Re-use an old Mac as a home server
Reuse a spare Mac for networked backups and to speed up iCloud Drive
Apple’s commitment to its networking hardware seems to be at a halt, to the point that its AirPort team was recently rumoured to have been disbanded. With the future of AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule routers apparently under threat, you may be looking elsewhere for a device to centralise Time Machine backups for all the Macs in your home. Many third-party network drives come with Time Machine support, but you could press an older Mac into service instead.
The advantages of this are numerous. Firstly, you can plug in (and swap out) external storage, so you never have to worry about running out of room. Secondly, a USB drive represents much better value than a Time Capsule. Thirdly, external drives perform much quicker when plugged directly into a Mac (particularly if it has USB 3.0) rather than going through the slower USB 2.0 port on an AirPort Extreme or Time Capsule.
To do this, you’ll need to purchase macOS Server ($30.99, Mac App Store). This installs as an app within an existing version of macOS, and it comes with additional benefits too, from setting up centralised folder sharing to the caching of iCloud Drive data, which can save you time and potentially money if you’re on a metered internet connection.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
Your Mac will need to be running OS X 10.11.6 (El Capitan) or higher to run the latest version of macOS Server, which might not be practical if you’re using an older Mac. The trouble is that Apple has made it difficult — but not impossible — to buy and install an older version of the app (which used to be more simply dubbed ‘Server’).
We’re going to focus on Macs running OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion or higher, because that’s the point where Server changed from being sold as a complete operating system to an app that runs on top of the regular one. If your old Mac is running either OS X 10.8 or OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), go to apple. co/2iAwmU4 and click the relevant link in the archived article. This will open the App Store and show you the correct version of Server for your system (2.2.5 for Mountain Lion; 3.2.2 for Mavericks) for you to buy or redownload if you bought it previously. Note that certain features — like caching personal data from iCloud Drive — aren’t available in these earlier releases.
Things are a bit easier if your old Mac is running Yosemite. If you won’t upgrade it to El Capitan, search the Mac App Store for ‘macOS Server’, then purchase it — you’ll be told the current version isn’t compatible and instead be offered the most recent version that will work. Accept this, and it’ll download and install on your soonto-be server.
Once the Server app is installed, you’ll find it in the Applications folder. Before opening it for the first time, make sure the Mac’s network connection is configured properly. First, we strongly recommend you connect the server to your router using an Ethernet cable; while you can use Wi-Fi, Ethernet offers faster performance and a more stable connection.
Second, assign the server a static IP address on your network, so that it has a permanent identity that makes it easier for other Macs to locate and connect to it. To do this, go to ‘System Preferences > Network’, select the Ethernet connection if necessary, then change the ‘Configure iPv4’ pop-up menu to ‘Using DHCP with manual address’. Next, give the Mac a static IP address; check the range from which your router allocates addresses — often of the form ‘192.168.0.x’, where ‘x’ is a number between 0 and 255 that isn’t assigned to another device on the same network. When you’ve done that, click ‘Apply’.
A LITTLE BIT OF BASIC SETUP
Server works best when you limit access to specific users and groups. Open the app and click Continue to set it up. Once done, you’ll see its main screen, which gives an overview of the computer, and lists available services in the sidebar. Select Users under the Accounts heading on the left. You’ll see
“The ability to cache iCloud Drive data is great if your broadband data is capped.”
your own user account has already been added. Click ‘+’ to add other members of your household.
You’ll want to create accounts that match the ones on your household’s Macs, so you may need family members to provide their account name and password — though not mandatory to match what they use on their own Mac, that simplifies matters. Make sure Home Folder is set to ‘None – Services only’. We also suggest leaving the ‘Allow user to administer this server’ box unchecked, so you are the only person in control of your server.
Click ‘Create’. By default, a new user will have access to all enabled services. If you want to restrict access, ≈-click a username, choose Edit Access to Services and then clear the checkbox next to any service you don’t want that person to use. You can hold ç to select multiple users, then ≈-click one of them and choose Edit Access to Services to apply the same rights to all of them at once.
SET UP SOME FEATURES
Follow the walkthrough opposite to set your server as Time Machine’s target for Macs on your network. After that, your next task is to use Server’s caching capabilities; macOS Sierra can put your Desktop and Documents folders in iCloud Drive to make it available on all your devices. If you have switched this on, you’ll want to use iCloud caching to speed up syncing and cut internet bandwidth usage — crucial if you’re on a metered connection.
The trick is to leave your server switched on 24/7, so whenever your other devices are connected to your network, any changes they make to your iCloud Drive are cached on the server, as well as uploaded to iCloud, and other devices on your network retrieve them from the cache rather than downloading them from the internet. When a device is away from your own network, or if your server isn’t running, files will still sync with iCloud as normal.
The benefits should be clear, and the more people who use iCloud Drive across multiple personal devices, the bigger the benefit. The annotation above shows how easy it is to set up the Caching feature. It also works for app purchases, iBooks, system updates and more (see apple.co/2jwJGJ0), which can lead to further bandwidth savings and improved performance when your devices are able to retrieve data from the cache on your network.
Server is primarily aimed at businesses, yet it has other uses that may interest you at home or in a small business: creating wikis, centralising shared folders and using a virtual private network (VPN) to provide an encrypted connection to home over the internet.
Even if you only want to back up your Macs wirelessly, and you have a spare one to run the app, the cost of Server and a hard drive saves you lots of money compared to an AirPort Extreme or a Time Capsule.