Advantages to OS X Server

[wlab]

I maintain a small network of computers (1-G5, 3-iMacs) at my company and have been using OS X on the G5 for various server functions such as file sharing, WebDav, MySQL, iTunes sharing. It works fine now, but I’m wondering if it’s time to switch to OS X Server – can anyone tell me what advantages I would have over my current setup? Better performance, reliability? Or should I continue to use OS X? I need to justify the cost…

Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Ross]

Depends on how much you push your current machine and the size of the files. OSX server would seem to be a bit much for an environment like yours. But you could always use it for other things like your website, email, firewall, DHCP, etc. So doing this might justify the cost but just as a file server for 2-3 machines doesn’t seem worth it.

[chiefgeek]

Nothing against OSX Server (we run two Xserves), but unless you need more than 10 users concurrently connected, the remote administration GUI or the other services provided by Server, I would stick with the G5 as a “server.”

I have configured several digital photo studios with G5s running as “servers” and workstations simultaneously. I usually use the handy tool, SharePoints, to configure the sharing so that you can set the “magic” Inherit Permissions from Parent setting for AFP shares (I’m sure there is a CLI way to do this, but I’m a GUI kind of guy).

[Author]

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