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New iMac with 5,1 Mac Pro used as server?
#47482 01/09/18 07:39 PM
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I had a hard drive fail the other day, five years old. It made me think maybe it's time to start thinking about replacing my Mac Pro, which is 7 this year. Maybe still life in it, but the Dell monitor has started showing a vertical, single-pixel yellow line or two. I don't want to replace the monitor only for the computer to fail, so am thinking an iMac is the next logical purchase. I want one with a 256 Gb SSD.

So, I'd like to keep the Mac Pro running as a server as long as I can.

Questions:

I presume, since the iMac has only one ethernet connection, it plugs into the router, rather than the Mac Pro? And the Mac Pro also plugs into the router. OR, do you plug the ethernet from the iMac to the Mac Pro and get internet by Wi-Fi? Which would you do?

Mac Pro as a server? I suppose I need see a screen from it? Plug it into the iMac with some sort of patch cable? A DVI to Thunderbolt cable? Mini-display port cable? Can the iMac switch between two feeds?

Do I just use the existing software to boot the computer when I need it, or is it better to buy some server software? I don't need it to do any internet stuff, just internal file sharing with the iMac.

How would you go about setting up such a system?

Thanks in advance!

Jerry


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: New iMac with 5,1 Mac Pro used as server?
freelance #47483 01/09/18 08:41 PM
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Ethernet can either be “daisy chained” in no particular order or you could connect all three devices through an inexpensive Ethernet switch. My personal choice would probably be the switch if for no other reason than it offers more flexibility for future expansion. You could run your Mac Pro “headless” (without a monitor or keyboard) and control it by screen sharing from the iMac. I do this all the time using a Mac mini as the server. Most of what you will need is already built into MacOS, but MacOS server available from the App Store provides some additional functions and GUI access to others where you would normally have to use command line access.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: New iMac with 5,1 Mac Pro used as server?
joemikeb #47493 01/10/18 12:03 AM
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Originally Posted By: joemikeb
You could run your Mac Pro “headless” (without a monitor or keyboard) and control it by screen sharing from the iMac.

Thanks for your reply. Could you describe how this headless method works in more detail, please?

I presume the Mac Pro would boot without a password, but how would you shut it down? Or do you actually see options on the iMac's screen? Do you have to leave the Mac Pro running 24 hours (I wouldn't want to do that)?

Thanks!


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: New iMac with 5,1 Mac Pro used as server?
freelance #47518 01/11/18 01:15 AM
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  1. setup the Mac Pro using the monitor and keyboard you already have.
  2. In. system Preferences > sharing
    1. check the boxes labeled Remote Login, File Sharing, and Remote Management
    2. click the Radio button All users or Only these users.
    3. If you chose Only these users specify the name associated with an account on the Mac Pro with admin privileges
    4. click on the "options" box below the list of users and check pretty much everything there and click Okay
  3. On your iMac Pro open Finder and under the list of Shared devices you should see your Mac Pro
  4. elect our Mac Pro and finder will offer to Connect or Share Screen.
  5. click on Share Screen and a window should open on your iMac Pro's desktop Prompting you to login with the Mac Pro user name and password.
  6. The Mac Pro's desktop should then appear in the Window on your iMac Pro.
  7. At that point you are actually running on the Mac Pro and it will recognize the keyboard and mouse or trackpad on the iMac as if they were plugged into the Mac Pro.
  8. To shut down the Mac Pro, Share the screen and click on Apple menu > Shut Down.
  9. To boot: Power it up, share the screen and login.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: New iMac with 5,1 Mac Pro used as server?
joemikeb #47534 01/11/18 11:05 PM
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Terrific! Thanks.


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: New iMac with 5,1 Mac Pro used as server?
freelance #47560 01/12/18 06:20 PM
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Just a thought? Can I set up my Mac Pro server to launch in Snow Leopard? Can I use file sharing and remote management to run Adobe GoLive in SL via screen sharing and the others?


iMac (19,1, 3.1 GHz i5, 12.7.4, 40 Gb RAM); MacBook Air (1.8 Ghz, 8 Gb RAM, 10.14.6, 256 Gb SSD) Vodafone router and Devolo Wi-Fi Extender, Canon TS8351 printer/scanner.
Re: New iMac with 5,1 Mac Pro used as server?
freelance #47567 01/12/18 11:06 PM
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As long as your computer will run Snow Leopard and you can live with the additional vulnerabilities and you can get a compatible version of MacOS server (MacOS server versions are NOT backward compatible) there should be no problem.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein
Re: New iMac with 5,1 Mac Pro used as server?
joemikeb #47958 02/12/18 03:24 PM
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A recent article on OWC's Rocket Yard indicates Apple's Server App is scheduled to lose even more features and in fact to become essentially useless. The speculation is Apple's plans are to replace the function with cloud based services. I don't know if that means the Apache web server, Mail, calendar server, ftp server, etc. will be removed from MacOS, but there will definitely not be a GUI interface. The article suggested the versions of the various services that have long been bundled with MacOS are often out of date and since they are all open source users would be better served downloading and installing those apps from GitHub and other open source sources. This seems a step backwards to me, but apparently there are so few users of Apple Server that it is no longer financially viable.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein

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