You should NOT use the same up address as when you got your initial DHCP lease, unless you make a reservation on your DHCP server (ie: router). Otherwise you should use an IP outside the DHCP scope set on the DHCP server (ie: router). Reason being is that the DHCP server can then assign another machine on your network with that IP and you will end up with an IP address conflict.
Depending on your router, you can have the router assign an IP address based on the MAC address to prevent any other devices taking it and leave the IP address on dhcp on the OS side too!
I've used a couple of 2010 Mac Pros to host hundreds of websites... worked as a charm. Switched to virtual servers when they became cheaper than the electricity-bill...
Would be nice to revisit this video with more current software. From what I've been researching MacOS has integrated a lot of server like features without the need to pay for this software.
I'm pretty sure the VPN option on macOS Server is actually to run a VPN server for allowing outside connections into your LAN, not for running a client that all of the LAN runs through.
Absolutely! a headless computer is the real server, any seasoned sysadmin will tell you that; also macos server is not really a good choice because: a) pricing/app model b) closed source c) really problematic at installing 3rd party programming languages or modules; maybe for "windows like sysadmins" where they need to click buttons and switches to "activate services" is an option, but for anyone with some experience in *nix those are limitations
EWave It's worth noting that if the machine your trying to use as a server runs El cap then file caching, sharing and time machine over the network are all built in. I didn't know that till after I paid for and installed this on my 2012 MBP and the side bar of the macos server app had only 2 options. So if your machine can run post ~2018 macos then you can achieve all of this natively
I actually did this recently, if you do this, you even need to find a sound card and extra devices, as a server is really barebones. I hackintoshed it, and it uses an Ivy Bridge Xeon, and a GTX 960. I'm on High Sierra, because there's no Nvidia web drivers for Mojave. It works well, and is pretty snappy though.
I did that many moons ago to a G4 Server running an old Mac Classic server app called Appleshare iP Server. Like I said it was many moons ago. I could regale you with tales of Mac Manager, but thinking about that will keep me awake at night.
Just letting you know that as of March 2020, the app doesn't have all those services anymore. I paid for it, just to find out they merged most services into the OS (I still liked this approach of having everything on the same place, but the app doesn't have any of the options seen on this video anymore). I just asked for a refund, hopefully I get it.
Yah, he lost me at less than 2 minutes in with "you need to purchase this app on a mac that's already running 10.14" - like why wouldn't you just dual-boot Linux and be happier?
kingneutron1 You don’t need that either. If you’re comfortable in the command line, you can use all the functionality of macOS Server without buying it. You only pay for the GUI. The rest is Free Open Source Software (one exception I believe). And with brew you can brew install anything just like apt-get
@@casperes0912 Yah, the only problem with brew is they stopped supporting 10.11 El Capitan (which is what I use) - I've had more luck with macports lately
kingneutron1 didn’t know that actually. But macports is a good alternative. arguably more proper. And as a final resort there’s manual git clone, make, make install.
I went the classic "Snow Leopard on a Core Duo Mac Mini" route. Shoved a 500GB HDD I had spare in it, loaded up my regular digital media library on it and haven't had any issues! As I retire newer hardware I'll certainly be giving the later "consumer friendly" Server App a try, but for now all I truly need is file sharing and it works an absolute treat. Keep in mind you only should have as much power as you need, so given what hardware you have spare and operating system versions you may have available to it, sometimes the "standard" OS version will do just fine. Other times, going all out is best! It just depends. It's fun, regardless, to have a machine set up to do such duties.. to know you're always running something. Oh, and since it's worth noting, a friend of mine wants to run a G5 tower as a home media server, simply because. Yep, he's crazier than I am with this stuff!
Regarding the timemachine functionality, you're going to want to disable spotlight indexing of your timemachine disk drive to prevent high CPU usage that results in ridiculously poor performance. I speak from experience on this as the company I SysAdmin for is a 90% Mac user base. We have a Mac Mini 2012 with a Core i7 processor and 4GB of DDR3 RAM that had the exact same issue previously.
YUP! Totally agreed man. Now, I basically have a NAS running netatalk and Avahi so it replicates an AFP share with the Time Machine "blessing" and DNS-SD advertisement on the network. Boom, you have a Time Capsule server on modern hardware.
Just a heads up for those that need it. The rang of IPs that can be used is usually between 2 and 254 on a 24 bit subnet. 0 is for the network address and 1 is usually left for SOHO router login page, however it maybe another address like 254. Check your router settings
I thank you so much for inspiring me to build my first hackintish which runs great! I wanted mac os for school but couldnt afford a mac and after watching your vid I didnt have to dish out 1200 bucks thanks!
