How I turned my 2012 Mac Mini into a home server | Put your old mac to use!
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- Опубліковано 5 чер 2024
- Whats up guys! Welcome back to the channel. Todays video is how I put my 2012 mac mini to use as a personal home server. Since building my hackintosh I no longer was utilizing my mac mini for anything other than collecting dust. Instead I decided why not build a home server for file storage and archiving! I'll show you everything you need to know on how to turn an older mac, like my 2012 mac mini, into a home server with this guide to build a home server on a mac. All of the features are native to macs so there is no need to buy or download any software to your mac when creating your home server either on a 2012 mac mini or another mac device!
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Product Links:
2012 Mac Mini i5/4gb memory ►► amzn.to/3hzgyuU
2TB HDD ►►amzn.to/3jHNPGg
HDD Cable Kit ►► amzn.to/3hFY2Bh
Firewire Gigabit Connector ►► amzn.to/2EeERjm
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My Socials:
Twitter ►► / dylansdecoded
Instagram ►► / dylansdecoded
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#2012MacMini #MacMiniServer #HomeserverBuild
Thanks again for watching! - Навчання та стиль
You are the first person I have ever heard inviting people to the option of a thumbs down. Respect. I gave you a thumbs up. Nice video
Thanks Dylan! Great tutorial. I love using old tech that has been collecting dust. Using your setup I went back to my old 2009 Mac Mini and it works like a champ using Catalina. I even setup a plex server for all my music and movies.
Excellent tutorial, very simple and straightforward to follow and all worked a treat. Good find on youtube and I'm now a subscriber!
Nice, with time in isolation I'm now going to set up my old mac mini like this, thanks for the vid!
Many thanks! I'm currently setting up a base Mac Studio to replace my venerable 2012 Mac mini. It has served me so well, I didn't want to confine it to a closet. You've inspired me to use its 1GB SSD to back up that Mac Studio.
I went 2tb internal ssd on my 2011 Mac mini and WOW it’s like as fast as my M2 mini. Minis are such great machines and older ones are definitely great for this type of repurposing.
Since Apple tells me that my late 2012 has no value, it seems perfect for a server to a Mac Studio.
Loving the idea of this. You can get high spec 5's or medium spec 6's all day long in the UK (just not that popular on the used market) - add the low power usage and it's a great file server once you can get RAID sorted out.
thank you ... you have got me started ... moving my 2012 mini to under my stairs ... it will manage all my content and importantly all my photos and their back up. Hopefully everyone will then be able to access . Worried the share size of the data may be the hindrance.
Awesome work, man. Learned a few things.
Great video the instructions were very helpful!
Great tutorial dude thanks a lot for this.
Thanks for making this. I am a pretty high level user, but messing with networking always intimidates me. It's pretty simple on the Mac I guess.
Sounds good; gotta 2014 MacMini.
Good info! Please do a video accessing the Mac Server from a Windows 10 or 11 PC on the same network. Also, another video on accessing it remotely as a Cloud Storage. Would another software like Synology be needed for remote access?
Thank You!! i was doing this myself and i had a couple hiccups, you saved me lol
Excellent video - thank you for this.
great video, relative passed his mini to me 2014 catalina w. 8 gig unified memory 256 ssd m1, kind of hot dog. Don't use daily but file server status is right on--thumbs up
Finally have a use for my 2011 mini
i guess it is pretty off topic but do anyone know of a good place to stream new movies online ?
@Brian Uriah I watch on flixzone. Just google for it :)
@Brian Uriah Try flixzone. You can find it on google :)
Great tutorial, Thank you. Now i wonder if it is possible to connect iMac mini with new iMac directly via 10gbit ports? I imagine connecting some ssd storages to Mac mini and use it inside iMac with 10gbit speed...Would be fantastic and cheaper than with NAS server...Have you ever tried such configuration?
brilliant and so helpful
Thanks for the video. I have pretty basic needs for our Apple ecosystem house:
1) Store personal home videos which I prefer to access via Apple TV,. I prefer to use the "TV" app to manage my videos specifically (probably < 1TB right now) as I can do playlists, etc. (I know that Plex can probably do this, but TBH, I use iTunes/TV to manage my stuff and allows for easier sync to my iPad for when I travel.)
