4g- 8gb Ram increased performance!! (mini server i7)

Ok you guys are all rolling your eyes but hear me out. I have the miniserever quad and i run Final CutX, Motion, Logic (with EastWest, StudioDevil, Antares plugins) and this thing screams with 4gb. But...motion really chops that memory up fast, as does FCX, and Superior Drummer. I had to close all other apps and it still those guys ate 4gb. So I upgraded to the maximum 8gb.
Here's the thing...everything got faster even when ram was not maxed out!
Final Cut and Motion open in half the time now. Everything is faster and more responsive. Logic loads programs in a snap (minus the 64bit au bug). Now, I've never noticed a difference like this. Never. And I've always upgraded parts and pieces and op systems when available. Does anybody know anything about this? Why would changing ram speed up processes that do not max out ram? Maybe Crucial ram is superior to the Samsung ram that ships in the unit. From now on, I'm maxing out all new computers immediately! Maybe it's a Grand Central Dispatch thing. Anyway, I could not be happier with a 55$ upgrade. It feels like a new computer. Which is great, cause it was only a week old when it was "old".

Thank you. Appreciate that. I actually don't use it as a server at all, so I plan to use the server drive as backup to the publications. I have considered buying the MacProp but when I visited the Southampton UK store two weeks ago, I noticed that the power lead going into the back of the Mac Pro had actually split all the way around leaving the core wires bare albeit for their protective sleeve. So if that's the quality of the build I thought this is a lot of money for what is a marketing design. Frankly that design doesn't work because for professional applications we users need something practical - not pretty.
However, the Mac Mini design for us is OK although I don't see the need to design computers as small as they can be. If something goes wrong you need to fix it not have to take a University degree in mechanics and electronics. Yes the previous G5 style computers were built like tanks, but something in between would suit us professionals. It doesn't need to fit in a ladies handbag but something of a cube 7 or 8 inches all around would be very practical. I hope Sir Jonathan reads this!
Thank you for your help.

Similar Messages

Installed 8gb RAM on mac mini model A1347 but it won't recognize past 4gb, any way to fix this to recognize the full 8?

Installed 8gb RAM on mac mini model A1347 but it won't recognize past 4gb, any way to fix this to recognize the full 8?

What RAM did you buy?
Try reseating the modules, they need to be pushed firmly into the slots before tilting them down into the clips.
see > Mac mini: How to remove or install memory

Upgrading ram on Mac mini server - different?

I plan to buy a mini server 2011 and upgrade it myself to 8GB.
Is there any reason why some sellers on eBay sates DDR3 specs for a mac mini 2011 specifically for a i5 or i7 ??.... Aren't the specs provided for ram upgrade for my base model the same for the mac server ? I'm asking since I want to order it even before I get the mini server...
Thanks
Rob

The Mac Mini's and Mac Mini Servers use the same RAM
Mac mini: How to remove or install memory
Also OWC (macsales) and Crucial are both highly recomended suppliers here in these forums.
Apple Mac mini Memory DDR3 / Ram upgrades for 2011 Mac mini unibody models
Computer memory upgrades for Apple Mac mini (Intel Core i7 2.7Ghz) DDR3 - Mid 2011 Desktop/PC from Crucial.com
Also note that OWC has gone a step farther and sells tested kits that exceed Apple stated maximum RAM compactly.

Can a New Mac mini server take 8GB of RAM?

We are considering buying a Mac mini with Snow Leopard Server (to use the complete term) for our small business. Every review I read points out two of the biggest shortcomings as:
1. A limit of 4 GB of memory
2. Limited to the two slow 500 GB drives
However, there seems to be a lot of chatter about a firmware update for both the mini and the mini server that enables 8 GB of RAM. I want an Apple-supported configuration. Does Apple actually support 8GB RAM on the mini server?
I assume that the drives are also not upgradable due to power/heat, and that it would be better to just get an external Firewire drive array.
Thanks in advance!

Is this Apple-approved/supported?
AFAIK, It is not. 4GB max from Apple. But Macsales' reputation in the Mac community is among the best so I am inclined to believe them and I personally would be comfortable with 8GB from Macsales even if it's not supported by Apple. However, you will have to weigh that against the potential issues you may have if you ever need to get the Mini repaired under warranty.