I'm not trying to bash you. I just dont want people to get an IP conflict and not understand why or how to fix it. You should never set a static address thats within a DHCP pool unless its done by the router. Your router has no idea that the IP is used for DHCP, as it won't be in its DHCP binding table, so it could very well hand it out to another device and cause a conflict. Some routers will see traffic coming from the IP and know its taken, but the DHCP server on your router usually will not talk to the ARP table or the routing table to see if its in use. Best bet would be to log into your router and change the DHCP pool from starting at .2 and have it start at like .10 or however many static IP addresses you need, then use one from there. Also, never trust a ping request to tell you if an IP is available. Instead either see if your router will show you an ARP table, or run a network scan with a program like Angry IP Scanner to find used and open addresses. Some devices, especially phones and Windows computers will not respond to a ping request by default. I understand that this is aimed at Mac users and those respond to ping requests by default. But that doesn't mean that every device on the network is a Mac. Keep up the good videos. Love watching your content.
I just received a new MacBook Air as a birthday present, and I was looking what I could do with my old white MacBook running High Sierra. So your video was perfect. Thanks
I've been using a 2011 21.5" iMac as a home server for a while. Works like a charm. Handles file sharing, timemachine backup, update caching, iTunes media server.
@@BrandenMoffat Yes you can do it without the server package. As a matter of fact, since 10.13, the server app has kind of been useless. Most things are build in to MacOS these days.
A ping doesn't proof that an ip address is available! There are many devices which doesn't respond to pings, you always should check on your router which ip addresses are available, and you always should choose one which isn't used by the DHCP service!
I was expecting something crazier, but that MacOS server interface looks so clean for a 2006 Mac Pro lying around here. Maybe a good project for Plex and local backup.
Love how you respect Spanish in the pronunciation my friend. Great video , great information, I'm about to start my server but I don't want just a nas as I want the Mac mini for another purpose that might be useful in the near future
Coincidentally, this was what I did with my 2006 Mac Mini for 2½ years before having to upgrade (to a custom-built NAS) so that my dad could clean the living room easily, because he would often end up knocking out connections on external drives. After upgrading, I used it as a dedicated PC for managing my iTunes library (I primarily use Linux-based OSes), but then had to leave it behind at my second home abroad, so on the last night I could spend there, I scurried to create a DMG of its 320 GB hard drive before flying off the next day, frequently waking up to check the status. I've been meaning to find the time to set up a 2010 MacBook with a damaged display to replace it, but haven't got around to doing so.
Wow, that is awesome thanks man! Wanted a home server for a long time and have an old 13-inch air lying around. Didn't realize macOS Server is that powerful! Thanks for the videos, always enjoy them!
I am using my older MACs as servers for many years (File/Print Server, TimeMachine, iTunes, Photos, etc.) but I don't use the server software. It really only makes sense, when you plan to restrict access to certain folders/drives etc. If you want full access for everybody to everything, the regular MacOS will do the job just fine. PS: A good amount of RAM (for the server) is recommended!
If you want to go the route of not reserving the LAN IP address on your DNS/router you really should just start at the highest number and work your way down. Also being aware of the number of devices on your network is good. If you have 20 devices on the network regularly you should pick an IP between .30 and .255. If you don't want to do that much thinking just start at 200 and work your way down. But the RIGHT way is to learn how to reserve your LAN IP. That criticism aside, I love the idea of this video! More people should utilize their old computers for home server things!
I just upgraded to a 16" MBP M1 Pro after I finally broke the display on my 2013 15" MBP. Was thinking of repairing if I could find a cheap display or MBP for part, or just selling it as is. Now I think i'm gonna use it as a media server, but what REALLY sold me was the VPN feature. I use Airport Extreme routers and you have no option to use VPN, and my modem/router from Frontier FiOS doesn't have the option to use a VPN either. Now I just need to find a place to place my MBP. I. have 2 OWC Thunderbay 4 RAID drives, one is 3.5" and the other is 2.5". The 3.5" RAID is using HDDs can get pretty loud, especially in comparison now that I have an M1 Pro MBP, so I will be moving that RAID enclosure with my old MBP and attach that to it, I love how I can use Time Machine still. Looks like I have some Cat-6 wire running to do in my near future.
Awesome - I have a Mini that I'm considering putting this on and over the holiday, I will be installing and SSD into my 2012 iMac that I was considering selling. With this app, I might just turn it into a "MacServer" Many Thanks
This looks great, but all the feature's you describe are gone from the Mojave version. But actually you absolutely do not need the Server app anymore for a great homeserver. Most options are build in to your OSX now so you don't need it anymore (but I still miss the convenience of all the tools in one place).
Latest version has none of these features anymore and have been transitioned away. This entire video, unfortunately, is outdated. Hopefully a newer version will come out. Great content.
I'm so glad you did this video. I love MacOS Server. I have it running on my 2008 Mac Pro (which is still my main desktop w/ 10.13) to host my website and do file sharing. There's also a great app on the app store called dDNS Broker which I use to keep my domain name pointed to my IP (Comcast doesn't offer static IPs to residential customers). I have both my standard website, as well as a personal cloud, a la Google Drive, built with NextCloud. Saves tons of time doing client work since the only transfer time is from their computer to mine, versus uploading to Google and then downloading to me. If you haven't already, you should do a video on ARD. Screen Sharing/Bash/Installing over networks, both LAN and WAN, is such a godsend.
do not share through the internet. Setup the VPN and you can access files securely. Also the VPN option is for creating a VPN server not for connecting to a remote VPN. You then can configure your iphone or laptop to use your home VPN. This is great for connecting to internal devices on your lan. Using SSH. Also protects you at coffee shops over the wi-fi. If you are out of town and want to watch your local TV or such, It will work as the VPN exit is your home router. So the same IP that they are used to having you connect from.