2) Time Machine
I'm faced with either building a new NAS or just getting an older Mac Mini. When doing price comparison, I can get a 2014 Mac Mini on eBay with 1TB HDD, 4GB Memory, i7 1.4 GHz for less than $300. (I can easily upgrade the HDD.). I wonder if I can partition the drives so that my husband can use 1 drive for his TM, and I use the other drive for my own TM.
TBH, the primary need is a "home media center". TM is nice-to-have, but my new 2020 MBA syncs files to iCloud and it's easy enough for me to plug in my external SSD at the end of the day.
Any thoughts on buying a brand spanking new NAS vs buying a used Mini and upgrading the HDD?
(Side note: a friend gave me an old Mini, but at the end of the day it wouldn't work bc it was a "hyper drive" 1 TB (which was 2 drives... one HDD and the other SDD). I also ran out of "Family Sharing authorizations" which was annoying and will need to kick someone off.)
will be doing the same
Amazing video! I was thinking about maybe buying a used Mac mini server 2012.
@@DylansDecoded I currently have a Macbook Pro 2011 15 inch with the graphics card failure, it works but is just a little slower than before the crash. Is it worth it to buy a used mac mini 2012? Its almost the same as the macbook. Isn't it better to wait a little longer until the macbook really gives up? Or should I buy a used machine now?
Go Cubs and love from Sweden!
Very nice, thanks for the info
can you use this method for doing autobackups of both windows and mac computers? i have a PC for my main office/gaming rig. but then i use a macbook pro for work and browsing as well as an iPad Pro. I'm just struggling to find out how I could backup and also have shared folders between both windows and Mac computers on the network. I would also like to double this Mac Mini as a HTPC for my hifi audio setup and home theater. any comments, suggestions, thoughts, help, or anything would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!
Not bad.. Nice video.. I would love to see a video where you go more in depth with it
So glad i checked this vid before going through all this myself. Now i know not to bother! Seriously, you have saved me a days worth of grief for nothing. I think (if such a thing exists) all that i really need is just a very basic external hard drive that can plug directly into two macs at once. Every other solution seems to be more complicated than i need (which distacts from actually doing any of the work that i want to save), while adding fuctionalities that i activly despise (whoever came up with the concept of ''sync'' is definitly on my blacklist). I even fully finished making a Linux-FreeNas machine before realising it just wasnt for me. So seriously, thanks again for saving me another wasted day.
Hey, I know this is an old comment but if your router has a USB port you can hook up an external drive to it and share it over the network to any computer or phone in your home.
Hi,Dilan.i want to use an old 2007 or 06 or 08 mac mini as a server for my studio.All of my VST instruments are 64 bit.will the old machine be able to pull this task?Or is it better to use models after 2009?
Hi Dylan, great vid, Thanks a lot. It works with my old 2009 iMac aswell. I can connect to the old mac with my new 2020 one. But i´m not able to connect with my ios devices. Can you help?
Hi Dylan, thanks for the tutorial. I trying to configure my late 2012 mini into a music server, it has ios el capitan and followed step by step until I tried to add a folder. I do not have the "new folder" option, bottom left on screen. I can add a new folder but it does not show up in the shared folders column. Any suggestions? Thanks
@Dylans Decoded Hi Dylan, I followed your tutorial, everything works fine, you “lost” me on mounting a drive. With my setup I have a “Mac Server” folder on the mini which shows up on my three Macs on the desktop. The strange thing is, in the Finder sidebar on all Macs it has placed this folder in the iCloud section, is this correct? Or has it placed the “Mac Server” folder in iCloud? Finally, if I try to add the mini as a Time Machine location for the other Mac’s, it won’t let me log on, do I have to add an external drive to the mini? Really appreciate your reply, many thanks.
what did you type exactly in the terminal? I can't read it! thank you!
question, i have a mac mini as well that would like to use as sever just for moves and tv shows. i tried to use plex and you need to pay in order to use other devices, is there anything out there that i can use with y mac and other ios devices in order to setup my own media server? thank you
i need some help. how can I turn it off the administrator access for all volumes? I selected only 1 folder with movies, but my TV see every volumes. thanks for the answering .
