Apple Server software on a MacPro?

[RMPrepress]

Who out there in this wacky but very informative forum has any experience with using Apple Server software in a prepress environment?

Our Windows server 2008 is just about at the end of life, and I am kicking around the idea of replacing it with MacPro running OSX Server.
It would almost exclusively be a file server for every live job in Prepress.  Also would run Pitstop Server on it as well.
We would have about 4-5 PC's that would have to be able to access shared folders.

[mattbeals]

Should be easy. What's the question? You can always upgrade Server 2008 to Server 2008 R2 or Server 2012.

Is your Server 2008 machine a domain controller?
Do client workstations sign into their local machines or authenticate against the Server 2008 machine?
Is there a specific reason to go with Mac OS X Server software vs. Server 2008 or newer?
Is there something wrong with Server 2008 that is pushing you to switch? Server 2008 is still supported until 01/14/2020.
Switching servers is no trivial task. What's the upside/business case for the upgrade?

[mwc]

currently run a 'headless' mac mini 10.8.5 server (2.6 GHZ dual i7 - 8gb Ram) with a 256SSD drive for the OS, and a Pegasus Thunderbolt connected raid box. Runs fine for all our file serving. A few problems initially with SMB shares to an ancient machines (i.e. win2000), but works fine with XP and 7/8 machines...although 'most' of our transactions are from Macs. Also serves data our Rampage Workflow and Proofing options (GMG and IMPOproof). No experience with AD stuff...we keep it simply for serving our job files.
VNC to server to 'see' stuff, or use the server admin apps from remote mac...

[Farabomb]

I've always been in the if it aint broke, don't fix it camp. If the windows box works why mess with it. Changing servers isn't the easiest thing.

If you want to experiment I think novell is still around. 

God I hated that novell netware class.

[RMPrepress]

Thanks for the response.

The box (Dell Poweredge T310 64bit, 16gbRAM, 2.4ghz X3430 Xeon Processor) is going on 6 years old, that alone is why I am starting to look into a replacement. Past experience and piece of mind are the reasons.  The server really is just a file server for all of our MacPro stations and a few Windows stations with about 500gb to 750gb of live work or work in progress at any one time, plus a slew misc. stuff that operators may need, Preps templates etc.  It has 1.8 tb of storage but we are running RAID so we have half that for actual space.   We also run Pitstop Server on there.

Digital Press operators access PDFs in shared folders.
Not a Domain controller.
Not a proxy server.
No Active Directory.

We sometimes have issues with delays or pauses on the MacPro's.
We have 3 Mac's running SL, 1 with Lion and one with Mavericks.

[Farabomb]

I'd think the delays are more on the network infrastructure side than the server hardware side. I'm running a 2003R2, x3220@2.4 with 4g of RAM with only 150G of file storage. This is my file server, KodakEVO, and KPS server and only when I'm running a lot of jobs through is there lag. I might toss more memory into it but that's about it.

How many users are connecting? Here I'm only one but I can see if there are a bunch of users where you will get lag.

[RMPrepress]

We have 5 Prepress operators, 2 CSR's who are connected to Jobs IN and Proof OUT folders and 2 digital press operators who grab PDF's to print on the 7 digital presses we have and oh yeah one remote Mac operator.
The server is also a mapped network drive on our Esko Nexus RIP and the Prinect Pressroom Manager as we drop JDF files from the WIP to the Nexus workflows.... I think that covers it.

[Farabomb]

I'd assess the network before changing up the server. If all computers that are connected don't have all Gb connectivity I don't think you'll see much improvement by switching servers. It seems it's more of a network bandwidth issue than a server hardware issue.

[Joe]

That server isn't really at end of life. Neither is Windows 2008 server as Matt pointed out, is good until 2020. It should have no problem being used a file server for the foreseeable future. Is there a specific reason you want to switch the server from Windows to Mac OS Server? Also 16 GB RAM seems pretty decent as well. The one thing you could do to improve perforce would be to get the Mac Pro (or another Windows server) and use it just for Pitstop Server and upgrade the storage capacity in the Dell. What kind of drives do you presently have in there? Sounds like it is setup as a RAID 1 since you are only getting half of your storage. You could switch that out by adding new 15K Enterprise drives setup as a RAID 5. It will only use one of the disks for the redundancy albeit it will be a bit of a performance slowdown from RAID 1 I believe but if you are using 15K drives you probably won't notice it much. How many drive bays do you have available in the Dell?

Also as Firebomb pointed out, make sure your whole network is gigabit. I've seen people run CAT 6 cable with gigabit switches and then stick a 10/100 switch in the middle of it. The network will only be as fast as the slowest point in the network.

I think overall the TCO for the Mac server will be higher than a Windows server.

It sounds like you just want to switch to Mac OS X server though which is fine if you have the money to spend.

[RMPrepress]

There are 5bays i believe...right now there are 3 600GB 10K Serial Attach SCSI 3Gbps 3.5 Drives in there.

We have a gigabit network, the entire building was re-wired with CAT 6 cable about a year ago. so that is not an issue, all switches and routers are gigabit and of course the Mac Pro's are also.

Sometimes copying a file from one share to another on a Mac will bring the Mac to a complete standstill and crash or a real long delay and everything comes back alive.

Have you ever tried switching to Jumbo Frames on the Mac Pro's?  We are dealing with very large files at times and I hear this could help?

[Joe]

What kind of "delays or pauses" on the Mac Pros? Doing what?

[RMPrepress]

90% of the time it is while copying files to or from the server I speak of.  It is very random though, sometimes we could go a week with no issues but then the next week with nothing changing we have problems like a 15mb folder taking 15 minutes to copy from one share to another on the server.

We do everything off the server, nothing at all is actually on any of the operators stations as far as live jobs go.

[Joe]

Just wondering...do you have people on your network with open access to the interwebs for stuff like streaming music, youtube, etc...that could be causing some network issues? I can;t see the Windows 2008 server being the root of this issue unless there is a hardware failure in it.

Also when they are copying files are they just copying from a share on that server to another share on that same server? Or are there other servers in play also? I ask because you said "nothing at all is actually on any of the operators stations as far as live jobs go" so it sounds like just the one server is involved.

[Ear]

Are you sure your ethernet hub is an actual Switch, not just a hub? Sounds like trouble one might have with not using an actual switch.

You're only as fast as the slowest connection. Are you using static IPs? I am using a 24 port GB switch and it is almost full. Static IPs. Internet may speed up or slow down, depending on my service but inter-prepress network transfers are always exactly the same speed. If you aren't using a real switch, your times will vary depending on traffic.

[Farabomb]

 

There is a difference between a switch and a hub. With the price of stuff today there is no reason not to get a switch.