Apple Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server

or XP machines. I'm impressed; I'm also impressed with OS X Leopard Server; I'll evaluate that here, too, since it's the brains of Apple's clever server.

There's no question that Apple is offering the Mac mini server as an easy-to-set up alternative to Windows Small Business Server (SBS). With Windows SBS, some Microsoft server skills are required for flawless deployment; Apple, conversely, has made it simple to get a server up and running without need for an IT person or VAR.

The Mac mini server has big potential as a home network server; I can see the Mac mini server giving ($180 direct, ) a run for its money since it's built for multimedia, with OS X's Quick Time Streaming Server, and the new Podcast Producer 2 software included. For small businesses with light-duty needs who don't have an already in-place Windows Server with Active Directory deployed, this is a strong challenger to Microsoft's Small Business Server (SBS). The Mac mini server is easier to set up (particularly when it comes to weightier stuff like RAID—though only RAID 0 and 1 are supported). Plus, its 1TB drive capacity is serious storage space for the money.

It's worth noting that the Mac mini server isn't for larger-scale businesses. It lacks some enterprise-friendly features, such as dual Ethernet ports for multihoming and link redundancy. Additionally, the SATA drives aren't as potent as SCSI or SAS drives for enterprise-level work. But since the Mac mini server's target is the SMB (and smaller SMBs at that), the lack of such features isn't a big deal.

Hardware
The Apple Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server offers nearly identical energy efficiency and hardware as the consumer ($699 list, ), but three key features differentiate it from its brother: a 2.66-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor (vs. 2.4-GHz); dual 500 GB 7200-rpm drives (vs. a single 320GB HDD), 4GB of RAM (vs. 2GB); and of course, the updated, easy-to-use Mac OS X v10.6.3 Server operating system. Unlike the consumer Mac mini, the Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server lacks an optical drive, but it can remotely access optical drives on other Macs and PCs. 4 GB of RAM keeps the server peppy, and there's an option to upgrade to 8GB ($400 extra) if you plan to use it for hard-core business purposes.

Cost Effectiveness and Licenses
Apple gets a lot of criticism for its prices, but that doesn't apply here. For a starting price of $999, you get the Mac mini and unlimited client licenses; Windows SBS costs $1,089 (for Standard edition), and doesn't include client licenses (connecting five additional devices or users to the server requires that you cough up an additional $385). The unlimited client licenses bundled with the Mac mini server are a great value for small businesses. If you are not going the OEM/reseller route, and choose to install SBS on a bare bones server, then you have to factor in hardware costs. A typical SMB server like the ($699.00 direct, ) which is sold bare bones, runs $713 bucks—an additional cost. That's nearly $2,200 to get set up for five licenses, versus the Mac mini's $1K, for unlimited licenses. That's a great deal from Apple.—

Easy Setup
Server Assistant, a user-friendly wizard that walks you through setting up the server in a series of clicks, launches on boot up. First, you can opt to transfer an existing server from another volume on the server, or from a Time Machine backup.

The initial setup steps are setting up the administrator account and the network connection. I connected to my wireless network, and, once I clicked on the SSID, the system automatically populated the appropriate IP addressing and DNS addresses with no hassle. It's just as easy to assign manual network settings.

Next, you set up Users, Groups, and Services like File Sharing, Web, Mail, iCal via Server Preferences. The intuitive interface reduces carrying out server configurations to little more than pointing and clicking on icons. Microsoft has made great strides in creating a more navigable interface in Windows Small Business server 2008, with its Server Preferences counterpart, called Server Manager, but it's nowhere near as simple. Mac OS X's interface is all about user-friendliness.

My set up time met Apple's boast of "server setup in 10 minutes," though that's for a basic, simple setup. In testing, the Mac mini server proved to be somewhat challenging to integrate with an Active Directory Windows domain, and frustrating when I attempted to manage a Windows Domain Controller via OS X's Server Admin utility. Still, the Mac mini server facilitated harmonious cross-platform file sharing between it and Windows clients; something that a user with a mixed Windows and Mac network would want.

All in all, it's ideal for those with no experiencing setting up servers (although calls to Apple Support may be inevitable when configuring advanced services like Web or DNS).