Hi Dylan, i followed your instructions but i cannot see the option file share on AFP. i can only see SMB in my mac mini and im using the new operating system BigSur. can you help how i can do this?
Hi great video! One question can I connect to the server outside the network?
I may not have your answer but in System Preferences > Sharing > Remote Management (It appears one can remotely tie into a secure network). I don't know enough about this so you may have to search about it. If you find anything I would be interested in what you find.
Hey Dylan, I have a 2012 mac mini 10.8.5 Everything you said in this video so far worked great. When i am home i am able to log on to mini and transfer stuff etc. The only issue i am having is how do i log on to the mac mini from my office computer thats at another location? thank you
remote management
I would like you to show services most used if you can. Also, can I use this Mac mini server as a plex server as well?
How does one make a Mac Mini always mount Server drives when the users Mac is booted up.
Great vid loved it but I am way to new to follow all the details. But this is my problem. I have a spot in my house that I just can’t run a line to. I have an application i need to run there, that wants to be connected by wire not WiFi. I want to get internet to the mini by wifi then by Ethernet wire the the appliance. Can this be done? It’s for music so not huge bandwidth.
Have you looked into a powerline ethernet adaptor or a wireless mesh system like Eero (which can output a wired connection)
Go Cubs !!!
rather than setting the static IP on the mini, I rather do that on the router as it means the router won't give out the IP address if, for some reason, the server is off-line potentially causing a conflict of address if it comes back online while the other device has that IP address. The other setting turned on is power on when power is turned back on so it boots back automtically if the power goes out and is then restored
I was thinking this. Better to let it get a DHCP address from the router then go to the router management page and set up a reservation so the IP only gets offered to the Mac mini by DCHP
Most ISP given routers don't have the functionality of dhcp reservation by mac address. They are usually dumbed down and very limited in what they can do.
@@user-ky9qn4pg3w I don't say this doesn't exist, but I've never seen any router without DHCP reservation. They may be quite rare.
And if we use the DNS from the routeur, the server is easy to find with his name, instead of remembering its address or modifying /etc/hosts on each network device.
All good, except in my case DHCP with manual address did NOT work. I had to go static (and of course manually enter IP, but also mask and DNS servers)
I had repurposed mine into a webserver. No Mac OS, clean Ubuntu Server install, runs like a dream.
I'm planning on running a few protocols (Plex, PiVPN, AdGuard) on my mac mini, however I am skeptical about using Ubuntu Server as it doesn't have a GUI. Instead I was going to use Lubuntu just so I have a desktop environment. What are your thoughts?
@@jakesnodgrass4924 I guess it depends on what you prefer. I'm comfortable with command line so if I need to do something to it I just remote in over SSH. Don't have a monitor keyboard or anything connected to it, just ethernet cable straight into router only. Software like Plex have their own web GUI you can access over local network, not sure about vpns. You could also install something like webmin or another Linux management web GUI. If you feel like experiment I'd try out a couple different os distributions before deciding which to go with.
@@user-ky9qn4pg3w thanks for the advice! I think I’ll try to go with ubuntu server and setup openssh, the VPN is pretty much completely controlled by the command line anyways.
I’m gonna try this. I have an old Mini that isn’t being used.
Thanks for the video! Do you know how to access this home server from outside our home network? It can be very useful sometimes. Thank you very much.
Remote management from shared setting in preferences. That’s how you set up remote access
@@mauropiccininni6251 Gracias!
the 2012 mac mini still run great in 2020 just upgrade to a ssd and 16 gb of ram and it will still be good for a couple more years. old macs from 10 and up are like future proof
lol im still rocking my 2009 mac mini. modded to run catalina and it never failed me once.
One thing that isn’t clear: is the option to limit the time machine size total for all back ups, or per machine?
Not sure maybe it's a menu for each machine ?
