Mini Mac Server

[Rick]

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Ok, I've got a ton of photo's and want to keep them on my own server and on my own site. And, my wife wants a site for her own business (graphics design specialty). And, I want a site for my business(not photography, thank God).

 

So, I bought a Mac Mini Server. As far as I can tell Apple is giving these away with two 500GB drives in them with the OSX server software. They are cheap. Apple - Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server

 

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I am now in the middle of setting up the software and staring at the status bar...so, here is what I've done so far. Because, the mini server doesn't have any optical drive in it (a second HD is in its place), I've had to use a remote install from the server disc in my MacBook Pro. Before, I installed the server software I selected a RAID and have set up a mirrored system using the two drives in the mini to RAID the OS on two drives. I figure this will be the most reliable.

 

I have a Drobo connected to the Mini server that I am going to use as storage. The Mini server will only be the RAID drives with the operating system. The Drobo will be used for all back-ups and it has its own "RAID" system.

 

I called my ISP and got a static IP and with that comes with a faster modem and a visit from the ISP service guy. That will take place next week.

 

I need to know about good photo software to put on the server to provide a good website experience and that will be easy to use for me. Don't know anything about that yet.

 

Ok, the status bar is over and I need to pay attention. Hope I'm not getting in over my head again...

 

 

More to come. Hopefully.

 

Rick

 

 

p.s. Anybody done this? Am I nuts? Don't answer that.

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[Bo_Lorentzen]

Not going to answer "that".

 

Unlimited account with ZenFolio.com

 

Host your sites on something like Pair.com get a bulk account so you can handle a bunch of domains easily. pipe your image content into the design from Zenfolio, or instead customize the zenfolio interface to perfection..

 

I have a MiniMac Server sitting in the office, lovely device, but by the time you host your own website, as smoothly and well as you can get out of the box from the above and many others, you can do a lot of other things, take pictures in the rain, learn to play the piano, master double malts etc, I would spend some of the time saved on memorizing all the distance settings on your lenses so you can photograph from the hip with accurate focus on the 35lux.

 

But, no, I would never say you are nuts (to your face anyway).

 

.

[Rick]

Hi Bo. Why did I suspect that this post would bring you out of the woodworks. I've had this sitting in my office for almost a year and I figured I had to drag it out and configure it. I would like to set up an email server on it and use some of the other features. I know that I can use email addresses with the server not having to be in my physical location or owning it. But, I'd like to try it. I'd also like to set up 2 web sites that are not photo web based. I also understand that you can mail these (minimac) off to services that will physically place these on fast connections with battery backup and all the rest and you just remotely admin them.

 

I guess I'll see how it goes and I'm not afraid to bail out if it takes too much time. I agree with you that time is too important and all those things you named are more important. At the very least, it will be my home server and serve the Drobo for backups on the network here at home.

[ggits]

Hi Rick

 

I have been playing with Mac server for the same purpose as you. But I always come into some sort of installationsproblem by setting my DNS. But maybee this new model/version of macServer (SW) solve my problems. Not must support, but a lot of manuels.

 

So when you are up and running - share you knowhow.

[Michael-IIIf]

As an experiment rather than a serious business exercise I set up several websites on my Mac a few years ago.

 

It wasn't particularly difficult. I can't remember the steps now but Google is your friend. I do remember having to edit some text files because Apache as supplied on the Mac is designed for hosting one site and you need to have a 'virtual host' to host several but it was all very easy.

[!Nomad64]

'lo Rick,

 

mind continue sharing how's the thing setting going and impressions of use?

Just asking because I'm interested too in your solution.

 

Regards

Bruno

[mby]

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As an experiment rather than a serious business exercise I set up several websites on my Mac a few years ago.

 

It wasn't particularly difficult. I can't remember the steps now but Google is your friend. I do remember having to edit some text files because Apache as supplied on the Mac is designed for hosting one site and you need to have a 'virtual host' to host several but it was all very easy.

