Home Forums Networks & Cross-Platform Networking New iMac with 5,1 Mac Pro used as server?

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