macOS Server’s Caching feature
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.