 

A very flexible UI solution for the Unix underpinnings incl. Apache is webmin @ Webmin

 

Best,

Michael

[Rick]

Just a quick update. Comcast came out and delivered the new modem on Friday. I use the word deliver because the delivery boy had no concept of port forwarding or imbedded addresses or NAT. He simply connected the cable modem and made sure he could get a web site loaded and that was it. He had no idea of how I could configure the new modem (i.e. what the web address of the modem was) like the root address of 10.0.0.1 or something. (I can figure it out). And, he had no idea how to get me a static IP address. He left me double NAT'ed and he told me he was only able to set it up with a dynamic IP. For anything else, he was told by Comcast to tell the customer that they(the customer) would need to get their own IT person to fix it.

 

A call to Comcast got a tech on the line (after 11min) and he stated that I wasn't signed up for static IP. Which was the whole reason I was told I needed a new modem and I needed to pay 5.99 a month for the new modem (I own mine now and it is free) and 5.99 a month for static IP. I, of course, need a static IP before I can host my site on the new server. He understood this and set me up with a new appointment with another "delivery boy."

 

Anyway, Comcast is going to come out on the 7th of January(their first open date) to set up my static IP... which they should be able to do over the phone! But, they claim that they have to come out to do it. Argh!! So, I've got 2-weeks to wait.

 

Not much I can do until then.

[Rick]

Next step... I reloaded my operating system and set up my drives a little differently. I have two hard drives in the mini. This time around I used the disc utility to format a RAID configuration on the two drives.

 

I am going to use my Airport Extreme (AE) as the router. It will get a direct WAN from the Comcast modem and the AE will do the NAT'ing and will act as the router and will assign IP address blocks and dynamic addresses. It will also be used to assign a port for the server. I figure this will give a little more security as any trafic in can only get to the server through port XXX.

 

I've got this set up now and I'm waiting for my static IP address. I'm going to call tomorrow and see if I can get a static IP released to me without waiting for January 7th.

 

Off to study a little bit more about DNS. Not quite got my mind wrapped around this... entirely.

[Rick]

Comcast set up the static IP about a week after my last post. I spent some time last night after I got home and was able to configure my Airport Extreme's router settings. I'm letting the cable modem pass the WAN through without doing any NATing and without DHCP. I configured my AE to act as router and set up a block of static addresses for the other two AE's and for any wired devices like the minimac server. I set up another block of addresses for DHCP. I had to open about 3 sets of ports for different internet services and I port mapped them to the minimac.

 

I set my server's address as the primary DNS (I thought that was clever) and I'm using the primary DNS address I got from my internet provider as my secondary DNS. Web DNSing should be faster this way because anytime I use DNS services, the look-up will be done first on my own server and that should be faster.

 

The minimac has its own firewall and I turned it on and opened ports and different web services. Right now I have all requests redirected to the same page.

 

I set up a default security certificate that allows me to sign in to my own site with encrypted HTTPS, although the certificate will warn that it is not verified. I'm not going to pay $100/year to get a signed certificate from some company because I'll take payments with paypal and I'll redirect all secure traffic to their site.

 

Now it is time to set up the web pages. Right now, I have directed requests for my index page to the folder on the server that has the generic Mac page. Here it is, my MiniMac server, on line: Mac OS X Server

 

Now I have to get to work and learn more about web authoring software. I have one picked out and I've been working with it for the last few days.

 

More when I have some pages up. These will be for my wife's business first. Then I'll set up a page for my business. Then I'll set up a photo site later this year for fun.

[bill_murray]

Hmm. Having read this thread to here, I decided to readjust my sacral vertebrae to a horizontal plane, and set visible electromagnetic radiation to minimum.

 

You carry on, though Rick.

[Rick]

Hmm. Having read this thread to here, I decided to readjust my sacral vertebrae to a horizontal plane, and set visible electromagnetic radiation to minimum.

 

You carry on, though Rick.

 

I get it. Zzzzzz. :D:D

 

Ok, carrying on, I decided to use Drupal for my web design. It is a an open source content management platform. When integrated into the AMP it becomes a DAMP. I am actually going to use the OSX web server, Apache, MYSQ data base, and PMP so, technically I'll create a MAMP.

 

I'll let the mac server software integrate everything instead of something like Acquia. I did download Acquia and I have a site set up to play around with under Acquia. But, I think I've been able to turn everything on in Mac OSX Server software, because I have a site running under it that I've been able to use a standard Drupal install to edit and create a main page. I understand this will be faster.

