Mac Mini OS X Leopard Server - Services

I have a slight complex network of devices as you can see via my signature,

Basically I run a QNAP NAS Server for Torrent Downloads and Software storage ( 500GB internal HD + external 500GB caddy setup via esata for Qraid0 for backup of internal ) as i thought it would be best this device should do when I also have a HP MediaSmart ex475 Windows Home Server ( 4 x 500GB internal + 1TB external added to pool ) then decided to try out a mac Mini with Leopard OS X Server ( I thought its about time i try out mac's as other schools at my work use them )

My Questions are :

1. Which services should I run on it and why?
2. I was thinking of running DNS and DHCP (remove DHCP tasks of the Router)
3. I have 2 iPhones, is there a service or application to give me the ability to exchange / Push
4. can the Mac mini act as a portal or would I be best sorting out VPN , so I can access my other devices like the following WHS website access for photo share, file access and RDP / QNAP access to website access and surveillance, download station, etc
5. if someone here has experience in setting up DHCP and DNS could give me some pointers ( I do have experience in DHCP for w2k3 and routers )
6. Trying to Balance Workloads and Tasks Between QNAP NAS / WHS / Mac Mini OS X Server so any thoughts on what you would do with these 3 devices ie. apps to run on which / media stream etc

My network as follows

[OFFICE]
HP MediaSmart ex475 WHS {4 x 500GB + 1GB RAM upgrade + USB DVD-RW DL}
Thecus n2050 DAS Enclosure with Raid0 {2 x 500GB Connected to HP MediaSmart via USB added to Pool}
Mac Mini OS X Leopard Server [1.66Ghz Intel dual 2 Core 1GB]
HP PhotoSmart C8180 {Network Shared and USB to Mac Mini to Share DVD-RW DL}
QNAP TS-109 NAS Server [ FW 3.0.0 build 0121T] {Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB 32MB Cache}
IcyBox eSATA Enclosure [QNAP Q-Raid via eSATA] {Seagate ST3500320AS 500GB 32MB Cache}
[USB to QNAP] APC UPS 500 [ Back-UPS CS 500 ]

Network Setup
HP Procurve 1800-24G Gigabyte Switch
Draytek V2800VG Router

[LOUNGE]
Playstation 3 [250GB + PSeye + PlayTV ]
Sony VAIO MEDIA CENTRE 2005 [VGN-XL100] {Upgrades = 4GB DDR2 + 2 x 500GB Sata + Another Hybrid Digital Tuner card}
Nintendo Wii [ Wii Fit ]
HP Color Laserjet 2600n
Sony Bravia 55" HD1080
5.1 Dolby Surround

[BEDROOM]
Xbox 360 Elite {used for Media Centre Extender }
Sony Bravia HD 42" W Series

[Mobile]
Sony VAIO SZ Laptop
Sony VAIO AR Laptop
8GB iPhone 3G
16GB iPhone
PSP
Thanks

All I have to say is, wow you have a lot of toys dude, hahahaha!!

Photos below

Jeez!

What do you do for a living?

heh, nice toys. Although it'd probably be nice to consolidate those loose drives. Many here I'm sure have nice toys, we just don't list them all

various answers and/or not:

1) Hard to answer as it's hard to know your exact needs. On one of my servers (actually a mac mini that I used to just replace a sun ultra 10), I have DNS, email and web - the only person that can truely answer what services you should run on it is really you, as only you really know what your needs are. If you need a webserver, then run it. But, don't just run services for giggles.


2) DNS is important, so running it wouldn't be a bad thing. Plus the DNS gui manager makes it really easy to maintain an osx dns server (unless you're dealing with a delegated subnet of a class c, then you have to go into command line to deal with it - but its still easier to deal with then on a Windows system). DHCP would be a convenience thing. (furthur down I give a link for network administration with osx server 10.5 which contains info on DNS configuration)

3) no idea - I don't have an iphone although I'd love one. I just have an ipod touch and really only sync it with my personal system at home and mobileme when I'm out.

4) not sure I fully understand what you're looking for here. I've only used Windows server standard and enterprise, and never WHS, so I'm not quite following how it is acting as a portal for you. Are you looking at setting up a full website with all of those features, or using VPN to get into your network, or what? OSX can deal with VPN, and probably do most of what you're wanting - but depending on what exactly you are wanting, you may have to do some of the "heavy lifting" yourself in terms of making things look and work just right. WHS from what I've skimmed over before writing this is a very customized version of windows server - it is geared toward a home user. OSX server isn't geared the same way - it can be used by a home user, and can do a lot of what WHS can do, but it is more geared to a business (small business, education, etc.) network setting - so getting it to work like WHS will take more effort on your part.

5) I don't have mine doing DHCP as my server is in my DMZ zone and doesn't communicate directly to my local network. My DHCP server is handled by my firwall/nat box that sits between my cisco 3620 and my private side (I have a /28 grouping of IPs). DNS isn't a real big deal to setup - If everything is private, then its really easy as your box won't be answering external queries to get ips of your local systems and your DNS will only be 1) providing name/ip resolution for local network computers, and 2) potentially going out to the "real world" to do lookups. A bit more knowledge on how your network is configured would be helpful. I'd STRONGLY recommend you read: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en_US/Network_Services_Admin_v10.5.pdf as it contains a lot of info on DNS setup and configuration on 10.5. I use 10.4 server on my mini so how I do it and how you will do it might vary a bit as I know the 10.5 server admin dns manager tool isn't compatible with a 10.4 server.

6) It's hard to know what to suggest in terms of apps for it to handle not knowing exactly what is needed / desired. your OSX box can very easily share folders on the windows network if you so desire (if you don't have a large drive in the mini, just hook up usb drives). With your PS3, you can get the PMS server for OSX (PS3Media Server, I know it works on intel macs, but I'm not sure if it will work with osx server, never tried) and use it to stream content for your PS3 (I've never used WHS, you may also be able to easily do it with that; I know PMS has a windows version). You can setup an inhouse email server, webserver, etc. and portforward those services from your router to the mini. A lot can be done with a given server (any server really) - the big question becomes what do YOU really need, and how will it best serve YOU based upon those needs. In my case, it's a lot cheaper to run my mac mini with tiger server then the ultra 10 I was running with sparc linux (or the Enterprise E450 server I have, or my dell 1655 server); I don't need it to share files on my private network as I have a nas box capable of taking care of that - so in my case, I needed my mini to handle web hosting, email, dns and that's what I have it doing. Adding servers for the sake of using another server (or another OS) doesn't always solve a problem and sometimes can create them.

So, basically, I'm asking - what applications do you want to use/need to use that you think might be nice to off task to the mini (aside from dns and dhcp)?

I know this is long winded, and probably doesn't really answer your questions to the fullest extent, but hopefully it'll give a little insight, and at the very least, the link to the pdf should help in your setting up some of the services on OSX.