Setup of Small Business Mac Environment

Hi there,

I would like some guidance setting up a small Mac-only studio environment.

Currently I have 3 brand-new iMacs, a few MBP's, and a 3TB Time Capsule operating as the wireless router, file server, and a 3TB LaCie hard-drive plugged into the TC as backup. The TC performance is not so good (slow transfers & inconsistent connectivity).

Right now I am looking to improve my current environment by purchasing:

1. Ethernet cables connecting all Macs for fast file transfer
2. Router to connect all ethernet cables into existing TC (?) or...
3. Possibly a Mac Mini to act as dedicated server hardware running OS X Server:
- We have many freelancers working on the same machines, so OS X Server User Rights management could be helpful (?) - or am I better-off creating unique or generic (?) user accounts per machine?
4. NAS storage in RAID 1 configuration for speed (3 TB x 2)
5. Off-site / remote backup of up to 3 TB storage

Our main needs are:

- Fast file transfer
- 3 TB storage w/ onsite & offsite backup
- User Rights and w/ Default Desktop & Apps setup

Any advice on managing multiple users per iMac would be great. Immediate questions are:

- How to manage Apple ID's (do I create a generic office Apple ID for all machines and Users?)
- How to track user behavior (we use Google Apps for Business + Adobe CC and already had dubious actions on our company machines)

Please advise if you have any tips, suggestions, or can point me towards any resources to help with my endeavors...

Thank you in advance!

That's a lot of questions. Perhaps we can break them down and tackle in smaller chunks.

I am interested in knowing a little more about your wireless network. What model of the TC and MBPs do you have? If they are 802.11ac capable then you should be getting some pretty decent thru-put but this will be affected by environmental conditions such as the size and layout of your office and what obstructions and interference sources you have in the same space. Some times simply moving your wireless AP can make a huge difference.

Looking for some of the free or demo Wireless analysers would be a good place to start, if you'd like to stay wireless.

Of course, with the exception of 802.11ac(2), copper will always beat wireless, so Ethernet is a good choice should you be willing to sacrifice the freedom of wireless.

To get the best out of your copper, you want to by a switch, a managed switch would be great, but it is not necessary. It is rare to see them now, but do not buy a hub (this is the horrid copper version of your wireless network, collisions everywhere, avoid at all costs). A router with that many ports would be expensive. The simplest solution for copper will be a 12 or 24 port Gigabit Ethernet switch, 1 interface to your current router or DSL modem, 1 interface to your TC, so that you still have the wifi for the MBPs, and 1 interface for each desk where you want to offer a fixed connection. If the LaCie drive has a network connection and the ability to serve data or a service, then connect it directly to the switch as well.

3&4, not really my knowledge areas I'm afraid.

5 would be handy for a backup option, but not your live data, the WAN link will be a bottleneck for this, your Wifi (let alone the wired network) is probably significantly faster than your WAN link.

OSX Server with a profile manager and Open Directory might be something to investigate further. For now, you should try to iron out those network problems and then evaluate further.