Macminicolo Blog

At WWDC last week, Apple announced two things that really caught our attention at Macminicolo. 

Xcode Server will be included in Server.app. This is huge. A number of customers here already use their minis as CI servers. (Here’s a post on how the developers of Day One use their CI server.) Jenkins is great, but Xcode Server is drop dead simple. We’ve been testing it here. When it becomes publicly available, we’ll have a  specific package that includes a server, an iPad and an iPod touch. Everything you need to develop and collaborate your code. 

The Mac Pro is another great release. It’s smaller size, and crafted design, will make it great for a data center. We knew right away that we’d be hosting them so our colocation space is all ready for the Mac Pros. We plan to keep them vertical as that is how they were designed by Apple. We’ve had confirmation that it’s the ideal position. (History note: when we first started Macminicolo in 2005 we kept Mac minis horizontal as they were designed. However, when a few of the original Mac mini design team also becomes customers, they confirmed it was fine to keep them on their side. These confirmations are important to us because it’s not our hardware, it’s yours.) Most people will be fine with a Mac mini. They’re very capable. But for those ready to jump to a Mac Pro, they should be incredible servers. 

If you’d like to keep up as the Xcode Server and Mac Pro options become available, follow us on twitter @macminicolo.

About Macminicolo.net

Macminicolo.net, a Las Vegas colocation company, has been hosting Mac minis since their introduction in January 2005. Low cost. High performance. They are the leaders in this niche market and are known for their personal service. They currently host hundreds of Mac minis for satisfied customers located in 47 different countries around the world. Get more info on our frequently asked questions page.

We get to work with a lot of great companies. When the developers of Day One came to Macminicolo, I was especially excited. Their award winnning app for Mac and iOS is one of my favorite apps of all time. In fact, I’ve joked with Ben and Paul claiming that I am the head of their public relations, paid or not.

I asked them if they would share how they are using their Mac mini at Macminicolo and they were kind enough to write it up for all of us. So here is the secret sauce for making the 2012 Mac App of the Year. You can view the post here. 

I have a list of artists I wanted to see before I die. The only two remaining are Frank Sinatra (I was too slow to act there.) and Paul Simon. I’m still working on getting to one of his shows, but in the mean time, here is an ode to his classic “50 ways to leave your lover.”

Macminicolo presents: 50 ways to use your server:

OS X Server is the do-all Mail, web, wiki, etc from Apple. 

Jenkins or TeamCity will let you build your apps on a remote CI Server. See how the developers of Day One use their Mac mini as a build server.  (Free)

Selfoss (free) and Fever ($30) are great alternatives to Google Reader.

Sendy is a self hosted service to email your newsletters at a significant discount. Similar to Mail Chimp. ($59) 

Yourls is a self hosted URL shortener. It provides stats as well. (free) 

ZPanel is an alternative to CPanel. (Free)

GitLab is a self hosted Git management software. (Free) 

SparkleShare lets you set a folder on your server that will sync with all your peers or coworkers. A great way to collaborate on folders. (Free) 

Pow lets you create a quick environment to build and test Rails apps. (Free) 

Moodle is a CMS for education. Free 

Daylite Server lets you sync your Daylite info from anywhere. (Server, Free. Client, $280) We also have a Daylite Hosting service. 

VirtualHostX lets you setup multiple websites quickly. ($39) 

iVPN makes it very easy to setup a VPN server. ($15)  We also have a tutorial to setup a VPN in Mountain Lion Server. 

Crashplan lets you backup remote Macs to your Server. (Free) 

Owncloud is a replacement for Dropbox, but also provides calendar, contacts and so much more. We also have a post for installing ownCloud on a Mac mini. (Free) 

Plex Server lets you play all your media to your phone/tablet/Macs. (Free) 

FileMaker Server is a powerful database server. Very Powerful. Run it for yourself or as a paid service for others. 

Kerio Connect is a powerful Mail server. A very good alternative to Exchange. 

Run a Minecraft Server of your own. 

Vagrant will help you create development environments quickly. 

Real Studio will help you build a web app on your server. 

uTorrent is a great torrent client. Also has a web remote. 

Billings Pro Server lets you sync and track time from anywhere. 

Profile Manager 2 will let you manage iPads and iPhones. 

Put Xcode on your server and develop from anywhere. 

MAMP will help you setup a wordpress blog quickly with PHP and mySQL. 

