this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2025
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I've been asked to set up a server for a research team at my university. I've already had the practice of setting a server at home, so I have a rough idea of how things should be done. Still, I wish to follow best practices when setting up a server for this use case. Plus I would prefer to avoid too much tinkering for the setup since I'm planning to keep the installation as simple as possible.

Following are some rough constraints and considerations for the setup:

  • Server computer is a Mac Mini (latest model I think?). I've been told they would replace macOS with Linux, still I believe I should ready if they don't (I don't have experience with macOS at all)
  • Server will be situated in university and provided a static IP address
  • Team needs remote access to the server, presumably comfortable with using CLI
  • I am unlikely to be permitted access to server myself after setup, so it should be ready to be managed by the team
  • Extra hardware and/or paid software could be arranged but to a limited extent and within reason

I don't think they have really any requirement other than having remote access to the server. I think SSH should suffice, however I was wondering if I could also arrange for backups, GUI server panel etc.

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[–] CocaineShrimp@sh.itjust.works 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I know this isn't exactly what you're asking for, but I'd recommend also looking into a VM OS such as proxmox or unraid (I'm running unraid)

They'll let you create/destroy VM instances you can access remotely. So in theory, you can give everyone their own VM to use and access the files on the server.

However, unraid / proxmox may have performance issues running in a VM on a Mac mini...

[–] illusionist@lemmy.zip 3 points 4 days ago (1 children)

What do you need (temporary) VMs for?

[–] CocaineShrimp@sh.itjust.works 2 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

I was thinking OP could give everyone their own VM to use as a workstation so they could access the files on the server easily, and/or run programs based on their work. When their coworkers leave, OP can easily destroy the VM and the resources would be automatically reallocated (depending on the servers configuration). With a physical device, the storage on that device is only allocated to that device and can't be shared when it's not in use

Me, personally? I have multiple VMs for different contexts: my teaching job (super clean, video sharing tools, presentation tools), gaming, media server (has scripts to download stuff off of YouTube), server management (just a regular Debian install), and a fuck around box (I just use it to try new OSs like Fedora, or try breaking OSs like deleting the system32 folder on windows)

[–] illusionist@lemmy.zip 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Ok, good reasons. I would've thougut about vacode, rstudio server, et al so that you really only have a server. I hate not having a sound card on a remote windows server