- #HOW IS MAC MINI AS A SERVER INSTALL#
- #HOW IS MAC MINI AS A SERVER FULL#
- #HOW IS MAC MINI AS A SERVER DOWNLOAD#
Measuring just 7.7 inches (19.7 centimeters) square and 1.4 inches (3.6 centimeters) high, this small machine can be connected to almost any large display screen and numerous peripheral devices. It also lets me access some types of media that iTunes doesn’t store in the cloud by default, such as audiobooks. The Mac mini is a tiny computer with enormous capabilities.
#HOW IS MAC MINI AS A SERVER FULL#
In this day and age, what self-respecting server doesn’t serve up media? I have a full copy of my iTunes Library on my Mac mini, and in those cases where iCloud Music Library is a bit under the weather, I can use iTunes Home Sharing to stream from my mini to my iOS devices and Macs alike. (Before I started using Screens, I sometimes used to screen share into my Mac mini, and then screen share from there into my iMac, since my iMac wasn’t directly accessible.) Beyond the ability to access programs on the remote Mac, I’ve also availed myself of another benefit: If you have a desktop Mac that’s turned on and has a FaceTime camera, you can remotely launch Photo Booth on it to take a look around your home while you’re, say, on vacation. If you know your way around a little firewall trickery, you can use OS X’s built-in screen sharing to the same effect. Sometimes I want to check on an app that’s running on one of my computers, and for that I turn to the invaluable Screens by Edovia. Screens lets you store connections to multiple computers, and can even provide a screenshot of their last known state.
In some cases it might be slow, but it does help protect my data when I’m using a spurious Wi-Fi network. It runs a few other things - its a network time machine destination and a print server, but I could probably do those on my NAS now (a few years ago.
#HOW IS MAC MINI AS A SERVER INSTALL#
The media i’m using for this install is the Microsoft Windows Server 2016 Evaluation ISO from the Microsoft Evaluation Center. It runs macOS, headless, but also has a document scanner on it, so my wife and I can easily scan paperwork and have it dumped on to the NAS. Windows Server 2016 on a Mac Mini Install Media. I’ve also taken the somewhat more complex step of setting up OS X Server to host a Virtual Private Network (VPN)-essentially an encrypted tunnel that lets me securely route my data and my Internet connection back through my home network. I have a 2014 Mac Mini thats a little home server.
#HOW IS MAC MINI AS A SERVER DOWNLOAD#
These services allow me to quickly interact with my home machine as well as download files to whatever Mac or iOS device I happen to have with me at the time. Most basic is the Secure Shell (SSH) command line interface (OS X calls it “Remote Login” in the Sharing system preferences pane) and its associated Secure FTP (SFTP) file transfer service. Turn an Old Mac Into a Home File Server: If youre a devoted Mac user like me, chances are, youll have an old Mac sitting around somewhere, collecting dust. I maintain several different services to let me access my home machines.