Let me explain, you have two Macs A and B and server C.
You can set the limit in each Mac A and B and basically C will have the "sum".
So for instance you limit it to 2TB on A and 1TB on B and in theory Time Machine backups in general shouldn't take more than 3TB on the server C.
Not sure at all ad I could not find much but that is my logical guess.
Could you also load it up with media content, then install plex media server and then have it stream content to your other devices on the local network?
Yep
can it run unraid?
How did you get Catalina?
Easy Peasy. Love my macs. But having just set it up, using a 2012 Mac Mini with a 1GB drive, Ethernet and static ip, Catalina, etc, I still have one huge problem: it’s dreadfully slow. Both connecting to a network drive, and listing its contents, and file transfer to and from it, are seriously slow. Useless almost. Any suggestions? The clients are iMacs with big sur and Catalina, respectively. Ive cone all the obvious things I think. Any ideas welcome!
Have you upgraded the memory and/or put in an ssd instead of a hard drive? Those two can really help it out
The thing is I have a MacBook Air 2012 and when I get a new computer, I will do this
What is the most secure and private way to store and share files with people around the world ? I use Dropbox but am looking for a solution where the files aren’t looked at by the cloud service . Thanks
Mega
How can i access it from my pc
I’m getting a Mac mini 2012 for dirt cheap for home server and I have a question. Should I install a new hard drive or a new ssd? Are there any cons of using an ssd-based server? Besides price obviously
Install a SSD it will change everything. I did and it feels like a new mac mini
I have a Mac mini server edition and I want to set up a network. But I want to be able to use it as a place where clients can check out work I’ve done for them using a unique code or address. Sone help in that realm would be wonderful
This actually sounds really cool. If you see this and end up finding anything, I'd love to hear it!
I’m still trying to work it out. There’s not a lot of resources for the not computer savvy.
@@19cwood Did you find anything ?
I'm looking for the same, did you found something?
Can you be a bit more specific about the IP address? How do I determine which address to use from terminal?
Can you please make a part II on this? Like how to connect to the UI in the Mac mini? Thanks!
On macOS you can simply share the screen
Go good Numbers..
Go good Things. Go good Jersey..s!!!
Go A 1,000
Go History and All Stard
I was using a 2015 core i5 and it was too slow to even use. Replaced my home server with an M1 and a NAS.
2015 core i5 is not slow for a home server, something else like drive or amount of ram was bottlenecking.
@@user-ky9qn4pg3w core i5 is useless
Wooh hoo.
Go Mac
I'd love to do that and even use its CD bay but my first generation Mac Mini is protected by a password I created around 2009 which I don't remember, lol.
wipe it and reinstall OS
For some reason my Mac mini won’t let me turn on File Sharing. I can’t figure out why.
There could be another setting preventing it, there’s a lot of things that get in the way of others.
what if I do this on my main computer, would their be any drawbacks?
The problem with doing it on your main PC is it is basically like storing you data in the same place it is coming from. The main thing about having a separate place where your data is stored is for redundancy and multiple points of storage for that important data.
You could create a raid setup on your main PC but again that is still only one place where the data is being held.
I followed your steps but I'm having a strange problem: When I create a new folder in a shared directory I can't rename it, I have to change the permissions for the folder after creating it. I have no problem renaming or interacting with existing folders / files in shared directories. I've triple checked my permissions and everything seems in order. Do you experience the same behavior with your mini server?
Apple bug. You have to add the inherit rights to this drive using chmod. Google it. Not complicated once you know...
Apple added extra permissions to the typical Unix rights. That’s why you think they’re ok. But the extended rights are wrong.
i want to use the mac mini to integrate with my Roon Core and send flac. files to it from an external HD, rather than buying an Roon Nucleus
You’ll want to use a more current machine (than the one showed here) for that as Roon is resource heavy. As an endpoint however, it should run fantastic.
did you do it? thinking to buy a old mac mini for the same purpose.
On Mojave 10.14.6, in Terminal 192.168.0.255 responds with: -bash: 192.168.0.255: command not found. Do you know why Terminal is saying this?