 

Right now I'm trying to learn the Drupal 7 software. I'd prefer to not get into HTML scripting, but I think some will be necessary. I have a friend that might be willing to help me with some. All of this is going to need some basic terminal editing of the MYSQL database. I can do some of this, but I'm not what you would call an advanced user of MYSQL editing. I'm really just a hack with a cheat sheet.

 

This whole thing so far has been a pain. It is like trying to teach yourself Organic Chemistry. But, the bright side is that I'm at the point where I just need to learn Drupal. I have a Lynda.com subscription of tutorials and there is some pretty good stuff on drupal training. That is where I'm off to next. Learning how to make web pages in Drupal.

 

They seem to have a pretty good module for photography called Galerie. Teaser view / full view | drupal.org

 

Ok, I'll post again in probably 2 weeks. I might have the first web site up and online by them. It will be basic, but a start.

 

Is anybody else doing their own web hosting on their own server?

[Nicoleica]

Please continue to post updates Rick. I've been following this tale with some interest, and have clicked on to your server site a few times to see if it's alive yet.

[k-hawinkler]

Here it is, my MiniMac server, on line: Mac OS X Server

 

Rick, Doesn't seem to be up at the moment. Will try later. Best and good luck, K-H.

[Rick]

Nicoleica - Thanks. Everything is up and running on the MiniMac server. It will be a couple weeks before I go live with the site. I need to get it organized for my wife's candle site.

 

k-hawinkler - The site is up. At this point in time all you should see is the default Mac home page. In a few days I should have a less generic page that states that the site is under construction and gives her email address so people can contact her.

[k-hawinkler]

Nicoleica - Thanks. Everything is up and running on the MiniMac server. It will be a couple weeks before I go live with the site. I need to get it organized for my wife's candle site.

 

k-hawinkler - The site is up. At this point in time all you should see is the default Mac home page. In a few days I should have a less generic page that states that the site is under construction and gives her email address so people can contact her.

 

Rick,

 

Thanks. When I click on your link "http://www.fcbydesign.com/#" I get the spinning wheel on my Mac followed by this message:

 

Safari can’t open the page.

Safari can’t open the page “http://www.fcbydesign.com/#” because the server where this page is located isn’t responding.

 

I thought you should know.

 

Best, K-H.

[Nicoleica]

Hi Rick,

 

I'm getting the same response today too. Yesterday it was showing the default Mac server page, but today nothing.

[Rick]

Nicole, I have been changing the gateway modem settings. That is why my site has been down while I've been getting them optimized.

 

The gateway is the modem that was provided by my ISP. It was pre-set up by my ISP to do all of the routing on the LAN side of my network. This is the side that only the computers and devices on my local LAN see. I have been disabling all of this and now have the gateway modem doing nothing but passing the WAN (internet side) traffic to my router. My router is acting as the firewall and is assigning addresses to the local network (LAN). It is doing that with DHCP, NAT, and it also defines the static IP address block, all of this for my local (LAN) side. Again, just the devices that are seen in my local network.

 

My LAN network is actually more complex than that because I have 3 wireless access points as you move around our house, and our house across the street. They all work as bridges and the one across the street works wirelessly as an access point. This adds a little complexity.

 

There are also network storage devices hidden in the house that work as backups (Drobos). The Drobos, the networked computers, the server, the access points, and the media devices (i.e. Apple TV) are all in the static block and are set up with static IP's, of course. The rest of the devices on the network get their IP assigned from the router's block from the DHCP block. I can tell you that it is much better to get every a static IP from the static block of addresses set up in the router.

 

The last thing in the network configuration is that when you see the DNS settings they can be changed when you have a server. The DNS settings tell your network where to go to look up the network translation from the letter names (e.g. fcbydesign.com) to number addresses (173.10.122.57) for web sites. I have my network setup to go to my server first (primary DNS) to do look ups. This should save one hop when asking for network addresses. Otherwise the DNS requests have to go out to my ISP's DNS addresses to look up site addresses.

 

The network settings should be stable from now on. I can now concentrate on the web site. Hope this helps someone. It all is made more confusing than it needs to be. Kind of like organic chemistry....

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