Scrup is a self hosted alternative to Droplr or CloudApp 

DNS Enabler lets you run your own DNS serve. 

Kikuchat is a self hosted Campfire alternative. Server.app also has a Messages Server.

Mint is a self hosted analytics program to keep an eye on your site traffic. 

Shaarli is a self hosted book mark manager similar to Delicious. 

BBpress is clean forum software from the makers of wordpress. (Free) 

Simon is an application that will check all sorts of servers and services. Similar to Pingdom. 

iStat Server will let you keep an eye on your Mac server. 

Deep Freeze will let you really hack on your machine, and bring it back clean with a restart. 

Asterisk is an open source VOIP server. (free) 

TFTP Server still comes in handy after all these years. (Free) 

Nagios will keep an eye on your infastructure. 

VMware ESXi (free) will let you install and run multiple instances of OS X on the same server. Parallels Server for Mac is another great option.   

SugarCRM offers a free, self hosted version. It’s a CRM for keeping track of clients, sales, support requests, etc. 

Rapidweaver makes web site creation really simple, and works with the default web sharing in OS X. 

Slogger will take your data from social networks and create entries in Day One. 

Subversion is an open source version control system. 

Lasso Server brings Lasso to the web. 

Pancake is a seller self hosted app for invoicing and billing clients. 

GridRepublic or Warrior will let you put your extra server power to good use. (Thanks Eric)

Thinkup will let you help you make all of your social networking more useful.

If you have something we should add to the list, I hope you’ll let us know @macminicolo on twitter. 

A little while ago, we wrote a post about Ten iPhone apps for IT and it’s been quite popular. The iPhone it a great tool for IT admins so we tend to look for ways to put it to use. 

Alfred is another great tool to use on a Mac. It does all sorts of things. In Alfred, workflows let you add to the capability of the application. (You need to have the Powerpack to use workflows.) Here are some workflows that are quite useful for IT admins, and just about anyone else:

We use Remote Desktop here quite a bit. With this workflow you can just type “rd” and the name or ip of the machine you want to control. Hit return and the ARD sessions starts right up. So great. 

iMessage workflow will let you start a chat from Alfred. Just type “im” and the username. It also works with GTalk. We use iMessage a lot at Macminicolo. (You can chat us straight from our contact page.) 

VPN Services workflow will show you a  list of available VPN services and  allows you to connect or disconnect via Alfred. 

AlfredDig will let you look up DNS quickly. You can also specify by type of record. (i.e., A, MX, etc)

Top processes workflow lets you quickly see and/or kill the apps that are using the most CPU or memory on your Mac. It’s much quicker than digging into Activity Monitor.

If you like to keep Safari without Flash, but keep Chrome around for when flash is needed, this workflow will open the current Safari tab in Chrome.  

Jenkins is a very popular use for Mac minis here. Developers will run the CI server on a Mac mini to build out their iPhone and Mac apps. Here is a Jenkins workflow that will let you check on status of the Jenkins builds. Starting builds will be feature soon.

For general interaction with your Mac, here are some great workflows. You can do Fast User Switching, show hidden files and folders in Finder, toggle wifi, and change your Network location. That last one is great if your laptop is being used between home and work. 

There is one more that doesn’t have much to do with IT, but people tend to listen to music while they work. This workflow will let you rate the currently playing iTunes track by typing “rate” and the number of stars. (1,2,etc) I use it to rate one star on the songs I want to delete the next time I’m in iTunes. Very useful. 

Update: Here are a couple more workflows for working on the local network. With automatic discovery you can mount network shares or use Screen Sharing.

If you have more workflows we should include on the list, send them @macminicolo on twitter. 

About Macminicolo.net

Macminicolo, a Las Vegas colocation company, has been hosting Mac minis since their introduction in January 2005. Low cost. High performance. They are the leaders in this niche market and are known for their personal service. They currently host hundreds of Mac minis for satisfied customers located in 47 different countries around the world. Get more info on our frequently asked questions page.

Six years ago, I started a discussion thread on the Macworld forms titled, “Any suggestions for KVM over IP?” In the post, I tried to explain that sometimes there is benefit to controlling a remote Mac before the Mac itself is online. In other words, I know Mac OS X has very good Screen Sharing built in, but I needed a way to control it before Screen Sharing was available. After a dozen posts telling me to “just use Screen Sharing” I  never found a great answer. Even though it’s been six years, I still get emails weekly asking me if I’ve found an answer. Finally, I’m able to answer yes and here’s an idea of how it works.

