There are a few ways to set up a Mac mini to have it specifically act as a server rather than a computer.
You can create that server pretty easily and pretty cheaply with just a Mac mini.
However, as other people have commented, the Mac Mini and a VPS or other leased server are in different categories to some extent.Having a server is the best way to easily share and back up files or stream media across multiple devices. Instead of an optical drive, it offers two 500GB SATA drives, so that you can run RAID 1. If you really want to go the co-lo Mac Mini route, I would recommend the Mac Mini with Snow Leopard Server released earlier this week.
MAC MINI SERVER USES UPGRADE
Are owned by Rackspace, so you can always upgrade to a dedicated server if that's more your needs or you can augment the VPS storage using one of their cloud storage solutions or Amazon's S3 Simple Storage Service.Do not have any contracts or setup fees-no contracts cannot be overlooked as I'd prefer to not buy hardware or enter into annual contracts with co-lo and bandwidth providers only to have the business tank and.Allow you to upgrade to a larger slice at any time.Some of the advantages of Slicehost are that they: Both of these slices are running Ubuntu 9.04 with Apache, PostgreSQL, and Perl/CGI. I also use a 256 slice with OpenVPN to server as our company's intranet and host our web-based accounting package, which is currently LedgerSMB. For an additional $5/month you can get backups as well, although for my customer facing website, I just backup the data to my MacBook. Their 256 slice costs $20/month and provides 256MB RAM, 10GB storage, and 100GB monthly bandwidth. I've used Slicehost for the past 2.5 years with no problems. If you are a bootstrapped web start-up, I would recommend leasing a virtual private server (VPS) instead of buying hardware. If it's bandwidth, the discussion might involve separating the bandwidth requirements from the hardware requirements, and finding ways to meet the bandwidth requirements cost-effectively. For example, if it's storage, you'll get overcharged by someone else handling the hardware - but you want something rack-efficient and maintainable, not a Mac Mini. Depending on what these requirements are, advice might vary significantly. It implies significant unstated requirements, such as bandwidth or storage. You should explain in detail the $900-$1500/month cost. a VMWare or Xen instance, if a Mac Mini could do the job. Or a cost breakdown that makes it clear you're paying for wasted rackspace. Who's going to handle hardware, who's going to handle remote console access? Honestly any colo provider should at least give you an "are you sure you wan to do this" if you ask for that. Remote management is probably nonexistent, or at least weak considering comparable solutions. They're not efficient in terms of rack space. Is the plan to colocate a Mac Mini with external hard drives? This really makes no sense. You get root access and can choose what O/S you want installed. You get a slice of a server and only pay for the memory, disk space, and bandwidth that you actually need (and VPS 'hardware' can be upgraded with a single click). Other options you should consider with regards to cost (if you haven't already), are Virtual Private Servers (two companies I've heard great stuff about are SliceHost and Linode). While building your own server and hosting it yourself will save you money, it won't save you time or headaches down the road (and hosting is really dirt cheap, especially VPSes see below) More importantly, however, will be the reliability and bandwidth of your Internet connection and future migration of your application to a data center and/or better hardware when your application begins to demand it. Of course doing this would also mean you no longer have physical access to the hardware.Ĭon's of using a Mac Mini: From what it sounds like you're trying to do, the con's of using 'non-server-grade' machines from a hardware perspective are not many. You get to own your hardware and have it hosted in a secure data center environment with lots of bandwidth. You configure the Mac Mini, ship it to them, and they hook it up.
In fact, there's a company who exclusively hosts Mac Mini's in a data center in Nevada (Google 'Mac Mini Colocation'). If you're intent on using Mac Mini's, they will work just fine as little servers. They fully own their entire data center and their support is superb. I've been using LiquidWeb (Google it) for my dedicated servers for years now.
MAC MINI SERVER USES SOFTWARE
Before I say anything about Mac Mini's, I want to mention that you can rent a dedicated, fully managed server for around $200 a month (fully managed doesn't mean they touch the software or O/S it just means if something goes wrong with the hardware or the network, on-site engineers will fix it immediately an invaluable service!).
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