I manage a bunch of windows servers and Linux servers and every time I try Mac OS server I'm left scratching my head. it keeps loosing the useful features.
This is awesome...had no idea how simple it was to turn a Mac into a server and that caching thing is fantastic! I have a 2012 MacBook Pro that has all kinds of issues (dead battery, half the keyboard doesn't work, backlight on keyboard doesn't work...) that I might try this out on. Would be great for my music storage or even just media storage (pictures, music, videos)
I've been using the built-in file share functionality of macOS to host all the media from my 3TB external drive, considering getting macOS server after watching this as it's much more powerful and has a lot more functionality (such as alerts, time machine backups, etc.). this will definitely help keep my resurrected 2009 MacBook Pro in-use! Dosdudes macOS Mojave Patcher tool has definitely helped extend the life of my aging machine, that will allow me to get the newest version of macOS server.
There’s one very good reason to use the Time Machine service in El Capitan’s Server rather than setting it up in Sharing in Mojave: Server will show you the status of all the backups, while there’s no built-in way to do that in Mojave.
Wow - MacOS Server really has changed a LOT since I last messed with it... have you given any thought to setting up essentially the same sort of server on the same laptop using Linux instead? Most of what you showed in this video is really simple in recent Linux distros. A comparison of the process as well as pros/cons of OS X Server vs, say, Ubuntu would be interesting.
This weekend I will be step by stepping this into my Mac Pro 3,1. I’m still learning but loving the potential. I already have quite a bit of mac hardware.... but i am curious how to implement my 2tb airport extreme into the mix. Thanks for the great content.
The caching feature sounds very useful for my parents who can't get anything faster than a slow DSL connection but have multiple iPhones and iPads that connect through it. I'd rather run it in a Docker container on the NAS they already have, but maybe I can find an old Mac Mini or something to run it on.
A few things after trying it out on a 2018 Macbook with El Capitan: - Content caching does not work even if you can toggle it on the Server app - Time Machine will only work if SMB is disabled
Re-using old machines is great, but I would be VERY hesitant to recommend that anyone set up a home server running an OS that no-longer receives security updates (and hasn't for over a year), where the server software is *also* no longer being updated. A safer course would be to install Linux, which can be kept up-to-date even on very old hardware, but if you *really* want to use macOS Server, then at the very least you should lock down its ability to connect to the outside internet as much as possible - ideally, you wouldn't let it connect to the internet *at all*, and just use it for serving files over the LAN, but if you really have to make use of the caching server functionality, then you should have it fire-walled against everything, and only white-list the relevant Apple URLs so that it can connect to iTunes/App Store/etc.
I miss Mac OS Server. I had an FTP server running. It worked really well until the Mac Mini died. I then got a Dropbox account and transferred everything onto that.
Should make a video on the cache sever feature built into MacOS for downloads and such. With data caps from Comcast this can really help out families manage data usage.
Always feel like he is saying “Hi guys I’m the queen of snazzy labs”
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Thanks for the howTo. I'll use my 17 inch Late 2008 Macbook Pro as a file server. I hope it's gonna be a cost-effective -kinda- NAS, thanks to its new SSD inside.
you can have that just not so intuitive but it can be free if you do some research and ask a few forums around they will most likely help you. I have one set up on my old laptop with linux and does mostly all just not the app updates which would be awesome. I use it for my iPad which is only 32Gb so I basically store my lectures and movies on that hard drive. new iPad os files app comes with support for SMB but it's still a bit shitty.
There is flaws in this video but hey, true networking is hard for most people. Basically, manually set addresses should be outside of the range of the DHCP server but on the same subnet (mask) as the network you want your devices on. This is why you can set the scope of the DHCP server so it only distributes addresses that you want it to use. (You could put it on another network but you’ll need a more capable router). Reserved DHCP leases is ok but not ideal with manual addresses. You would usually want the client on automatic and the server will respond to DHCP requests but keep assigning the same address forever. Also Ping is NOT an appropriate way to check if an address is used or not. Not all devices respond to ICMP requests, my router don’t on the internet and I hope yours too, china is scanning the internet like crazy with that. Otherwise nice video!
Thank you for the excellent video. But is it wise to use a notebook which has an internal battery, placed in an attic which I doubt has A/C or good cooling as a 24/7 server? And if one choses a desktop Mac instead (which doesn't have an internal battery that can rupture), one must consider the old machines may require more power than newer machines and therefore 24/7 operation could run up one's electrical bill in a noticeably way. Therefore, one should consider whether the benefits of a local MacOS server outweighs the caveats.
Thank you! Have a 2012 MacBook with a dead screen. I think I can make use of it as a server... if I can remember how I hacked my way to getting the external monitor working until it's set up anyway.