The SpiderDuo is a good KVM over-IP option for a remote Mac mini if Screen Sharing is not available. When you order the product, it comes with all the necessary parts:

This includes the SpiderDuo, a power supply with adapters, a mounting kits, and the cables to go to your Mac and to your local KVM (if needed.) 

By default, the unit ships with DHCP. For use in our data center, we just applied a static IP address to the SpiderDuo  and created a subdomain that will point us to it. That way, should a customer want to do some troubleshooting on a machine that isn’t online, we just sent them to the SpiderDuo URL and they can control their Mac. 

Once the SpiderDuo is connected to the internet, you can reach it in a browser (I tested in Safari and Chrome). The page will show you a screenshot of the connected Mac, and will also let you manage the users and login info for the service. Once you click on the Preview, you’ll get “Java Web Start” file. And there is the one downside of the unit: In order to control the Mac, you’ll need to do it in a Java runtime environment. This is a free Java download if you don’t already have it installed. 

The speed is not great, but definitely usable. There are a few options like going full screen, refreshing the mouse, etc:

I confirmed  the connection by killing network interface on the remote Mac mini. Sure enough, the Screen Sharing died out immediately, but the SpiderDuo was fine. I was able to reboot into verbose mode and control the Mac as well. 

So, in short, my 6 year search has led me to this unit. If you have Screen Sharing available, that’s definitely the way to go. But, this unit is great in a bind, and does indeed work with a Mac. It retails for around $250 I was glad to find it on Amazon a bit cheaper and available for Prime Shipping. We’ll have them available at Macminicolo should a customer want to use one on their machine. If you have questions, you can get us @macminicolo on twitter. 

About Macminicolo.net

Macminicolo.net, a Las Vegas colocation company, has been hosting Mac minis since their introduction in January 2005. Low cost. High performance. They are the leaders in this niche market and are known for their personal service. They currently host hundreds of Mac minis for satisfied customers located in 47 different countries around the world. Get more info on our frequently asked questions page.

At first glance, Owncloud is a free and open source alternative to Dropbox. As their site reads, it is “your data on your servers, under your control.” It works just the same as Dropbox where things are kept in constant sync and you can undelete items with versioning. It’s a nice middle ground of universal availability, but owning and controlling your own data. There are clients for Mac, Windows and iOS. In my testing of Owncloud 5, the syncing is even quicker and more stable. Check out all the features here.

If you look a little futher, you’ll see that it even does more than syncing. You can also sync address books, calendars, and bookmarks. There are also a number of apps you can install to add more features including tasks, notes, etc. Soon, there will also be a great ownCloud alternative to Google Reader.

As you would guess, Owncloud works great on a Mac mini. Here is a tutorial for installing Owncloud on a Mac mini. I was going to post screenshots and a walk through, but you can try a demo of Owncloud right online.  And if you like it, you can download from their site. 

If you have any questions, you can reach us @macminicolo on Twitter.

Four years ago, I wrote a post about seven iPhone apps for IT. They were great apps at the time and that page still gets a ton of traffic via search engines. The app landscape has really changed since then and most of those apps are either gone or abandoned. So here is an updated list that is a little more accurate for 2013 and the great options out there. Let’s look at some that are good for working with a Mac server remotely, and also that work with services that one might run on their Mac server. (And if you have suggestions to add to this list, please  tweet them @macminicolo.)

For Screen Sharing, I’ve landed on iTeleport. I like that you can use the Mac username login and they have a nice iTeleport Connect that will let you reach computers without a static IP address. Screens is also very nice, but I wasn’t able to accurately select items with my fingers. With iTeleport, you move a cursor around on screen. 

iStat is made by Bjango, who are customers of Macminicolo. But, I’ve used iStat long before doing business with the company. It’s a very simple way to monitor the important stats of your server. (i.e., bandwidth, RAM, Processor, etc). 

If you want to see a sad genre of apps, take a look at the network utility tools. It makes you want to perform pings or traceroutes with your eyes closed. (Let’s be honest, if we’re doing an emergency ping, it’s usually in the middle of the night anyway so our eyes are mostly closed.) In any regard, PingTool is the app I’ve settled on. It has a good design, and a number of useful tools. (ping, traceroute, DNS lookup, Port scan, etc)

We do a lot of our sales and support through iChat/Messages. When I’m away from the computer, Verbs is the best way to keep up with chats on the AIM network. 

