I’ve been asked to set up a server for a research team at my university. I’ve already had the practice of setting a server at home, so I have a rough idea of how things should be done. Still, I wish to follow best practices when setting up a server for this use case. Plus I would prefer to avoid too much tinkering for the setup since I’m planning to keep the installation as simple as possible.
Following are some rough constraints and considerations for the setup:
- Server computer is a Mac Mini (latest model I think?). I’ve been told they would replace macOS with Linux, still I believe I should ready if they don’t (I don’t have experience with macOS at all)
- Server will be situated in university and provided a static IP address
- Team needs remote access to the server, presumably comfortable with using CLI
- I am unlikely to be permitted access to server myself after setup, so it should be ready to be managed by the team
- Extra hardware and/or paid software could be arranged but to a limited extent and within reason
I don’t think they have really any requirement other than having remote access to the server. I think SSH should suffice, however I was wondering if I could also arrange for backups, GUI server panel etc.
What you describe is a workstation under someone’s desk. Usually when you connect to your campus vpn you should be on the network and be able to reach most things.
The problem is who is gonna manage it when you are gone? I’ve had teams come and ask to get their trash can Mac’s rescued because whoever managed them left the team. How are you going to do backups? Are you gonna put a NAS next to it? Or actually use the tape drives that ITS can provide?
Ask your local research computing group what this team needs to do to host or contribute an actual server. A Mac mini is a consumer product, research grants can I include hardware, your computing group has actual racks and people who know how to manage it.