I have been experiencing more and more server crashes on our AppleShare IP server lately and I'm getting pretty tired of it. We are running AppleShare IP 5.0.3 on a G3/266 tower.

I am strongly considering moving up to either LinuxPPC or OS X Server. I could just upgrade to ASIP 6, but I keep hearing great things about both of the others. (The phrase "never crashes" tends to stick with you ... also I understand the file sharing speed is supposed to be awesome.)

I need to be able to run the following services:
File server (for Macs)
File server (for Win95/98/NT machines)
Web server
DNS
Also, the following would be nice but not crucial:
POP/SMTP mail server
DHCP server

I am also currently running FileMaker Pro Server and Now Contact/Up-to-Date's server programs on the ASIP server, but I could drop those onto a separate machine if necessary.

What is going to be my best bet: MacOS X Server, LinuxPPC, or just go with ASIP 6? Also: how would I back up the server? I currently use Retrospect to back up the server and about half a dozen other machines on the network to a tape drive. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[Scott_H]

Hi,

All I can tell you is that change is bad. Stick with your current system. Maybe upgrade the ASIP if you think it'll help. OS X "proper" will be out in 6-8 months and you can look into it then.

Scott H.

[Keda]

OSX Server will become an add-on to the Mac OS. I imagine that, along w/the single OS strategy, Apple wants a single server solution. It has been rumored (for a while now) that OSX & ASIP will become a single serving solution.

Rumors are rumors, but before changing everything, I would look into an upgrade to ASIP. It shouldnt be crashing that much.

BTW-OSXS does not natively provide Windoze f/s support. I was asking this question a while back and got some solutions for this: http://forums.macnn.com/cgi-bin/Forum3/HTML/000081.html

I would wait a while on OSX Server to let Apple iron out its strategy.

Currently I am running ASIP 6.3 on a 9500/200 and I've only had it crash once in over 3 months. It's running a pretty active FTP server, web server, file sharing for both mac and windows and our pop/smtp mail server.

The user interface has been completely redesigned and I have been very happy with it.

[beverson]

agreed...go up to ASIP 6...it's worked mostly well for me.

[markhers]

Depending on how serious you are about getting your feet wet with UNIX tools, MacOS X Server would be my recommendation. I've had it installed for a LONG time and it's amazing. I cannot tell you how convenient it is to be able to just use UNIX utilities on my very own box.

As for your concerns, you can user BIND for DNS, apache for HTTP, AFS is built-in, there's SAMBA for Windows/SMB file sharing, qpopper for pop3, and more. Not to mention you'll have easier access to great software like PHP, MySQL, and every single YellowBox/Cocoa app out there.

However, if you are used to ASIP, then as an IS person, I would advise that you not ditch a working solution. Since I am assuming you/your company has invested heavily in licenses for FMPro Server, the Now servers, ASIP server/client license, and Retrospect, upgrading to ASIP 6.x would probably be the wisest move in the short term.

But try to get someone to procure you a PowerMac G3/G4 or an old PCI PowerMac (but not a 7200) and a copy of MacOS X Server, and get acquainted with it. There's still some 6+ months til MacOS X is released, and getting your feet wet with UNIXisms now would put you in good stead for the long term.

mjh

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Tom Ato:
[B]I have been experiencing more and more server crashes on our AppleShare IP server lately and I'm getting pretty tired of it. We are running AppleShare IP 5.0.3 on a G3/266 tower.

Well if you only use Mac OS clients Mac OS X Server its enough. It´s really stable... ;-) It runs round the clock, no problems.
If you really need access to Windows clients, use Mac OS X Server and AppleShare IP 6.3, it´s pretty cool. Much better than Linux and Samba...
Linux we do not !!! use because it can not see HFS Extended partitions (partitions with several GBytes without HFS+ can´t be really used, you would loose too much space) and it crashes together with Mac OS 9... ;-((
Furthermore Mac OS X Server it can access UFS, too. Its the new format, like under Solaris, much better than this old ext2, which they try to substitute by a kind of Journaling Filesystem..

And Linux is too complicated. There is no QuickTime for Linux, no MS Office, no AOL, no Photoshop, no Illustrator etc.
And working under Mac OS X Server is soo easy. Much easier to set up a Solaris Web Server or such very complicated Linux...

Give Mac OS X Server and Apple Share IP a try, would never change to anything else. First it was hard to pay 500 US$ for Mac OS X Server, but now we are really happy. The best ever happenened to our network. On the clients we use Mac OS 9, really the best normal Mac OS ever. The blue box under Mac OS X Server is quite experimental and we never use, its not needed. We use Mac OS X Server and Mac OS 9 on clients and Apple Share IP as addition because we had the old release and we are very content with the update ;-)

Filipe Martins
Soft1T@yahoo.com