In the original list, I posted the app for GrandCentral. Of course, that service eventually became Google Voice, and I think it’s great. The official Google Voice app is not bad either. Real easy way to route business calls and texts to the right people. 

We all like to keep an eye on our website stats. (You should see what happens when Fireballed.org gets hit well.) For me, Analytiks has been a great option to check sites on the go. It will allow you to watch eight sites from your Google Analytics account. 

If you are running Wordpress blogs, Poster is a great interface to make posts from your iPhone.  

For SSH, Prompt is my preference. It’s a great app now, but it’s also backed by a great software company so you know it will remain great. It will also help you telnet into a server.

If you need to get connected with FTP (or SFTP), Textastic can get you connected, and let you edit text. 

Sometimes you just need to sketch out a network diagram to keep things straight, or to send to someone else. Ink for iOS is nice for that. (Paper is fantastic for that on the iPad, but there is no iPhone version.)

So those are the iPhone apps we’re using to run Macminicolo. If you have more that should be considered for the list, I hope you’ll tweet them @macminicolo. 

About Macminicolo.net

Macminicolo.net, a Las Vegas colocation company, has been hosting Mac minis since their introduction in January 2005. Low cost. High performance. They are the leaders in this niche market and are known for their personal service. They currently host hundreds of Mac minis for satisfied customers located in 47 different countries around the world. Get more info on our frequently asked questions page.

The Mac mini was released eight years ago today, just two days before Macminicolo was started on 13 January 2005. It’s been eight years of hosting thousands of Mac minis. Impressively, we still have nine of the original G4 Mac minis that were connected the very first day and they’re still going strong. (I still curse this post from AI confirming the Mac mini as dead six years ago. I still have to answer “what if” questions.)

Even after all these years, the biggest hurdle we have is getting the word out about how good a Mac mini performs as a server. They are deceptively powerful. If I told someone they could have a Quad core server with an SSD boot drive and 16GB of RAM for just $35/mo, they wouldn’t believe me. (Try to price out a 16GB server anywhere else. Gets very pricey and you don’t even get to keep the hardware when you’re done.) 

The servers here are used for a number of things. Popular uses include websites, VPN server for travelers, remote backup to a very secure facility, mail server, and a number of small business uses. Of course, we use Mac minis for our labeled services like DayliteHosting.com and Fireballed.org. For our eighth birthday, I thought I’d shine a spotlight on some customers and what they’re doing. 

The servers here are very popular with iOS developers. As I look through the list of presenters at Renaissance conference this year, more than half of these good folks are or have been customers here.  I suppose these customers prefer to work with OS X tools so it fits right in. There are great educational tools like Elemints and Agendas. Bjango delivers hall of fame utilities like iStat and Skala Preview.

Episodes is a nice companion to watching TV. Delicious Library for cataloging all kinds of media. And of course, king of the podcast networks 5by5.

If you are into games, Semi Secret Software makes my favorite game of all time (Wurdle) and recently released a very original Hundreds game. Lumicon is nice word game. Ironfell is a multiplayer strategy game that runs completely on Mac minis. 

We’re proud to work with learning opportunities like Cocoaconf and Try iOS from Code School. (Watch this awesome video on how they use their 25 Mac mini servers. Very neat.) You can also learn from great hackers like Brett Terpstra and Charles Edge.  

There are a number of photographers that backup their photos to a Mac mini here so they have quick access to a large collection of photos. We also work with nice photography projects like Venice Arts and Canon’s Photography in the Parks. 

People ask all the time “What are some common uses of the Mac minis there?” We plug in the minis and don’t touch them again unless asked so we don’t know what is running on most of them. This is just a small number of customer examples. (If you’re a MMC customer and would like to be added to the list, send us a tweet @macminicolo and we’ll get some updates.)

We’re looking forward to the ninth year of hosting minis. Hope you can join us soon. (Keep an eye on our twitter account for upcoming promos.)

About Macminicolo.net

Macminicolo.net, a Las Vegas colocation company, has been hosting Mac minis since their introduction in January 2005. Low cost. High performance. They are the leaders in this niche market and are known for their personal service. They currently host hundreds of Mac minis for satisfied customers located in 47 different countries around the world. Get more info on our frequently asked questions page.

