[jfobart]

So it's time for me to add a second 4bay hot-swappable eSATA box from CoolDrives because I'm constantly popping these drives in and out. Also, I want to relocate my houses user accounts to a central box and have them served up from there- that way no matter where my wife logs in (depending on which machine(s) I'm on, she still sees her desktop, email, etc). So I think I need OS X Server for that.


Now I do have a Dual 1.8 G5 laying around that I replaced with a MacPro a few months back. I was going to sell it figuring I could get $800-900 for it. But if I sell it, what to replace it with?

On MacNN I've seen a few Dual G4/533 or 700s, would those have any trouble running OS X Server and running the setup I'm looking for?

(FYI- I'm running the whole house on gigabit ethernet, and may opt to run a Fiber card from an XServe between my main desktop machine and the new server to expedite file movement- but that's a bit down the road probably if I go that way.)


I just have no experience with those ~500Mhz G4s to know what they've got under the hood and what they'd be capable of in this type of situation. I imagine they'd be fine.

I was thinking of setting up whatever box I use as the server like this:
~2GB RAM
74GB Raptor OS/Apps drive
maybe a 2nd Raptor (perhaps a 150?) to store the user accounts and any other "stuff"
dual PCI eSATA cards (to get 8 ports)
add a second gigabit NIC to do channel-bonding and up my throughput on the network

Any thoughts or concerns? Or other solutions I haven't though of?

Oh, and last question- where the heck can I get a second NIC card to add another gigabit ethernet port to both my main G5 desktop and to this new server?

Thanks all!

[besson3c]

Why would you need to run OS X Server to do that?

[jfobart]

Because I asked the question earlier of "how do I host user accounts on a non-local machine" and never got any replies. Started doing research and the only answer I found was OS X Server could host the accounts, so that no matter where I log in (my laptop, either desktop, or my wifes soon-to-be-purchased laptop), as long as I was on the local network I'd get my user home directory and account.

Is there another solution besides OS X Server?

(Admittedly that's the only thing I think I need OS X Server for- not for any of the file serving which is easy, just simply for the hosting and serving of user accounts)

[Big Mac]

The old rule was: Anything that you can do with OS X Server you can also do with OS X - provided that you are able to do it manually. That may have changed with more recent OS X Server versions, but something as simple as hosting accounts on remote machines is doable with OS X if you know how to do it. If not, Server is the way to go.

[besson3c]

Yeah, I was thinking of OS X Client too, however if you were wanting to give a few things up (such as Spotlight, OS 9 compatibility, etc.) you could probably host your home directory on a non OS X machine too.

[OreoCookie]

I don't think you need Raptors for a file server, especially if it's a small file server, large drives will be cheaper and cheaper per GB. If you want to host user accounts (and not just files) on your server, then OS X Server is definitely the most hassle-free solution for you.

[jfobart]

Thanks for the input everyone, I appreciate it!!

Any thoughts on OS X Server 10.3 vs 10.4?? If all I'm doing is hosting accounts (and serving files from the eSATA boxes), does it matter? (Or, is there anything I'd be giving up if I went with 10.3 instead of 10.4?)

Just wondering since I'll probably just buy the software off eBay and discs for both versions are out there.

Oreo- you're right about the Raptor, but I have a 74GB Raptor just lying around unused so that's why I was thinking of using that instead of a larger drive.


I guess everyone feels that the Dual G4/533 would be up to the task? (that way I sell the G5, using the proceeds to buy the new eSATA box, Server software, a second NIC & SATA card, and the G4 itself)

[besson3c]

The G4 should be fine if it has the expansion you need, as there is no processing required to write files to disk, just disk I/O

[jfobart]

Does anybody know of another NIC card that I can use other than the Sonnet Presto?

Just wondering if there's something out there for less than $80. Thanks!!

[mduell]

Don't bother with a Raptor in the server; network bandwidth/latency are going to mask any gains in hard drive performance.

[jfobart]

What if instead of adding a 2nd gigabit ethernet port to the server and my DualG5 (read: buying 2 $90 Sonnet NIC cards), what if instead I got 2 Apple Fiber Channel cards and ran a 25' fiber cable between the server and the DualG5? It would be a few bucks cheaper (each card @$50, the cable basically $50 also, for a total of $150)?

Would there be any good or bad things about this setup instead of just channel-bonding dual gigabit ethernet ports?

Thanks again everyone!

[OreoCookie]

Why do you want two network adapters? For link aggregation? AFAIK only OS X Server can do that -- so on the receiving end with OS X client, you wouldn't benefit from link aggregation.
It seems to me that you don't want a server, but a large harddrive/RAID, that's not what a file server is for. If that's the case, stop wasting this type of money, sell the G5 and get a hardware RAID5 tower as well as an eSATA card. Install OS X Server on your machine and voila.