Specs for Mac server?

[talksr]

Hi,

 

We are due to have mac server integrated with our existing RM CC4 Windows based network. We have around 9 or 10 macs which are currently unmanaged.

We have a mac mini which I believe may just have the capacity to act as OSX Server, but would be grateful if anyone with more experience in what would pass as good enough could cast their eye over the following specs...

 

 

The system does have double the factory fitted memory - it has 2 x 4gb.

I was wondering if I wiped and re-installed and maybe fitted a solid state drive and changed the ram to 16gb, it would be powerful enough to manage our 10 macs plus maybe double in the near future?

Apple no longer do Mac Mini Servers on their site, though I have managed to get the following customised quotations from them:

[Quackers]

Our Mac Mini running OS X Server which has Profile Manager on for managing the Mac's, Caching Server, Time Machine Server (for over 100 Mac's) and Deploy Studio is a late 2012 i7 2.3Ghz with 16GB RAM. We have some external Thunderbolt WD disk drives attached to for extra storage. It originally came with 4GB RAM but as we added more load the RAM was the first bottleneck we reached so max out your RAM , the 2012 had removable RAM, but the latest ones don't so make sure you get as much as you can afford in it now. Edited November 13, 2015 by Quackers

[talksr]

Our Mac Mini running OS X Server which has Profile Manager on for managing the Mac's, Caching Server, Time Machine Server (for over 100 Mac's) and Deploy Studio is a late 2012 i7 2.3Ghz with 16GB RAM. We have some external Thunderbolt WD disk drives attached to for extra storage. It originally came with 4GB RAM but as we added more load the RAM was the first bottleneck we reached so max out your RAM , the 2012 had removable RAM, but the latest ones don't so make sure you get as much as you can afford in it now.

 

Thanks.

Thankfully as my current one is mid 2011, it too has removable ram.

If I go for a new one from Apple, I will max out on ram as it will be soldered in.

I am wondering if the hdd and processor in my current mid 2011 will be futureproofed enough. This is quite a new installation and I would expect that it will not be changed for four or so years.

Sometimes it is worth spending more now, before it all gets set up.

[Quackers]

If your current one is almost 5 years old and you want another 4 years out of it and it will be on 24/7 i would get a new one in place now. They are not super expensive. You could always use the 2011 Mac Mini as a dedicated caching server if you have iPads.

[3s-gtech]

Considering we happily use a 2009 model Mac Mini Server (the first gen one with two HDDs), you should be fine for some time with that. The Sandybridge i5 CPUs in them are a big step up from the old C2D. Ours is still on 4GB of RAM and it suffers a bit (running 10.10) so definitely max this out as it's cheap (16GB works apparently). Boot SSD may be worthwhile if you use Thunderbolt to attach some fast external storage.