Mac Forum / General / Hardware / February 2010

You did notice that you do NOT get an Optical Drive, internal with the
Server version, and you will have to use and external drive, should you
want to get something off a CD, or DVD, without using a network, right...

The server will behave like a normal Mac. There are additional programs to
manage server features but you don't need to touch these.

Regards,
  Christoph Gartmann

While I like my Mac mini as a home server, I use it with an
external disk to get the storage I need.

Keep in mind that the Mac mini uses a slower 5400rpm 2.5" laptop
drive.   If you are going to use this Mac mini for storing video,
and playback, the internal disks would be OK.

If you are going to be editing videos or graphics, then it would
be better to attach an external Firewire drive which will give you
lots of capacity, and faster performance.

The only reason I would go with the Mac mini server edition would
be if I need to frequently transport it to different locations and
needed that 1TB of storage, or if I really needed the server
software functions.  NOTE: if you just need it to store files, you
do not need the server software, as a retail version of Mac OS X
will do that very nicely.

                                       Bob Harris

I have a Mac Mini Server, which I'm using a server. I haven't finished
setting it up yet as I only got it a little while ago and I'm learning
about it in detail as I explore various features. (I have a little
experience with earlier verisons of Mac OS X Server but this is the
first one of my own.)

I would classify the differences along the lines of: some additional
steps will be needed during initial setup to disable features you don't
need and to make it behave like "normal" Mac OS X, but for the most part
it works the same and you can ignore the extra software which provide
server features and configuration.

There is one obvious difference: Mac OS X Server doesn't include iLife.
If you want to run iPhoto, iMovie, etc. on a Mac Mini Server you would
need a family pack of iLife or buy a separate copy for that computer.

There is an easy way to completely avoid potential confusion over
differences between Mac OS X Server and normal Mac OS X: buy a retail
copy of Snow Leopard and install it on the Mac Mini Server, replacing
the Server edition in the process. (You would still need to buy iLife
separately, as it isn't part of retail Mac OS X; note that "Mac Box Set"
gives you Mac OS X plus iLife plus iWork.)

Mac OS X Server has different default configuration in some areas. I
expect you can adjust these in System Preferences or elsewhere. Some I
noticed:

- Login prompt defaults to asking you to type in the username and
password.

- Energy Saver defaults to the computer never going to sleep.

- Different background graphic for the login prompt and default desktop
(blue tinted aurora instead of purple tinted).

- Default dock for the initial account has server admin tools. (I don't
recall what you get for subsequent accounts.)

- Root account is enabled by default, with the same password as the
initially created local administrator account.

Some of the server features must be configured correctly or disabled
completely to avoid odd behaviour or interference with other devices on
your network.

For example, the default configuration of Mac OS X Server will set it up
as an Open Directory Master, which may cause unexpected behaviour for
other Macs on the network. On a friend's network (with 10.5 Server) I
found that each Mac detected the Open Directory Master and ran Directory
Utility automatically, asking if you wanted to bind to the Open
Directory Master. This happened for every user account which logged in
on every computer.

I think you can disable Open Directory entirely by going into the
"Configure Manually" settings during initial setup of the server.

You also have to be careful with DHCP setup, as you probably already
have a DHCP server and don't want the server to also act as one.

Other server functions shouldn't cause any problems and they can be
disabled if you don't need them.