Have you done an update to this video? Would be interested if you haven't. It doesn't appear that Mac Server is still available in the App Store. Good stuff!
I'm programmer. I use an older iMac (late 2013, 32gb and 2GB Sata-SSD) as a build server in the basement. Works fine even on older hardware. And it servers 10TB of files (Bollywood not porn) from USB disks at the same time. I unplugged the display but the power consumption is still high with 60W even on full idle.
Great video. Very helpful. Going to use Mac Mini @ home, and older iMac for work. I will have all macs at work use this new server for time machine backups. Have to see if I can use this server to back up the windows machines we have as well. Thanks!
Hey Quinn, how is it going my dude, thanks for making this video, I was planning turning my 2012 Mac Pro to a small office server but wasn't sure how to start, will surely use this.
Thanks! Going to use my 2011 MacBook Pro 13inch that’s been collecting dust in the corner. I just purchased a 27 inch iMac 5K. Going to set up a media server for my 4K movies.
Even though I have a Synology NAS, I might do something like this with my 2014 Mac Mini, which is collecting dust in a corner somewhere. Thanks for the video!
Great video Quinn! My first Mac was a Mac Mini Server but I’ve never quite understood how it worked. This is a really good tutorial on how to get it started. I have one question: How do you make the file access on the internet and not only on the home network?
I find lots of interesting stuff on this channel and I love it. I was curious is there any way to cluster multiple Mac mini and have more processing power overall?
You should NOT use the same up address as when you got your initial DHCP lease, unless you make a reservation on your DHCP server (ie: router). Otherwise you should use an IP outside the DHCP scope set on the DHCP server (ie: router). Reason being is that the DHCP server can then assign another machine on your network with that IP and you will end up with an IP address conflict.
Good tip. I have done this but neglected to mention. Thanks.
Good to know. Thank you Mark. (:
Agree. At least 10%, reserved, 80% dynamic, 10% vpn for home networks is ok
Not really most modern routers are smart enough not to do that but there is still a possibility
Depending on your router, you can have the router assign an IP address based on the MAC address to prevent any other devices taking it and leave the IP address on dhcp on the OS side too!
I've used a couple of 2010 Mac Pros to host hundreds of websites... worked as a charm.
Switched to virtual servers when they became cheaper than the electricity-bill...
Would be nice to revisit this video with more current software. From what I've been researching MacOS has integrated a lot of server like features without the need to pay for this software.
Running Ventura 13 and I can't even find OSX server in the app store anywhere
@@OWK000 This video is obsolete right now. You can do most of the same with any relatively old mac and stock OSX now.
@@andresvaldevit3692 I am researching that now. Thanks
If you ask me any cheap NAS will do a far better work. That's what I ended up doing starting from a Mac
I'm pretty sure the VPN option on macOS Server is actually to run a VPN server for allowing outside connections into your LAN, not for running a client that all of the LAN runs through.
Old Mac Mini's work especially well for OSX Server. Been using mine for years
Absolutely! a headless computer is the real server, any seasoned sysadmin will tell you that; also macos server is not really a good choice because: a) pricing/app model b) closed source c) really problematic at installing 3rd party programming languages or modules; maybe for "windows like sysadmins" where they need to click buttons and switches to "activate services" is an option, but for anyone with some experience in *nix those are limitations
I LEGIT JUST DID THIS WITH MY 2012 MAC MINI! Love this channel!!! Thank you!
Awesome!!!
Thinking my mid 2012 pro would serve well
EWave definitely! It’s such a good year for macs haha
Snazzy Labs thanks for the heart!
EWave It's worth noting that if the machine your trying to use as a server runs El cap then file caching, sharing and time machine over the network are all built in. I didn't know that till after I paid for and installed this on my 2012 MBP and the side bar of the macos server app had only 2 options. So if your machine can run post ~2018 macos then you can achieve all of this natively
I’d rather turn an old server into a new Mac. Can you do that one next?
Can't wait for that episode!
I actually did this recently, if you do this, you even need to find a sound card and extra devices, as a server is really barebones. I hackintoshed it, and it uses an Ivy Bridge Xeon, and a GTX 960. I'm on High Sierra, because there's no Nvidia web drivers for Mojave. It works well, and is pretty snappy though.
I’ve got Catalina Running on my 2009 Apple Xserve. So yes, totally doable.
I think x79 Xeon can work
I did that many moons ago to a G4 Server running an old Mac Classic server app called Appleshare iP Server. Like I said it was many moons ago. I could regale you with tales of Mac Manager, but thinking about that will keep me awake at night.
Just letting you know that as of March 2020, the app doesn't have all those services anymore. I paid for it, just to find out they merged most services into the OS (I still liked this approach of having everything on the same place, but the app doesn't have any of the options seen on this video anymore). I just asked for a refund, hopefully I get it.
3:30 Afraid we're going to find out that your subnet mask is 255.255.255.0?
Not necessarily. The 10.x.x.x schema isn’t restricted to /24
C S it could be anything from /8, to /30, but likely is /24
Yeah why on earth did he hide that? I didn't think subnet mask was all that sensitive.
