Load tests performed by Macminicolo.net shows Apple’s new 1.25GHz Mac mini is a suitable web server for 80% of the web sites on the market. “The Mac mini topped out at 1239 hits per second, yielding 2502 Kbytes/sec of data served, while the dual-G5 held up 2174 hits per second, yielding 4387 Kbytes/sec. It is probably that other testers will be able to produce improved hits per second from both machines, however most day-to-day installations will orbit around these performance levels. While these figures aren’t at the top end of the generally available ISP-class web server performance curve by any means, the economics of the Mac mini are such that for the first time ever there is a competitive Macintosh server able to handle more than 1000 hits per second yielding 20Mbits of data at a price that meets or beats much of the industry.”
Full article here.
And with the dearth of software available, it’s likely that any Mac minis used for this purpose will have an Apache web server activated with a single click. It’s tough on a Mac.
That’s nutz, I love the mini!
huh?
Hywel,
What does that mean?
Hywel is right. Setting up a web server on the Mac is no fun. Everything just ships with the machine, so you don’t have any fun shopping for extra software to run your web server, FTP server, mail server, etc. And it’s so easy to set up, what with a simple Cocoa interface for configuring complex industrial-grade Unix-based server software and all, that even configuring the server software is no fun.
The MDN Magic Word is “college,” as in setting up a Mac mini server is a senseless waste of a perfectly good IT college degree.
Hywel is right. Mac OSX includes Apache. magic word is aid which is what you need for Windows web serving and what you automatically get for a Mac!
What are you talking about. I don’t know anything about web servers, and I set one up with OSX server just by following this: http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/04/04/apache_jaguar_pt1.html
Hywel,
Could you please clarify? I was under the impression that Apache is the dominant web server. Is its performance on a Mac sub-par?
I have noticed sarcasm is a tough sell around here.
ditto to Mo
Sorry. I’ll rephrase that for the Wayne’s World generation:
And with the dearth of software available, it’s likely that any Mac minis used for this purpose will be restrited to the built in Apache web serverm which is activated with a single click.
It’s tough on a Mac. NOT!
Am I the only person suffering this Adserve bollocks where the magic word form and submit buttons are also links opening another window ?
This is despicable behaviour.
Hmmm. Hywel, I missed something.
We ran Mac OS X Server for many months on a 1.25 ghz eMac (about the same specs as the Mac mini) with ZERO problems. Whenever the site would get hit heavily (it happens) we’d usually run out of bandwidth from the ISP before we’d run out of CPU on the Mac.
From experience, Mac OS X, PHP, Apache, and MySQL work VERY well together on any Mac, including the Mac mini. While you wouldn’t want a mini to handle a site with huge daily visitor counts, it’ll do just fine even for our site.
For vanilla Mac OS X, Apple takes all the geeky nerdery “fun” right out of it. One click gets you Apache. A few clicks will also install MySQL and PHP. A few more clicks to install pMachine’s Expression Engine (same content management system used by MDN) and you’ve got a web site of enormous capability.
Total cost? A Mac mini and EE. Lots of power, great stability, tremendous flexibility, ease of use and setup, very low cost.
Tera Patricks
Mac360
I wonder if you could cluster the mini and use linux or OS X server to power them? Anybody know?
Hywel,
Sorry about that; I should have known better, coming from you. I’ve read so many opinions here that were so totally bizarre that I treated them as sarcasm, only to find out to my chagrin and astonishment that the fruit loops were being deadly serious, that I no longer automatically assume that someone is being sarcastic. Overexposure to this forum will definitely contribute to the atrophy of one’s Sarcasm Appreciation Lobe. More’s the damn pity; we don’t have enough irony in our diets as it is.
dear oh dear!
Hywel, not quick enough with the “NOT”, I see. Some people should reload the page just before submitting a comment, especially a long comment, or after you’ve read a bunch of comments. It takes just a second or two with cut and paste. BTW, I don’t get the Adserve stuff. Perhaps you have the first OS X malware.
S’alright all. It’s not always easy to tell who’s joking and who isn’t here. I should probably add some emoticons, but I don’t like them when they get transmogrified into little graphics.
Still suffering the ad links on the magic word. Am I the only one ? Firefox, PC, behind corporate firewall.
http://www.buckleupamerica.org/booster/index.php
Hywel — “Still suffering the ad links on the magic word. Am I the only one ?”
I’ve been getting them too for a couple of days. (Duel G5 desktop, Safari.)
BTW – one more thing I’ve noticed about running Mac OS X on a web site:
Serving pages gets faster the more hits and demand placed on the server. In other words, with fewer hits, pages render and are served modestly (not fast but OK). With a lot of hits, pages get served faster.
My ‘nix friends say this is normal behavior, for the most part; having to do with caching issues, etc.
We’re running on a dual 2.5 ghz PMac and have yet to hit 50-percent CPU usage regardless of hits– we usually saturate bandwidth first.
The stats above indicate that a dual CPU PowerMac has throughput that’s double (at least) that of a Mac mini. Hmmm. PowerMac is $2,000 or more, on average. Mac mini is $500.
What’s that say?
Of course, “serving” is one area where more RAM does matter, and I’d be concerned about those smaller laptop hardrives. Still, if a site’s not getting blasted like MDN, what a great server bargain the mini is.
Tera (they’re real, and they’re spectacular) Patricks
Mac360.com
I ran across an ad for Mac Mini’s being used as servers yesterday at ThinkSecret.com’s website. Yes, they actually use Mac Mini’s to serve websites. Well, Mini’s and Xserves, so they have pro models too, but still, it’s really cool that you have Pro-line Xserves running right next to bargain-line Mac Minis here’s the site: http://www.macminiservers.com/
Cool, another niche for the mini – how many does that make now?
Hywel, I started getting the wacky posting behavior today too. On safari on Panther. MDN should check their code.
I could tell Hywel’s original comment was pro-Mac
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And no problems here with the magic word.
Magic word is — I won’t tell you, and PLEASE stop telling me!
Suggestion, if you’re going to use it, just use it and put it in [square] brackets. Play the game if you want, but don’t discuss it, it makes me have to scroll
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Yeah that magic word stuff is lame.. so who was the dork who got his panties in a bunch when I said it was lame like 2 months ago…?