A few months ago Drobo introduced their new Drobo mini. And since we have special attachment to “mini” products, we ordered one in to give it a look. First, know that this won’t be a super intensive speed test. There is plenty of information on that. Rather, this is just a first look. I know that when I’m considering a product, I’m interested in the general feel and interaction of it. So with that said, let’s get to some photos and observations:

I ordered the mini a few weeks ago. Since it is a new product, I wasn’t surprised to find out it was backordered. After waiting just a few days, I got the shipment notification. But then I watched and waited, and waited, and waited. After a week with no update on it, I sent a note to the company. The bad news is that it was marked as shipped and never left the facility. The good news is that they offered a discount and free shipping on a new order. Good enough for me.

But, I’ve never been impressed with the ordering process straight from Drobo’s online store. When you make an order, you get a phone call later in the day confirming that you made the order. I know it’s to combat fraud, but I don’t love it. Also, shipping costs $20 at a minimum, or $100+ if you need it overnight. I suppose Amazon Prime has just spoiled us all.

When the machine arrives, it’s a nice unpack experience. A few photos:

It comes in a cover box

Then the retail box has a Macbook feel to it.

Opening.

In the image above, you’ll see Quick Start card. It’s real nice and simple. Basically, go to Drobo.com/start to download the Drobo Dashboard. Then put in your hard drives, power up the drobo, and format the drives. Pretty quick.

Apple introduced a new Mac mini today. For the first time in a few years, the mac mini actually had some stage time as well. (Usually, it’s just updated on the web site.) The update looks great, and of course we have them listed at Macminicolo already.

Below are a few impressions of the new Mac mini. I’ll add to this list and will also provide some benchmarks and as they start to arrive. To keep informed on updates, be sure to follow @macminicolo. 

Update: We’ve now been able to benchmark the Mac minis with the great Geekbench. Keep in mind these are the standard build minis, with the stock hard drives and RAM.  The “Late 2012 6,2 Loaded” machine is an upgraded 2.6GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 with 16GB of RAM and an SSD. (13,005. Wow. ) Here are the new minis compared to minis past:

• Don’t look now, but the new Mac minis are getting comparable to the last gen Xserve and 2010 Mac Pros as far as benchmarks. Tech progress marches on.
• All Mac minis now come standard with 4GB of RAM. Thank goodness. As of last week, the base Mac mini had 2GB of RAM and that was brutal with Mountain Lion. 
• The Mac mini can officially be upgraded to 16GB now. It’s been possible for over a year, but it had to be done after ordering. Now, Apple offers the 16GB of RAM. 
• The base mini is still i5, but the middle and high end minis are quad core i7 Ivy Bridge processors. That middle mini is the most interesting. Many customers prefer the quad core for things like an Xcode build server or for plenty of cores to spread between virtual machines. That $799 Mac mini is going to be very popular. 
• The machines now come with 1600MHz DDR3 Memory. Seriously, 16GB of 1600MHz RAM in such a small machine. It’s really quite amazing. 
• The Fusion Drive is only available for the middle ($799) Mac mini. Again, going to be very popular. It’s a $250 upgrade for the Fusion Drive. 
• Speaking of drive speeds, too bad to see that the Server now comes with 5400 RPM drives. (This is partly due to the change from 2x500GB to 2x1000GB). This will actually do for many people, but if you have a very active database server, definitely look at the SSD upgrades. 
• USB 3 is much appreciated
• As I look at all the options on the machines, one things sticks out. They’ve decreased the number of components to build the minis. For instance, all machines come with 4GB now, so Apple no longer has to stock 1GB modules and 2GB modules. The middle and upper tier minis both have the same 5400RPM 1TB drives. Standardizing supply decreases inventory and decreases component pricing. 
• In marketing the Mac mini server, Apple writes “And you get amazing hardware and software, with support for iOS devices like iPad and iPhone, right out of the box.” People understimate this selling point. I’ve confirmed over and over that Mac minis are a big selling point for bringing a small business or school to iPads and iPhones. It’s the perfect iOS management server, and that’s important for SMB and education.

About Macminicolo.net

Macminicolo.net, a Las Vegas colocation company, has been hosting Mac minis since their introduction in January 2005. Low cost. High performance. They are the leaders in this niche market and are known for their personal service. They currently host hundreds of Mac minis for satisfied customers located in 31 different countries around the world. Get more info on our frequently asked questions page.