Caching server

[blackholemac]

So we are looking to add 4 Mac Minis to serve as caching servers.

1 TB fusion drive or 256 GB flash storage (same price)

I'm inclined to go fusion drive to allow for a larger cache. am I right or wrong and why??

I know flash storage is faster but I don't know if 256 GB of flash storage will last five years in terms of future space needs...we try to spec all of our servers to last five years...everything else on the configure I am totally settled on.

[davidacland]

I'd say 256GB probably wouldn't be enough. We used to partition our drives between OS and Data, giving OS 80GB, but with recent OSes we've had a few issues that have meant the OS needed a bit more free space.

Assuming somewhere between 100-150GB for a boot drive (including free space), that only leaves 100-150GB for the cache data which sounds a bit small to me.

As long as you avoid the standard 5400 rpm drives the performance should be adequate.

[blackholemac]

Agree with @davidacland about 5400 rpm...I won't even consider that option...would like to continue to see everyone's opinions!

[johnnasset]

I'd go with the larger drive. Even with SSD, you are still going to be stuck with the speed of your ethernet port when serving updates. We have our caching server on a 2009 XServe with link-aggregation. Loads faster than pulling off of the internet. We have been averaging about 80% of software returned back to the clients via the cache.

[blackholemac]

@johnnasset had considered that very thought...I was going to see if I could aggregate with the built-in ethernet port and a thunderbolt to gigabit ethernet dongle. Am inclined to agree on needing the more space...opinions still welcome...will give solution credit to such helpful posts either way

[rhoward]

Also depending on how much you are caching, SSDs have a limited number of read/write cycles. Stick with the 1 TB HDD

[blackholemac]

Thank you to everyone who responded...as originally posted...am inclined to agree on the fusion drive...only reason I posted is that I've never used Server.app (or OS X Server for that matter) on a fusion drive...I just don't want any 'gotchas' when the hardware arrives. Has anyone of you folks actually used Server.app with caching server on a fusion drive??

[gburgess]

Personally, I haven't run a caching server from a fusion drive...yet. My caching server is running on a Mid 2010 Mac Mini Server running 10.10.3 with dual 7200 drives. I have the caching server hosted on the second 1 TB drive in the box. I haven't had any issues thus far knock on wood.

I'm currently running 2 NetBoot/Distribution points via Mac Minis that have fusion drives. I haven't had any issues with them running services. So far they have been workhorses. We have an older 2008/2009 Xserve that was running most of the NetBooting and DP services, but it's been recently showing its age.

[tcam]

Over here for caching mac mini with extra ram & SD. For cache storage, external thunderbolt raid, SSD drives, raid 0, striped for performance.

[BK]

@blackholemac How many clients are you expecting to serve? Is it a mix of iOS and Mac OS X devices? Are your caching servers in the same site?

I normally never see my caching server go beyond 100GB-150GB. You can always add an external drive.

Also if your not opening the App Store to everyone you may get your answer by adding up the apps that you are distributing. Even the iLife / iWork apps only add up to 2-3GB. Some things to consider.

I'm running a 1TB Fusion drive Mac mini Late 2014 and it's fast! I've seen it serving around 2GB and uses about 20% of the processor in the stats.

[blackholemac]

@baha_khalil We are looking to better serve approx 4000 iPads and about 300 Macs...we are sorely in need of more caching servers...we only have one though it is a very beefy one...I know good and well that we need more and will be adding 4 for Fall. I am very much leaning toward the Fusion Drive at the moment...these are ONLY going to be used for Caching Servers initially. As for size...the reason I am leaning Fusion is that we have already in 9 months filled a 450 GB cache on our beefy Mac Pro that is are current caching server (but also does other stuff)...I am going to take a moment to control which subnets I am serving with the new caching servers though...right now our 1 serves the whole district...each of these 4 are going to serve major nodes on our network and only the node they are on. Our distribution point right now is holding strong and my current load calculations don't show that I need another one of those at the moment because we only are allowing Macs to receive packages on the network (unlike our iPads which Casper manages both on and off).

[bentoms]

@blackholemac I have around 20 caching servers in total.

Some on the old dual SATA mini's (with drives mirrored), others on 2014 mini's with Fusion.

Do difference client side, but the fusion drives are 1TB which is great for the cache.

[blackholemac]

I want to thank everyone for their enthusiastic responses...I've learned a lot and confirmed that we are going with fusion drives. I wish I were adding 6 caching servers honestly to do the job better.

To give everyone a bigger picture...we have one new Mac Pro at the moment that is holding its own as a "Casper Support server" which handles distribution point, software update and NetBoot functions...last year our 2008 XServe got replaced...that's how I got a budget for the Mac Pro I already have.

After re-evaluation of our needs and available monies, I was told I could get 4 Mac Minis to augment our caching but that I had to keep costs low...worked with Apple rep to do so, though we had a disagreement on the flash vs. fusion...not for any real reason but he voted flash saying it should be enough...I don't see 256 GB lasting the 'test of time' and preliminarily disagreed hoping someone would prove me wrong and say that a fusion drive wouldn't work with a server.

I'm glad a fusion drive will work and am going to speck it out that with one while keeping an eye for doing link aggregation using Thunderbolt to Ethernet if possible.

Thank everyone for their weigh-ins.

[jarednichols]

FYI, Caching Server will take about 750 concurrent connections. Hopefully that'll help in your purchase decision.