Probably has a special DNS service subscription or something like that
Cherry Lee oops. Need more sleep. I wonder if it was a miscommunication with his editor, I could find out but again, sleep. Haha
I use a 2006 Mac mini running Debian with a time machine backup server and a smb/nas server. It’s absolutely awesome! 👌🏻
Yah, he lost me at less than 2 minutes in with "you need to purchase this app on a mac that's already running 10.14" - like why wouldn't you just dual-boot Linux and be happier?
kingneutron1 You don’t need that either. If you’re comfortable in the command line, you can use all the functionality of macOS Server without buying it. You only pay for the GUI. The rest is Free Open Source Software (one exception I believe). And with brew you can brew install anything just like apt-get
HELEMAAL NIKS Hm. With Gnome? Isn’t that quite slow? I’d probably have picked something like Lubuntu
@@casperes0912 Yah, the only problem with brew is they stopped supporting 10.11 El Capitan (which is what I use) - I've had more luck with macports lately
kingneutron1 didn’t know that actually. But macports is a good alternative. arguably more proper. And as a final resort there’s manual git clone, make, make install.
apple: $20 for a server app
linux: hold my package manager
In New Zealand Pesos, it's NZ$34.99. Maybe I should ask if it will run on my G3 Wallstreet 233 running Classzilla. :P
daniel@X230DP:~>sudo apt install vsftpd smb samba-common (wait no, it's my laptop)
Waiting for '2019 iMac cpu swap' and Thunderbolt 3 ssd enclosure reviews
I went the classic "Snow Leopard on a Core Duo Mac Mini" route. Shoved a 500GB HDD I had spare in it, loaded up my regular digital media library on it and haven't had any issues! As I retire newer hardware I'll certainly be giving the later "consumer friendly" Server App a try, but for now all I truly need is file sharing and it works an absolute treat.
Keep in mind you only should have as much power as you need, so given what hardware you have spare and operating system versions you may have available to it, sometimes the "standard" OS version will do just fine. Other times, going all out is best! It just depends.
It's fun, regardless, to have a machine set up to do such duties.. to know you're always running something.
Oh, and since it's worth noting, a friend of mine wants to run a G5 tower as a home media server, simply because. Yep, he's crazier than I am with this stuff!
El Capitán...... perfect spanish XD
Saludos!
😉
San Miguel
I came to say the same ¡pronunciación perfecta!
Carlos Aguilar Quinn’s Spanish is really good, as demonstrated in his video talking about why Siri is bad at understanding English.
1:45 You know you're old-school when you accidentally think 10.14 Mojave is 10.4 Tiger.
feels
You can set a static IP that isn't currently being used but you're you may still run into issues down the road if you used an IP in the DHCP scope.
Had a 2007 MacBook. Really loved that little machine. It had by far the best keyboard Apple has ever made.
And it was so easy to service!
thanks! I turned my old Xserve into a new laptop!
Regarding the timemachine functionality, you're going to want to disable spotlight indexing of your timemachine disk drive to prevent high CPU usage that results in ridiculously poor performance.
I speak from experience on this as the company I SysAdmin for is a 90% Mac user base. We have a Mac Mini 2012 with a Core i7 processor and 4GB of DDR3 RAM that had the exact same issue previously.
Thanks for the advice. I will be doing just that, disabling spotlight indexing.
YUP! Totally agreed man. Now, I basically have a NAS running netatalk and Avahi so it replicates an AFP share with the Time Machine "blessing" and DNS-SD advertisement on the network. Boom, you have a Time Capsule server on modern hardware.
Just a heads up for those that need it. The rang of IPs that can be used is usually between 2 and 254 on a 24 bit subnet. 0 is for the network address and 1 is usually left for SOHO router login page, however it maybe another address like 254. Check your router settings
Many of the services you show, have been removed in MacOS Server 5.7.1 or 5.4
any good alternatives?
I turned a Mac Pro 1,1 into a server using Snow Leopard Server from a CD a Friend Gave me and thanks to your video I was able to make it work.
Update I forgot it needs a serial number and I lost it so I am changing to OS Lion on this Mac Pro 1,1
I thank you so much for inspiring me to build my first hackintish which runs great! I wanted mac os for school but couldnt afford a mac and after watching your vid I didnt have to dish out 1200 bucks thanks!
I'm not trying to bash you. I just dont want people to get an IP conflict and not understand why or how to fix it.
You should never set a static address thats within a DHCP pool unless its done by the router. Your router has no idea that the IP is used for DHCP, as it won't be in its DHCP binding table, so it could very well hand it out to another device and cause a conflict. Some routers will see traffic coming from the IP and know its taken, but the DHCP server on your router usually will not talk to the ARP table or the routing table to see if its in use.
Best bet would be to log into your router and change the DHCP pool from starting at .2 and have it start at like .10 or however many static IP addresses you need, then use one from there.
Also, never trust a ping request to tell you if an IP is available. Instead either see if your router will show you an ARP table, or run a network scan with a program like Angry IP Scanner to find used and open addresses.
