynamic DNS ; How to use a Mac mini as a home server, part 3 – software ; Today I closed by Gmail account for good. 11-12 are the golden years you can upgrade and still have somewhat recent OS. macOS Server has long been a tool for those users who need just a bit more than what their Macs can handle. This is part 3 of the series about the Mac mini server. Would the i3 model be more sufficient or does it need to have i5 or even i7 in it? This is why. Time will tell which works best, but give Plex its due – it’s simple to get the server up and running, and it works well with Apple’s libraries as well. If I turn my old Mini into a server, can Windows users make use of it as well? Hi Adrian – I have been using Music and TV (the standard Apple apps) because I have been at home the past few months due to COVID, hence I have not really had to put this through its paces from further afield! I used Apple Home Sharing setup with the Mac mini functioning as the media server (it is also used as a desktop machine).