OS X Server? Why the Hell Not?

I’ve spent the last fifteen years as an IT professional. I was an IT manager for a Fortune 500 company for nine years and an independent consultant for the past six. I’ve spent too many late nights up to my ass in Windows, Novell and Linux server problems of every flavor to ever want a server in my home to care for, right? Well, no.

You see, that was my attitude a year ago. I still had a very bad taste in my mouth resulting from some bad experiences dealing with mission-critical servers while under pressure to make things right for a couple hundred users whose files, email, profiles, etc. all resided on said boxes. If the servers weren’t working properly, no one was working properly. I just got a shudder thinking about it.

Now, the word “server” has an entirely different connotation. Yes, I’m now working from home and the only users I have to deal with are my wife and daughter, so why would I need a server? It really comes down to only one thing, convenience. When I thought about it, I realized my home probably needs a robust network as much as most small businesses I deal with. In our household there are 3 Macs, 2 Windows and 1 Linux computer, 3 iPhones, 2 iPads, an iPod Touch and a Nexus 7 Android tablet. Out of 13 devices, 9 of them are made by Apple. Since I’m the obvious choice for “designated computer guy” in our home, keeping all these boxes and devices secure and up-to-date was getting to be a bit of a chore. I’m all about making my life easier. A Pareto chart of my family’s devices by manufacturer clearly shows Apple as the “big bar”.

 

If I want to automate the maintenance and updating of the most devices with the least effort on my part, then it only stands to reason I should look for something to handle those tasks for our Apple devices.

I know. This is silly, right? Of course it is. Like I’ve said many times, “We use Apple stuff because we want to and use other things when we have to.” I don’t need all this analysis to come to this conclusion.

So, what tool could possibly manage all this Apple stuff?

All right, all right! I’ll shut up with all this silliness. Apple’s OS X Server is a no-brainer. Next, you say, “But MacTexan, do I really need a multi-thousand-dollar Mac running an expensive and complex server operating system just to manage a couple Macs and iPhones?” To that I answer, “We are talking about Apple here. You must purge your mind of all the Windows, Linux and Novell negativity, Grasshopper.” Apple takes a completely different approach to the idea of what a server is. While other companies have completely different versions of their operating systems, Apple’s approach is to wrap all the typical server tools and services into a single Server app that runs on OS X. Yep, the same OS X that powers MacBooks, iMacs, Mac Minis and Mac Pros. Any Mac Apple sells can be turned into an OS X server by simply installing the $20 OS X Server app from the Mac App Store. This one app has everything you need to run a full-fledged, enterprise-type server replete with users, groups, Open Directory, file sharing, a web server, DHCP, DNS…the list goes on.

But we’re not talking about all that stuff, are we? While yes, the OS X Server app has everything you need to turn yourself into a ruthless “Network Nazi”, there’s probably just a couple of its features you need to make managing all your household Apple devices easy and automatic and save you tons of Internet bandwidth to boot.

The reason I originally bought OS X Server was to minimize the Internet bandwidth necessary to keep all my Apple devices up-to-date. For example, I use Microsoft Word on both of my Macs, my two iPads and my iPhone. Word is roughly a 400 MB download. Before I installed Server, updating all five of my Apple devices required downloading Word five times, roughly two gigs. Using OS X Server’s Cache feature, when I update Word on one of my iPads, that 400 MB is copied to my iMac (where I installed Server) as soon as the iPad downloads it. When any of my other iOS devices determine Word needs an update, they check my server first and if the update is there, it gets it from my server over my home wi-fi. The same goes for my Macs. The beautiful part of this process is how easy it is to set up: 

Step 1: Install the OS X Server app from the Mac App Store.

Step 2: Launch Server and toggle “Caching” to ON.

Step 3: There is no step 3! As is typical of Apple, the Server app does everything for you.

When you turn on caching in the Server app, it talks to all your iOS, OS X and TVOS devices and tells them there is a caching server on the network and they all know how to behave going forward. Simple. So, in my case Word only needed to be downloaded twice, once for my Macs and once for all my iOS devices. Server reduced the download from 2 gigs to 800 megs, a 60% reduction. This could be huge if you live under a bandwidth cap or suffer a slow Internet connection. Caching works for all OS X and iOS updates, app updates for apps acquired from the Mac or iOS app stores and all iTunes media including music, movies, TV shows, podcasts and audiobooks.

Another valuable service provided by the Server app is Time Machine. You simply tell Server what disk or partition you’d like to use to store backups and it advertises that space over your home network as an available Time Machine disk. When you set Time Machine preferences on any Mac connected to your home network it will see the server disk just like it would see a connected USB drive or Time Capsule. If you’d like to connect to your home network while you’re away, Server has full VPN capabilities as well as functioning as an FTP server. If, unlike me, you've never spent any time as a sysadmin, Server is awash with links to on-line help from Apple and there are tons of forums and discussions to draw from. The knowledge barrier to entry is absolutely nil.

I’m just scratching the surface of OS X Server’s capabilities, but even the tiny amount I’ve described here is worth the $20 cost of entry. The only other cost is the small amount of time required to set things up. If all you want is caching and Time Machine, that only amounts to about five minutes. Cheap at twice the price.