Leopard Server hardware requirements?

[Bart Silverstrim]

Andy Ringsmuth wrote:
> 
> On Oct 3, 2007, at 9:40 AM, Karl Kuehn wrote:
> 
>>> I'm hoping that a G4 400MHz Power Mac (which has Firewire) will be a 
>>> reasonable small workgroup server, for most services.
>>
>>     You are seriously considering running your server off a computer 
>> that has 0 chance of having a warrantee? And that has no chance at all 
>> for direct replacement? And that is on a platform (PPC) that you can't 
>> buy new hardware on?
>>
>>     Are you really so bad off that you can't invest $1200 in an iMac 
>> to do this job? (less if you would consider a mini or are in .edu and 
>> can buy the old iMac) I think you need to bite the bullet and let go 
>> of old hardware. It may look like a good deal to not spend money on 
>> hardware, but you wind up spending it on support time instead.
> 
> This is getting kinda heated!  We don't know his (the G4 400 mhz guy) 
> intended use.  Yes, for some people, $1,200 is a lot of money.  It is to 
> me.  If you're a small business with half a dozen employees, $1,200 is 
> probably a lot of money.  I work at a small business with 30 employees 
> and a $1,200 expense is something we have to consider, think through, 
> ask the business owner, and only then if he OKs it, work it into the 
> budget somehow.

For a business, what data are you storing?  What is your time worth?

Is $1200 worth the emails/business documents/time lost if the hardware 
dies on you?  What of your customers?

If your business is one that depends on access to information to keep 
your business flowing, $1200 is a pittance.  Invest in external drives 
for backup and a good hardware RAID card.  ESPECIALLY if you don't have 
in-house tech people to support you when something "goes funky".

> Not everyone has thousands of dollars sitting around they can dump on 
> the latest Mac gear.

But they always have the $$ to recover from a major failure and 
consultant visit to mop up, right? ;-)

> Maybe all he's wanting to do with this server idea is set up some sort 
> of home network, or a very small business, with minimal server load.  I 
> mean, c'mon, don't criticize someone's financial choices when you have 
> no knowledge of the situation.  $1,200 is twice the amount I have EVER 
> spent on the purchase of a vehicle.  I know it's a false analogy, but 
> those vehicles have been significantly older than a 400mhz G4, no 
> warranty whatsoever, etc.  But it does the job I need it to do.

You're right.  If he's just playing around at home, more power to him. 
If it's a business thing (since he referenced a small workgroup), I 
think the business would need to seriously consider either a newer Mac 
or cobbling together some decent hardware to make a good homebrew server 
with RAID (3ware has always ROCKED for me...), a good APC UPS, and a 
couple external drives to periodically back up important data.  And 
that's for my home use!  Yes, more expensive than average, but if you 
have to support users, you know the panic that ensues the first time 
these beasties won't boot up any more or their files decide to disappear 
"all by themselves" SpinRite, anyone? And thank the $DEITY for NTFS data 
recovery tools to undelete files after users discover that Word File 
Open dialogs do more than open files... :-O

But I digress...