My school is planning on using an existing mac server to host our website, and it sounds like I am going to get to help set it up. I have never set up a public, production web server on a mac. If anyone has any tips beyond the real obvious basics (keep it updated, set root passwords to something very secure, set all passwords, etc.), I would like to know. It will need to be running PHP, MYSQL, and Apache. If anyone has any performance boosting ideas I could use them as well as this is not the best computer out there by any means. The server will need to continue running OSX because it also serves a few functions within the school.

Thanks in advance.

Switch to a hardened Linux distro (2.6 kernel) or FreeBSD. OS X makes a bad server.

You say you can't switch because of other functions - what functions are those?

I am not sure of exactly which functions that particular server is used for, but I am pretty sure part of the plan for it involves it being a server for mac specific stuff even if it is not now. I think it might end up being an internal file server as well. Along those lines, does mac server support jails in a secure way? I was guessing that mac's made less than optimal servers, but I don't see a way around it at least in the short term. We might be able to update the current web server to a state where it can work instead eventually. The problem with doing it now is that it is not set up with half the stuff we will need in our plans for the new website. Because of this we will need to at least have something to run the site while we take that server down and get it into proper working order for everything we will need. The other problem is that the current server is old and so it may not work as well for a more dynamic site. i don't see my school getting a new server to soon because we are already looking into upgrading our T1 router because it is only 10Mbit so we are suffering with huge internal network performance issues. I see using the mac server as a web server unavoidable if we want this done in the short term, however I see your point and i may mention using it only temporarily.

The tech person at my school is also looking for advice on a good T1 router. Also does anyone think a switch under a equal LAN speed router would speed up the internal network any? The tech person at my school thinks it will, and I am unsure.

Thanks.

I'm not thinking it would affect your intranet too much, but you could try it if you have an extra one (I don't think it's worth buying a brand new one and testing it out, unless it's really slow).

Our intranet is very slow, but that's because we don't have either yet, We have a 10Mbit router at the top, and just about nothing other than computers and WAPs below it are 1000M. I think that the 1000M router with enough ports to put everything on it would be quite enough.

On a similar note, does anyone know how many ports are typically on a T1 router, I have no clue but the tech person at our school thinks there is only like 1 (or some other very small number). We have most of our computers (even desktops) on WAPs so we don't have a lot of cables going into the network/server closet, and we only have 3 servers (all doing different things, no redundancy) so there is not a need for more than 10-20 ports I think.

Well if it only has 1 port, use a switch.

Though really, I've never seen a router with only one port... they may be thinking of WAN ports.

I wouldn't really be a router then. More like a ... box ...

Maybe a bizarre WIFI router with hidden antenna!

Or, better yet, it's like a cockpit recorder, but for your network. Records all network traffic.

Ooo, Yeah!

Or a "modem"

@Glenn: Linux can work as a file server for OS X computers, too. I don't know of any Mac-specific server usage, hence my question.

Upgrading a T1 router past 10mbit is a waste, since T1 is only 1.5mbit. Just get a switch so that the T1 router isn't doing the local network routing. The T1 router can still act as the DHCP server in a pinch.

Ideally it would go

T1 router/modem <-> PC w/ firewall + DHCP server or hardware firewall + DHCP server <-> switch (100mbit is plenty, btw) <-> everyone else

presumably AFP or Bonjour.

you don't want 10Mbit being the main router since that would make LAN access really slow.....

Which is why I added the switch. Having trouble reading or something? I even "drew" a pretty ASCII diagram

ASCII art ftw!