Some devices, especially phones and Windows computers will not respond to a ping request by default. I understand that this is aimed at Mac users and those respond to ping requests by default. But that doesn't mean that every device on the network is a Mac.
Keep up the good videos. Love watching your content.
Allan Tinker most people have less than 5 device. So should not be a problem.
could you do an updated video? id love to see how to do this the best way now that macOS Server is done.
I just received a new MacBook Air as a birthday present, and I was looking what I could do with my old white MacBook running High Sierra. So your video was perfect. Thanks
I've been using a 2011 21.5" iMac as a home server for a while. Works like a charm. Handles file sharing, timemachine backup, update caching, iTunes media server.
@@BrandenMoffat Yes you can do it without the server package. As a matter of fact, since 10.13, the server app has kind of been useless. Most things are build in to MacOS these days.
A ping doesn't proof that an ip address is available! There are many devices which doesn't respond to pings, you always should check on your router which ip addresses are available, and you always should choose one which isn't used by the DHCP service!
Been running my Mac Mini 2011 as my server for about a year now. Works great for home use can confirm!
Not the "Snazzy Server" ? 🙂
snazzy.local is the address of our real server. 😉
Snazzy Labs oh, no! you gave them your server address. now they will ddos the 💩 out of it 😂
Docker work really well on MacOSX. It's definitely less user friendly, but you can have a beast of a machine with this setup.
I was expecting something crazier, but that MacOS server interface looks so clean for a 2006 Mac Pro lying around here. Maybe a good project for Plex and local backup.
This seems pretty interesting. Guess I'll dig up an old 16" Pro I've got lying around somewhere to test this out with.
*Thanks for the tip!*
Its amazing how many of your videos I have saved and followed through as "weekend projects" ! Thanks
Now this is the type of videos I have been waiting to see from you Snazzy!
Snazzy Labs stop reading my mind! I was just thinking about this yesterday but I didn't know how to get started with it, thanks a lot Snazzy-san
Best of you is that everytime you come with something unique.
Thanks for the info. Just upgraded to Mac Mini M1s and had an older iMac. This is perfect!
Great video. I just purchased a 2019 Macbook Pro and using my older 2013 Mac Pro as a Home Server. Your video helped a lot to move forward.
Love how you respect Spanish in the pronunciation my friend. Great video , great information, I'm about to start my server but I don't want just a nas as I want the Mac mini for another purpose that might be useful in the near future
tiger, maybe. That keyboard is still one of the finest typing experiences ever!
I just used a Raspberry Pi to make my first server. We host a wordpress blog on it. Works fantastic!
Coincidentally, this was what I did with my 2006 Mac Mini for 2½ years before having to upgrade (to a custom-built NAS) so that my dad could clean the living room easily, because he would often end up knocking out connections on external drives. After upgrading, I used it as a dedicated PC for managing my iTunes library (I primarily use Linux-based OSes), but then had to leave it behind at my second home abroad, so on the last night I could spend there, I scurried to create a DMG of its 320 GB hard drive before flying off the next day, frequently waking up to check the status. I've been meaning to find the time to set up a 2010 MacBook with a damaged display to replace it, but haven't got around to doing so.
Oooo... I’m going to try this as a print server to make my old large format printer a wireless network printer, thanks for the video!
Great vid and thanks for sharing!
I am going to use my Early 2008 Mac Pro!
I currently use a Mac Pro 3,1 as a server, it was the cheapest and most effective server in my budget
Same. Have you ever checked the power consumption, though? I wonder what that is, for us.
AmanOU2be I’m not too sure, I’ll have to get a meter to check. I think the psu in the Mac Pro can out put 1000w
Wow, that is awesome thanks man! Wanted a home server for a long time and have an old 13-inch air lying around. Didn't realize macOS Server is that powerful! Thanks for the videos, always enjoy them!
I am using my older MACs as servers for many years (File/Print Server, TimeMachine, iTunes, Photos, etc.) but I don't use the server software. It really only makes sense, when you plan to restrict access to certain folders/drives etc. If you want full access for everybody to everything, the regular MacOS will do the job just fine.
PS: A good amount of RAM (for the server) is recommended!
I very rarely use my MacBook. When I do it’s for; taxes, a big spreadsheet, or tinkering.
You explain things well. Great communicator with an easy, relaxing style.
I'm using my Mac Mini Server Mid 2011 macOS Sierra and using NO-IP DDNS to access my files over the internet when I'm out of my house. Amazing!
If you want to go the route of not reserving the LAN IP address on your DNS/router you really should just start at the highest number and work your way down. Also being aware of the number of devices on your network is good. If you have 20 devices on the network regularly you should pick an IP between .30 and .255. If you don't want to do that much thinking just start at 200 and work your way down. But the RIGHT way is to learn how to reserve your LAN IP.
That criticism aside, I love the idea of this video! More people should utilize their old computers for home server things!
