Setting up a (primarily) Mac Network for my Small Business

[Guest Guest]

Hi all,

 

I've been out of Enterprise IT for a fair few years now & looking for some advice relating to the design of my new (mostly) Mac (business) network.

 

I currently have an ageing Sierra > Mojave based Network w/ 5x Mac Pro's (from 2009-2013) and will be looking to replace all of this older kit w/ the new Silicon stuff that I've got on order. One of the 'advantages' of using Sierra for me was the ability to have a (more-or-less) fully-featured macOS Server environment (w/ Open Directory and the like). I never used Profile Manager as always thought it was more of a 'proof-of-concept' thing rather than anything fully-featured and didn't need it in my case.

 

Given that macOS Server (as of last month) is dead (w/ no likely replacement (ever?) coming) - I'm having to look at replacing the roles that the Server had. I'm also doing a physical-network overhaul (w/ a move to 10GbE) so need to factor this in too...

 

Here's my questions:

 

 

• What's the 'best' directory service replacement for Open Directory? Is is still setting up an AD Environment? This is feasible for me to add-in if need be; but the (original) plan until last month was to get rid of all the Windows machines (rather than have to include more!) <-- I never used Open Directory to login to network accounts. I always just used it to unify share credentials/password changes.
  
• Are 'Mac' specific VLANs still a thing? I've always seen historically some organisations/schools use separate VLANs for Apple kit. Was this purely down to previous 'best' practice of using .local w/ Domains (and thus interfering w/ Bonjour)? If I did setup an AD Environment w/ a proper FQDN - can I keep it all on one network?
  
• If you run a Mac Network, what software do you use to sort out either Server or endpoint backups? Do you use the Time Machine Server role? Do you setup separate shares for each machine? (Our setup currently is a shared machine in Each Studio (A, B & + Radio/Podcast Suite) w/ a generic login & then user logging in to their own 'share' via an Apple Script I wrote years ago. We also currently have a 'Time Machine' drive in each Mac Pro) I'd just be looking to backup the system state as all Documents are on our main server.
  
• What's the best software now to 'image' a Mac? I know it's already dead (in the traditional sense), but do methods such as Carbon Copy Cloner > Restore work well?
  
• Do you have any tips, tricks or 'go-to' software that you'd recommend me using? I'm thinking of getting Apple Remote Desktop so I can do some things from my main machine.
  

 

Obviously, this isn't a complex network by enterprise standards. Almost home/prosumer level (if that?) - I want to have something simple but resilient. I'm not a SysAdmin anymore and don't want to spend time having to constantly fiddle w/ things. Almost a 'set & forget' thing (bar keeping up-to-date w/ security patches and the like).

 

I'd ideally want the network to be future-proof for the next 5-10 years. The fact that the 2009 Mac Pro's are still running says a lot about Apple's kit. I think the upgradability of them now is also pretty much dead in the water given how hard & fast Apple is pushing their ARM chips so don't mind spending a fair bit of money to get something stable.

 

Any other info you need, let me know!

 

Cheers.

[Brimstone]

Forget about OD Directory binding, it's been dead for years.

 

Apple Business Manager & a good MDM (my preference would be Jamf Pro) will do this job...

 

https://www.jamf.com/solutions/