Came from Mac OS X 10.7.5 file server, formatted Mac OS Extended, Journaled, sharing AFP and SMB (only used by Windows users) - Configured to user Open Directory, but integrated with Active Directory, OD groups containing AD Users primarily. Is A Mac mini A Good File Server? With more and more of our lives becoming digital, it is important for people to have access to their data all the time. The Mac mini is a great tool for serving files. Mac minis come with up to 1TB (1000GB) hard drives now. They also have plenty of ports where you can connect multiple terabytes of data.
Background (inherited configuration)- Client has a long standing history (years before our involvement) with 'permissions' problems on their file servers.
- Came from Mac OS X 10.7.5 file server, formatted Mac OS Extended, Journaled, sharing AFP and SMB (only used by Windows users)
- Configured to user Open Directory, but integrated with Active Directory, OD groups containing AD Users primarily
- Only Windows PCs were bound to Active Directory
- Mac users frequently complained about access to files within folders where they were permissioned to access the entire share
- When issue occurred they could not access files (or folders) where they previously had access, found exclusive access set
- Mac users permissions were restored by propogating permissions down folder structure from the top of the volume
- Note: Users work directly from the server, and do not copy the files locally to work, Adobe appears not to 'support' this in forums, but have not seen this posted officially
Background (since then)
- Client data was migrated on Windows Server 2016 servers, NTFS volumes and permissions
- Backups were moved from nightly Archiware P5 tape backups to a Replibit (Ubuntu-based) BDR on an hourly basis, which leverages Windows VSS writers
- Sharing configured with both native SMB for Windows and Acronis Access Connect AFP for Mac to allow for illegal characters and long paths
- Aronis Access Connect AFP was connected to from the original Mac server and copied from Mac to Windows to leverage AFP connection features
- Mac users continued to experience similar, 'permissions' issues with greater frequency
- Sometimes the issue was as above, permissions were propogated down folder structure from the top of the volume
- Acronis Access Connect was removed from the equation in favor of SMB only sharing as a troubleshooting step
- Acronis support has been involved, Apple has not offered support because the servers run Windows
- Backup frequency was reduced to nightly after 7 pm to avoid any potential extra file locking
- Often when copying or renaming files or folders, users were prompted for username (defaults to local login) and password
- This was not experienced by Windows users
- While Mac prompted for permission to allow the rename, Windows correctly identified that a file or folder was in use
- In many cases, we then identified the in use file or folder, had that user close out and they could resume working
- Other times the file was still flagged in use by Windows native file sharing, even when the user had closed the files
- In next steps, we found closing Adobe applications completely worked, additionally sometimes closing Finder was required
- In other cases, we had to forceably close connections by dismounting the volume on the workstations
- Additionally, sometimes we had to force close the connection on the Windows Server (Note: even when the only listed open item was a folder, not a file)
Current configuration
- VMware ESXi 6.0
- Windows Server 2016
- Windows native SMB sharing, permissions set via NTFS, users have Full Access from top down inheritance
- Mac OS X 10.9 to 10.12 and Windows 7 client PCs
- Mac not bound to Active Directory
- Windows bound to Active Directory
- Primary applications: Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop) & Microsoft Office
- Approximate dataset: ~12 TB
- Dataset has been broken into 4 VMs (Windows Server 2016) with 2 - 2.5 TB each, balance of data was archived
Possible alternatives considered
- Open to suggestions to provide fix from either Windows server or Mac OS X client side
- Ubuntu or other Linux file server
- FreeNAS file server
Server For Mac Environment
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For additional discounts or higher quantities, use the partner locator and find a partner today.
For online purchase, please choose correct number of devices'>
For additional discounts or higher quantities, use the partner locator and find a partner today.
For online purchase, please choose correct number of devices'>