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Building a server with a mini Mac and external drives

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  • Servers
  • Components
  • Macintosh
Last response: in Components
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April 17, 2014 7:50:52 PM

I need to set up a web server that will allow for a database to be stored and allow people to log into my website to upload data into the database and view the processed data.

There will be constant, but not heavy traffic into the website, but will be required to be operational 24/7.

I have a mini mac, two 1 TB external hard drives that i would like to use for the server. the mini mac has a 2.5 GHz dual core processor with 4 GB RAM, 500 GB hard drive running OS X Mavericks. The two western digital hard drives are plugged in via USB. I have a wireless modem / router that i have connected via ethernet cable to a cable internet connection.

I have read that OS X server is not the best for a long term commercial level server and that the dedicated server softwares are better suited.
Im just wondering what i would need to do to set this up and get it operational.

Im very new to the IT scene, but have a very technical background. please be gentle, and thanks in advance.

More about : building server mini mac external drives

Best solution

May 23, 2014 3:54:12 PM

You can easily do it with Mac OS X server which is less than $20 on the mac app store.
The more important questions would be how much do you want to spend and would there be cheaper options that would get you where you want to go. Do you need guaranteed uptime and are you willing to put in the time to manage it? How valuable is the data as well as what kind of backup strategy you have in mind. Also what kind of database? Need more information there as the answers will vary. If it's a Filemaker Pro database the answers would be different. If it's MySQL there would be yet another set of answers.

There are tons of collocation services that can provide a server as well as management and support services. This is all about your needs and without knowing them it's not possible to answer this question very easily.
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