Mac Mini Dedicated Servers

A modern 1U x86 based server is vastly over-specified for the average web hosting application. It also uses far more power and takes up far more space in a rack than it needs to, making it costly to host. The Mac Mini's small size and low power consumption makes it an ideal hosting platform. And the good news is that it even runs Linux.

Our Mac Mini Dedicated servers are located in one of our three hosting facilities, TelecityRedbus Harbour Exchange / Sovereign House (Docklands, London) or Redstone in Cambridge.

We don't have serial consoles available on Mac Minis but we have a neat bootloader that allows us to remotely reboot any Mac Mini into our debian based recovery mode which allows complete remote control over the machine no matter how serious the mistake made by the administrator.

Our servers are available with your choice of Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu Linux or Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger). Other Linux distributions available on request; please contact us if you're interested in running another operating system.

Services

Software	Debian GNU/Linux, Ubuntu, Centos or Mac OS X (Tiger/Leopard)
Masterswitch access	included
Setup fee	£50
Monitoring	included
Net boot recovery	included
Managed Hosting service	from £58.75 per month or £587.50 per year

Details of the available hardware options are given below.

Core 2 Mac Minis

1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
	Low bandwidth (Cambridge)	Standard (London)
Memory	1GB
Disk space	80GB
Monthly bandwidth	10GB	100GB
Excess bandwidth (per GB)	£0.75	£0.20
Monthly price	£40	£57
Quarterly price	£110	£156
Yearly price	£400	£566

2.00GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
	Standard (London)	High bandwidth (London)
Memory	2GB
Disk space	120GB
Monthly bandwidth	100GB	1000GB
Excess bandwidth (per GB)	£0.20	£0.10
Monthly price	£70	£140
Quarterly price	£192	£385
Yearly price	£700	£1400

Mac Mini dedicated server prices are quoted inclusive of VAT.

If you're looking at a low bandwidth package, you may well be interested in an Apple TV Dedicated server instead, it's approximately half the size, power consumption and performance of a Mac Mini.

More disk space ?

If you're after substantially more disk space than the Mini comes with you can locate with it an external hard disk. A 2.5inch USB disk is free of charge providing it needs no external power supply. A 3.5inch powered disk attracts an extra £10 / month, £27/quarter or £100 / year.

Other specs? Host your own Mac?

We can supply differenly specified Mac Minis. Please email us for a quote. Note that since such machines must usually be ordered specially, there may be a delay before provisioning; we may also make a small up-front charge (redeemable against hosting costs). We can also offer other operating systems, such as FreeBSD, NetBSD, or other flavours of Linux—please contact us for more information if you're interested.

We can also do Mac Mini co-location, if you'd prefer to supply your own machine.

Linux on Mac — does that work?

Absolutely. Linux has been running successfully on PPC-based Macs for years. The advent of Intel-based Macs has made running Linux on a Mac even more straightforward. Mythic Beasts have provided hardware to support the development of Linux drivers for the Intel Mac Mini hardware, and have developed our own custom bootloader to make the Mini even more suitable for use in a server environment.

If you want to know how we did it, our page describing how we made it all go have a look at our Mac Mini Howto.

Interested?

If you're interested in dedicated Mac Mini server, please drop us an email at sales@mythic-beasts.com.