I just upgraded to a 16" MBP M1 Pro after I finally broke the display on my 2013 15" MBP. Was thinking of repairing if I could find a cheap display or MBP for part, or just selling it as is. Now I think i'm gonna use it as a media server, but what REALLY sold me was the VPN feature. I use Airport Extreme routers and you have no option to use VPN, and my modem/router from Frontier FiOS doesn't have the option to use a VPN either. Now I just need to find a place to place my MBP. I. have 2 OWC Thunderbay 4 RAID drives, one is 3.5" and the other is 2.5". The 3.5" RAID is using HDDs can get pretty loud, especially in comparison now that I have an M1 Pro MBP, so I will be moving that RAID enclosure with my old MBP and attach that to it, I love how I can use Time Machine still.
Looks like I have some Cat-6 wire running to do in my near future.
Holy 🐮 this is legit the best freaking use for an old Mac! Thanks!!!
More explanations regarding using Plex media Server with this please.
Awesome - I have a Mini that I'm considering putting this on and over the holiday, I will be installing and SSD into my 2012 iMac that I was considering selling. With this app, I might just turn it into a "MacServer" Many Thanks
Dude, I love your lame endings. i find that stuff hilarious. I hope you don't change!!
😉
This looks great, but all the feature's you describe are gone from the Mojave version. But actually you absolutely do not need the Server app anymore for a great homeserver. Most options are build in to your OSX now so you don't need it anymore (but I still miss the convenience of all the tools in one place).
If I ever replace my 2013 MBA, now I know what to do with it. Thanks a lot
Congrats for *999* videos
Latest version has none of these features anymore and have been transitioned away. This entire video, unfortunately, is outdated. Hopefully a newer version will come out. Great content.
I'm so glad you did this video. I love MacOS Server. I have it running on my 2008 Mac Pro (which is still my main desktop w/ 10.13) to host my website and do file sharing. There's also a great app on the app store called dDNS Broker which I use to keep my domain name pointed to my IP (Comcast doesn't offer static IPs to residential customers). I have both my standard website, as well as a personal cloud, a la Google Drive, built with NextCloud. Saves tons of time doing client work since the only transfer time is from their computer to mine, versus uploading to Google and then downloading to me.
If you haven't already, you should do a video on ARD. Screen Sharing/Bash/Installing over networks, both LAN and WAN, is such a godsend.
do not share through the internet. Setup the VPN and you can access files securely. Also the VPN option is for creating a VPN server not for connecting to a remote VPN. You then can configure your iphone or laptop to use your home VPN. This is great for connecting to internal devices on your lan. Using SSH. Also protects you at coffee shops over the wi-fi. If you are out of town and want to watch your local TV or such, It will work as the VPN exit is your home router. So the same IP that they are used to having you connect from.
I manage a bunch of windows servers and Linux servers and every time I try Mac OS server I'm left scratching my head. it keeps loosing the useful features.
engrpiman like what?
This is awesome...had no idea how simple it was to turn a Mac into a server and that caching thing is fantastic! I have a 2012 MacBook Pro that has all kinds of issues (dead battery, half the keyboard doesn't work, backlight on keyboard doesn't work...) that I might try this out on. Would be great for my music storage or even just media storage (pictures, music, videos)
rather than buying mac os server, wouldnt it better to use linux distro for server like cent os or ubuntu server on it because its free?
I've been using the built-in file share functionality of macOS to host all the media from my 3TB external drive, considering getting macOS server after watching this as it's much more powerful and has a lot more functionality (such as alerts, time machine backups, etc.). this will definitely help keep my resurrected 2009 MacBook Pro in-use! Dosdudes macOS Mojave Patcher tool has definitely helped extend the life of my aging machine, that will allow me to get the newest version of macOS server.
There’s one very good reason to use the Time Machine service in El Capitan’s Server rather than setting it up in Sharing in Mojave: Server will show you the status of all the backups, while there’s no built-in way to do that in Mojave.
Thank you for these videos Snazzy.
thanks for this, gave me a few new bits of info on Mac Server options I hadn’t considered.
Wow - MacOS Server really has changed a LOT since I last messed with it... have you given any thought to setting up essentially the same sort of server on the same laptop using Linux instead? Most of what you showed in this video is really simple in recent Linux distros. A comparison of the process as well as pros/cons of OS X Server vs, say, Ubuntu would be interesting.
This weekend I will be step by stepping this into my Mac Pro 3,1. I’m still learning but loving the potential. I already have quite a bit of mac hardware.... but i am curious how to implement my 2tb airport extreme into the mix. Thanks for the great content.
Quinn, I hope you so an in-depth setup and how to properly use the Caching part for the Mac server.
The caching feature sounds very useful for my parents who can't get anything faster than a slow DSL connection but have multiple iPhones and iPads that connect through it. I'd rather run it in a Docker container on the NAS they already have, but maybe I can find an old Mac Mini or something to run it on.
Just the video I was looking for! Clear explanation! Now I have a use for my 2008 iMac 🖥.
Thanks for the reminder on OSX Server... good video. Thinking I will set this up on my 2012 i7 Mac Mini.
