server Mac as a Server

[gutz00]

Good Afternoon,

I am currently researching some upgrade options for a Sports League I have been working for. We have been running multiple servers off Mac Machines (and currently use them as clients) for Web Host, Databases, and file storage.

Some currently date back all the way to Mac OS 9.1 (no joke). They do not want to change from Mac to PC so I am currently exploring Mac options. So here is a list of questions I have

1) What is the recommended Mac for our use case?

2) Website Hosting Software's for Mac (Currently using Adobe GoLive 5.0)?

3) Is it worth upgrading all licenses to the newer FileMaker Pro (Currently running 8.5 & 15 as a server/client solution)?

4) Is there a way to access FileMaker Pro servers remotely (outside of the network)

5) Is there anything I might be overlooking?

 

I apologize as I do not work with Macs or FileMaker Pro as often as I do PCs but apparently I am the most computer literate in our group.

[Acedia]

Working from memory here: IIRC Apple doesn't do servers anymore and thinks Mac Minis are servers.

5 hours ago, gutz00 said:

3) Is it worth upgrading all licenses to the newer FileMaker Pro (Currently running 8.5 & 15 as a server/client solution)?

FileMaker needs to die a firey death.

Quote

4) Is there a way to access FileMaker Pro servers remotely (outside of the network)

FileMaker is something different. You have the program FileMaker itself, think of it like "Microsoft Word", and whatever your contractor cobbled together 10 years ago is nothing but a "Word file (.docx)" you keep opening and working on. So as long as you can access the file, yes it will work remotely. You just need to set up a vpn solution to access the file.

[gutz00]

16 minutes ago, Acedia said:

thinks Mac Minis are servers

I've seen more of that, currently our "server solution" is Mac Pros, again some dating all the way back to the late 1990's.

[Acedia]

5 minutes ago, gutz00 said:

I've seen more of that, currently our "server solution" is Mac Pros, again some dating all the way back to the late 1990's.

One of our customers also has a Mac Pro (the cylinder type) in their rack running filemaker.

If I see it correctly the current Mac Pro is weaker than a new Mac Mini in terms of CPU and RAM.

[gutz00]

1 minute ago, Acedia said:

Mac Pro is weaker than a new Mac Mini in terms of CPU and RAM.

That seems fair, as I'm looking at what we would need for specs (I did spec it out as I would a PC Server) it is still much cheaper than the trash can Mac Pro. And as I see it none of our use cases require a dGPU.

[Acedia]

Ok let's take this from the top.

6 hours ago, gutz00 said:

1) What is the recommended Mac for our use case?

Sadly a Mac Mini.

6 hours ago, gutz00 said:

2) Website Hosting Software's for Mac (Currently using Adobe GoLive 5.0)?

If I read this correctly Adobe GoLive is a a HTML EDITOR from 2007, not a web server. So I assume you are running a webserver somewhere else. Is the website reachable from the internet? (God I hope not...) If so open a command prompt (pc) or terminal (mac) and enter

nslookup www.yourdomain.tld

Check the IP address, is this your office? If you don't know your public Ip address check https://whatismyipaddress.com/.

If they match check your routers web UI for a port forward on port 80/tcp and/or 443/tcp. Whatever is on the other end is your webserver. You need to UPGRADE that, since it's probably exploitable.

If it's a simple HTML/CSS site you can easily swap your webserver for apache or nginx. Or IIS..lol.

I would highly recommending switching to a new website on a hosted solution like squarespace... I think there is even a offering code from LTT.

6 hours ago, gutz00 said:

3) Is it worth upgrading all licenses to the newer FileMaker Pro (Currently running 8.5 & 15 as a server/client solution)?

If I am interpreting this page correctly https://www.filemaker.com/products/filemaker-server/version-comparison.html they only added new features in later versions. Since your File is probably not using them... No? You need a FileMaker guy for that.

[gutz00]

4 minutes ago, Acedia said:

Is the website reachable from the internet?

Yes it is. And like the rest of the office it looks old. (nblskil.com) but luckily it is mainly a text website. For its time it was ahead of it's game.

5 minutes ago, Acedia said:

If it's a simple HTML/CSS site you can easily swap your webserver for apache or nginx. Or IIS..lol.

I know about editing in HTML/CSS but never had to host locally. Can you recommend any good tutorials for Apache or nginx?

7 minutes ago, Acedia said:

Since your File is probably not using them... No? You need a FileMaker guy for that.

Shines the FileMaker Pro Guy Signal