This server may have the easiest VPN I have ever set up. You simply switch VPN on using the on-screen switch. It was easy to get a Windows 7 client configured to VPN in to the Apple server with no hiccups on either the client or server side. RAID configuration had the same ease of setup. With the two disks, users can set up disk striping (to boost performance) or mirroring (for fault tolerance). You can also set up MySQL, RADIUS, FTP and DHCP. Everything a simple network would require is included in this tiny server.—

Features
Several new features are introduced in the server version of Snow Leopard 10.6. For starters, it's a full-fledged 64 bit operating system with a 64-bit kernel—it doesn't just support 64-bit applications like Mac OS X Leopard does. The difference? A true 64-bit OS enables more memory accessibility (and therefore greater speed) and greater security. Other new features include:

Wiki Server 2:
Every user account gets a wiki portal called My Page for viewing and creating wikis, blogs, web calendars, and accessing webmail .Creating a wiki is easy, and you can select a design from a library of 25 templates. Each user can set permissions as to who can read or write to the wiki, insert multimedia files, and attach documents. Users can also create blog entries within wikis, and there's a section for people to leave comments.

iCal Server 2:
iCal Server 2 lets uses share calendars, and schedule meetings and events. Push notification gives users up-to-the minute information on any meeting changes. In addition, iCal 2 supports ($199.99 - $699.00 List, ) integration.

Podcast Producer 2:
Podcast Producer 2 is an application for encoding, publishing, and distributing podcasts. It's got the familiar easy-to-use interface that defines Mac software. Once a podcast is created, it's simple to publish it in various formats (Apple TV, iPod, and other devices).

Address Book Server:
The new Address Book Server supports contact sharing across a network. It handles vCard format with a protocol called CardDAV.

Mobile Access Server:
Mobile Access Server supports remote access to the network from Mac and iPhone clients. It uses the network's directory service for authentication.—

Administration
The first time I tried to add a Windows Server running Active Directory into Server Admin, the OS X Server Admin crashed. When I was finally able to add it, Server Admin's performance slowed to a crawl. Server Admin is a centralized interface from which users can view detailed information about multiple servers, like memory, drive space and other information. In this case, it failed to pull any information from the Windows server. My suggestion for best practice with Apple's server: If you have Windows servers, manage them in Windows. If you only have the one Mac mini box, and want to also run a Windows server; run Parallels to virtualize Windows, or Boot Camp to load it as a separate OS.

I also ran into an issue trying to connect the Mac mini server to the Windows Active Directory Server via Login Options in the System Preferences interface. You'd do this to import users from a Windows domain to the Mac server. At first, I was able to add the AD server by its DNS name, but then I got an error that the server stopped responding and the Mac mini server had dropped its connection to the AD server. I could still run a ping test to each server, however, proving that they could communicate with one another. I removed the AD server and tried to rejoin it a second time. OS X would not recognize the FQDN or IP address of my Windows server this second time.

I can't state definitively if this is an issue with OS X or AD. Regardless of where the blame lies, the easiest way to avoid the headache is to do your AD administering within Windows. I can't envision most Windows network administrators using OS X to manage a Windows server or wanting to import AD users to the Mac mini server, anyway. However, Apple did state that integration is possible; even outlining the steps in the server's manual, so we tried it, and found it a clumsy process.

The most granular way to control integration with AD on the Mac mini is through the command line prompt. That's really recommended for advanced users, though Apple has some wonderful technical guidance at: www.apple.com/business/resources.

Performance
In testing, the Mac mini server adroitly handled sharing of large files, wirelessly transferring 1 GB files in seconds between Windows clients.

In another performance test, we used the Cinebench R10 benchmark on both the Mac mini and the Mac mini server. Cinebench tests CPU performance. The Mac mini scored a good 5464. The server fared only slightly better at 5521; slightly disappointing since it has a faster CPU and more memory than the Mac mini.

But that's a PC-centric test; I also tested the new Mac mini server using Geekbench2; a standard performance test we use to benchmark servers. The Mac mini server scored 4063. Geekbench's website shows the average score of the previous Mac mini server, which had an older Core 2 Duo processor as 3724, so there is a performance improvement with the new specs.

Is This The Server For You?
Apple has created a stellar home or small business server. For smaller networking needs, the rapid setup and deployment is a game-changer. For SMBs that are Microsoft shops; integrating the Mac mini server may not make much sense, but for businesses without IT (or without Windows servers already deployed), the Mac mini server is a wonderful solution and Apple's finest SMB product to date.

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