A few things after trying it out on a 2018 Macbook with El Capitan:
- Content caching does not work even if you can toggle it on the Server app
- Time Machine will only work if SMB is disabled
Re-using old machines is great, but I would be VERY hesitant to recommend that anyone set up a home server running an OS that no-longer receives security updates (and hasn't for over a year), where the server software is *also* no longer being updated. A safer course would be to install Linux, which can be kept up-to-date even on very old hardware, but if you *really* want to use macOS Server, then at the very least you should lock down its ability to connect to the outside internet as much as possible - ideally, you wouldn't let it connect to the internet *at all*, and just use it for serving files over the LAN, but if you really have to make use of the caching server functionality, then you should have it fire-walled against everything, and only white-list the relevant Apple URLs so that it can connect to iTunes/App Store/etc.
I miss Mac OS Server. I had an FTP server running. It worked really well until the Mac Mini died. I then got a Dropbox account and transferred everything onto that.
RIP macOS Server
Should make a video on the cache sever feature built into MacOS for downloads and such. With data caps from Comcast this can really help out families manage data usage.
Great video!! And rocking a new look.
Always feel like he is saying “Hi guys I’m the queen of snazzy labs”
Thanks for the howTo. I'll use my 17 inch Late 2008 Macbook Pro as a file server. I hope it's gonna be a cost-effective -kinda- NAS, thanks to its new SSD inside.
So this seems amazing and I'm really mad Windows/Linux don't have this kind of feature-complete system.
you can have that just not so intuitive but it can be free if you do some research and ask a few forums around they will most likely help you. I have one set up on my old laptop with linux and does mostly all just not the app updates which would be awesome. I use it for my iPad which is only 32Gb so I basically store my lectures and movies on that hard drive. new iPad os files app comes with support for SMB but it's still a bit shitty.
Setting up a server with linux/windows is just as easy as this. You just lose the UI.
@@mango8354 I think for personal use windows has the best way just setup a share folder on network. (With UI)
@@karanjoshi2662 How with macOS its the same go to the file properties and enable sharing and which users can access it
@@hajjdawood i haven't used mac os much so it must be easy there too. Still linux is best for a general purpose server setup.
There is flaws in this video but hey, true networking is hard for most people. Basically, manually set addresses should be outside of the range of the DHCP server but on the same subnet (mask) as the network you want your devices on. This is why you can set the scope of the DHCP server so it only distributes addresses that you want it to use. (You could put it on another network but you’ll need a more capable router). Reserved DHCP leases is ok but not ideal with manual addresses. You would usually want the client on automatic and the server will respond to DHCP requests but keep assigning the same address forever. Also Ping is NOT an appropriate way to check if an address is used or not. Not all devices respond to ICMP requests, my router don’t on the internet and I hope yours too, china is scanning the internet like crazy with that. Otherwise nice video!
What device are you using for your notes (sitting on the desk next to the mac)? :) and thnx for the How To, setting up my dusty mac mini as I type.
Thank you for the excellent video. But is it wise to use a notebook which has an internal battery, placed in an attic which I doubt has A/C or good cooling as a 24/7 server? And if one choses a desktop Mac instead (which doesn't have an internal battery that can rupture), one must consider the old machines may require more power than newer machines and therefore 24/7 operation could run up one's electrical bill in a noticeably way. Therefore, one should consider whether the benefits of a local MacOS server outweighs the caveats.
Thank you! Have a 2012 MacBook with a dead screen. I think I can make use of it as a server... if I can remember how I hacked my way to getting the external monitor working until it's set up anyway.
Looking forward to giving this a shot on my MacBook Pro 2011!!! Great video, great info
Have you done an update to this video? Would be interested if you haven't. It doesn't appear that Mac Server is still available in the App Store. Good stuff!
I'm programmer. I use an older iMac (late 2013, 32gb and 2GB Sata-SSD) as a build server in the basement. Works fine even on older hardware. And it servers 10TB of files (Bollywood not porn) from USB disks at the same time. I unplugged the display but the power consumption is still high with 60W even on full idle.
Great video. Very helpful. Going to use Mac Mini @ home, and older iMac for work. I will have all macs at work use this new server for time machine backups. Have to see if I can use this server to back up the windows machines we have as well. Thanks!
Hey Quinn, how is it going my dude, thanks for making this video, I was planning turning my 2012 Mac Pro to a small office server but wasn't sure how to start, will surely use this.
Can you still use the server remotely when you’re not on the same Wi-Fi network like across the world for example
Thanks! Going to use my 2011 MacBook Pro 13inch that’s been collecting dust in the corner. I just purchased a 27 inch iMac 5K. Going to set up a media server for my 4K movies.
Even though I have a Synology NAS, I might do something like this with my 2014 Mac Mini, which is collecting dust in a corner somewhere. Thanks for the video!
Great video Quinn! My first Mac was a Mac Mini Server but I’ve never quite understood how it worked. This is a really good tutorial on how to get it started. I have one question: How do you make the file access on the internet and not only on the home network?
I find lots of interesting stuff on this channel and I love it. I was curious is there any way to cluster multiple Mac mini and have more processing power overall?
I’ve seen this done. It is possible Im sure, look it up.
I've been trying to come up with a good use for my old 2012 13" MBP!
Jamie Pettersen mine is a doorstop