Moving from SBS to Mac Server. Would love some advice!

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Hi,

I've been researching through the web reading articles regarding OS X Server and wondered if I could get some solid advice on my current situation.

We currently operate a Windows Small Business Server 2003 and have five client machines accessing the domain for email, calendars and contacts. Our current network consists of:

1 x Windows Small Business Server 2003 (with 400GB tape backing up Exchange 2003)
1 x Windows Home Server (acts as a 2TB file server with hotswap backup. It has 6TB in total, with 2TB main system and files, 2TB Raid and the final 2TB mirror is taken offsite each night)
1 x G5 Mac (snow leopard and entourage)
1 x iMac (snow leopard and entourage)
1 x Vista PC
1 x Vista PC
1 x Vista Laptop
1 x Colour Lazer Printer
1 x Lazer Printer

Now are at a point where our SBS server is getting quite old and we're also moving premises and employing an additional 3 people. We also need to kit out a boardroom.

I mapped out what I thought was a suitable setup and would love to hear from any experts if this is a viable solution for us.

This is what I had in mind:

1 x Macbook Pro (Snow Leopard)
1 x Macbook Pro (Snow Leopard)
1 x G5 Mac (Snow Leopard)
1 x iMac (Snow Leopard)
1 x Mac Mini (Snow Leopard, the the boardroom)
1 x Macbook (Snow Leopard)
1 x Windows 7 PC
1 x Windows 7 PC
1 x Time Capsule (2TB)
1 x Windows Home Server (File Server 2TB (6TB total))
1 x Mac Mini Server (Used for Email, Calendars, Contact and an iChat server. Backed up to the Time Capsule.)

Our new premises has a 1GB Network throughout so we don't really need to rely on wireless.

We're a design agency and as you can imagine we work on quite large files. Since getting the Windows Home Server as a new file server we have noticed the odd lag and also Mac users not being able to save some of the files they're working on (due to some weird message saying the file is locked!).

Like many people I'm just after a solution that works, without constant tweaking and messing around. Plus I'd like to bring our IT support in-house and the new Mac Mini Server seems like a possibility for us. We're not server admins by any stretch but we often get by with a bit of research.

Any advice or coments you can give will help us greatly.

Thanks :)
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Late 2013 rMBP, i7, 750m gpu, OSX versions 10.9.3, 10.10
Well, as with any other sever OS, there will be a learning curve - and there will be a learning curve coming from MS SBS to OSX Server - it's just a fact of life. That being said, I've used and administer server 2000, 2003, 2003R2 (although none of them are SBS) and when I first setup my mac server at home (running OSX Tiger server) - after just a little bit of exploration, I found it very easy to maintain my server, add users, shares, web pages, etc.

Keep in mind - that G5 mac is not running Snow Leopard - there is not physical possible way (the G5 is a PPC based mac, Snow Leopard is ONLY for intel based macs, so either that machine has Leopard, or it's an intel mac that you've just mislabeled as a G5)

Your biggest problem is going to be outlook - the calendar portion of outlook (2007 and prior, I have no idea about future versions of outlook) doesn't directly support CalDAV (unless that's changed with a patch I'm not aware of) - the iCal2 server that comes with 10.6 server is a CalDAV based server app. This means you'll either need to start using something other then outlook on the windows machines for calendar scheduling or obtain an extension to support CalDAV, see:

CalDAV Clients - DAViCal Wiki

and

The Open Outlook Connector Project

Of course, I think you're going to run into the same problem with file locks / writing permissions tho - you're still going to be using your Windows Home Server to be your file server, which means your back to windows, NTFS locks, etc. unless your issues were caused by the SBS server, which I haven't seen any reason to think your problems are solely the SBS server...

Why not look at getting either a firewire raid device to plug into the mini to act as a file server, or a Mac Pro to act as a server with extra storage bays?

Just my initial thoughts...
 

fov


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Your Mac's Specs
MBP 2.8 15" & Sony Vaio running Ubuntu 9.04
I dont know OSX all that well but I am a unix and windows techie so do have a good knowledge to speak from (just so you can take or leave my opinion as you see fit).

I think OSX uses Sendmail as its mail server. Now if you just want email it does the job, but thats about it. Put next to exchange it just doesn't cut the mustard. So I would be really tempted to outsource exchange to a hosted solution.

I would investigate if this would be an ideal to have an iSCSI client and target for the Mini Server and Home Server and so server the shares from the Mac.

I know you were saying you would like to bring the IT support in house, but this is an ideal opportunity to get this right and be the foundations for your infrastructure so why not get someone who does know what they are doing in to look at what you do with each machine and make a good job of it. You can then take a good network onboard which should be easier to support than one cobbled together.
 
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actually, it uses Postfix, not sendmail.

I dont know OSX all that well but I am a unix and windows techie so do have a good knowledge to speak from (just so you can take or leave my opinion as you see fit).

I think OSX uses Sendmail as its mail server. Now if you just want email it does the job, but thats about it. Put next to exchange it just doesn't cut the mustard. So I would be really tempted to outsource exchange to a hosted solution.

I would investigate if this would be an ideal to have an iSCSI client and target for the Mini Server and Home Server and so server the shares from the Mac.

I know you were saying you would like to bring the IT support in house, but this is an ideal opportunity to get this right and be the foundations for your infrastructure so why not get someone who does know what they are doing in to look at what you do with each machine and make a good job of it. You can then take a good network onboard which should be easier to support than one cobbled together.
 

fov


Joined
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Your Mac's Specs
MBP 2.8 15" & Sony Vaio running Ubuntu 9.04
Well that is a bit better than sendmail but still not a patch on Exchange.
If you were a full on MS hater (which i doubt as your keeping the Home Server) the Zimbra mail server is a very good substitute for Exchange.
 

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