@@DylansDecoded yes, I'm trying to follow your direction on your video to find all the devices on my network. I'm trying to figure out how to setup a network switch and hook up a Macbook Pro, iMac, Network Printer, Mac Mini, Macbook Pro 17", and other devices.
In Terminal, use this in stead to start a search: arp -a
You get IP and MAC adresses for all connected devices.
Hey there,
Just wondering how can I access the server away from home?
Filezilla
FileZilla then what
option 1. You need to create VPN access on your router for your home network, and then you'd access it same as you would from home.
option 2. You can open a port on your router for you to access it remotely over public IP (wouldn't recommend for security reasons)
Terminating VPN on router device also requires opening port. From router perspective port needs to be opened in both cases.
In Terminal you entered 192.168.0.255. Where do you get this IP address from?
In Terminal, use: arp -a
I thought the point of having a server was being able to share large files (like videos) with others NOT connected to you network via a link that allows them to download files from their computers???? OR setting up a website on the server that pretty much does the same thing. That's what I'm after. I can already share files between my own computers via the network without setting up a server.
You can definately set up a server that does that, but you will need to open it up to the public facing internet, and is beyond the scope of this video.
@@BeauwithaBang - Yeah, I can read and write between my computes right now by dragging and dropping 'without a server'. So I don't really see the point in having a server *unless I CAN share with the public. Anyways, much mahalo for your sharing your videos and knowledge with others and for your taking the time to actually reply, 🌸 Aloha... 🌴
What you're talking about is a webserver. There's a whole host of IT/CyberSec reasons you may want to run NAS/Proxy/Mail only on LAN and without any web connectivity of their own.
You'd get a lot more out of it running PROXMOX hypervisor and then VM,s or better, containers on it....
Can you elaborate on Proxmox on a Mac mini? What can Proxmox do that the 2012 Mini can't? Looking into using mine for pfSense. Cheers
@@tearblastgaming7186 Hmm, apparently my detailed reply was deleted by this channel..
Go Smiles
Why dont you lend me that old mac mini hihihi
What is a Plex server? Is it like a hard drive
Plex is basically private Netflix. You provide the media and then can stream it from your phone or tv etc
It’s an absolutely amazing service with the rise of so many streaming platforms that are constantly raising their prices. I have an 8tb drive dedicated to streaming movies and tv shows. Also use it to stream audio books and to share my photo and home video library with friends and family. It’s a great one stop shop for all media except books and comics.
that's my current computer! LMAO
DEWD! Your link (and picture) is to a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter not a Firewire to Gigabit Ethernet adapter!
But how can I use this kind of server with Windows-laptop?
He explained it you weren’t paying attention
SMB shares. It’s in the video ☝️
@@UsmanKhanofKarachi ok how do I access it from my pc
@@aidana7846 type //“your Mac’s IP” on windows explorer
Anybody trying with 2020 Mac mini?
Should work the same
@@ChrisM-pu1hp exactly the same
Would this be a good solution for file sharing with others ? I would love to switch to a d r o p b o x alternative . Someone recommended a home media server . I send large files via Dropbox but they charge an annual fee . Thanks for your help
He he, you accidentally used a different IP than what the mini was initially using you put an upside-down 6 instead of a 6 (193 instead of 163)
Go White Sox
Baseball is boring
There is no Mac with a 10/100 Nic. all Macs since at least 2006 all have 10/100/1000 Nics
WoW!!
i am in IT field for 20 years, and today learned that you can actually ping broadcast ID (.255) :DD
amazing!
I dodged this video successfully when he did manual ip setup instead using mac address. Still managed to waste 3min.
Can you please explain the difference between the two? Many thanks
Yea, learned something’s here but was totally frustrated by you using super high resolution and the window you are talking about is 1/6 of that resolution! Step back my friend and view from viewers perspective before you pub. Peace out…
Why do you waste time telling us what you didn't do or or not going to do?
…why? Two reasons come to mind ( there are more ):
1) to show the thought process
2) to show options and other methods that exist, even if not used
These can inspire curiosity about the process, and lead to further study.