5 GB SGA on 8GB RAM HP Server 64Bit

Hi all
Recently three months we installed Oracle 10g Database on HP Server (having 4 XEON Processors) with Windows 2003 (64 Bit) OS and we have 8GB RAM.
We wished to have 5500M as the SGA Target but we could not configure more that 3800M on that machine as after that it would error and the database would not get start.
error messages would be like - Out of memory
OR
???? (not recollecting)
Now we are running with only 3500M as sga_target and not utilizing the full available RAM with us. Of course we are using in addition 1500M for pga_aggregate_target without any problem. Even if we increase pga_aggregate_target to 3000M there is no problem but that is not desired to us. We wish to increase sga_target.
We are getting excellent response timings on 3500M sga_target but as human nature would be , we wish to be more greedy and use the full available RAM with us i.e 8GB out of which we can safely use 7GB for Oracle instance. While deducting 1500M for pga_aggregate_target we would like to use 5500M for sga_target.
Any help is appreciated.
Suresh Bansal

Excerpt from oracle docs.
Benefits of Automatic Shared Memory Management
Automatic Shared Memory Management simplifies the configuration of the SGA. Before Oracle Database 10G, buffer cache, shared pool, java pool, and large pool need to be manually specified for the database. Under sizing can lead to poor performance and out-of-memory errors (ORA-4031), while over sizing can waste memory. This feature enables you to specify a total memory amount to be used for all SGA Components (buffer cache, shared pool, java pool, and large pool). The Oracle database periodically redistributes memory between these components according to workload requirements. Before Oracle Database 10G, the user did not have exact control over the total size of the SGA since memory was allocated by Oracle for the fixed SGA, and for other internal metadata allocations over and above the total size of the user specified SGA parameters. The new SGA size parameter SGA_TARGET now includes all the memory in the SGA, including all the automatically sized components, manually sized components, and any internal allocations during startup.
Configuring Automatic Shared Memory Management
Automatic Shared Memory Management can be configured by using the SGA_TARGET initialization parameter. If you specify a non-zero value for SGA_TARGET, the following four memory pools are automatically sized:
* Database buffer cache (Default pool)
* Shared pool
* Large pool
* Java pool
If you set SGA_TARGET to 0, Automatic Shared Memory Management is disabled. The default value of SGA_TARGET is 0.
The individual parameters used before Oracle 10G releases to specify the sizes of the automatically sized components have not been made obsolete. The initialization parameters that size these pools (DB_CACHE_SIZE, SHARED_POOL_SIZE, LARGE_POOL_SIZE, and JAVA_POOL_SIZE) are now referred to as auto-tuned SGA parameters.
The following buffers are now referred to as manually sized components:
* Log buffer
* Other buffer caches (KEEP/RECYCLE, other block sizes)
* Streams pool (new in Oracle Database 10g)
* Fixed SGA and other internal allocations
Note: STATISTICS_LEVEL must be set to TYPICAL (default) or ALL to use Automatic Shared Memory Management.
Jaffar

Increase Performance and ROI for SQL Server Environments

May 2015
Explore
The Buzz from Microsoft Ignite 2015
NetApp was in full force at the recent Microsoft Ignite show in Chicago, talking about solutions for hybrid cloud, and our proven solutions for Microsoft SQL Server and other Microsoft applications.
Hot topics at the NetApp booth included:
OnCommand® Shift. A revolutionary technology that lets you move virtual machines back and forth between VMware and Hyper-V environments in minutes.
Azure Site Recovery to NetApp Private Storage. Replicate on-premises SAN-based applications to NPS for disaster recovery in the Azure cloud.
These tools give you greater flexibility for managing and protecting important business applications.
Chris Lemmons
Director, EIS Technical Marketing, NetApp
If your organization runs databases such as Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle DB, you probably know that these vendors primarily license their products on a "per-core" basis. Microsoft recently switched to "per-core" rather than "per-socket" licensing for SQL Server 2012 and 2014. This change can have a big impact on the total cost of operating a database, especially as core counts on new servers continue to climb. It turns out that the right storage infrastructure can drive down database costs, increase productivity, and put your infrastructure back in balance.
In many customer environments, NetApp has noticed that server CPU utilization is low—often on the order of just 20%. This is usually the result of I/O bottlenecks. Server cores have to sit and wait for I/O from hard disk drives (HDDs). We've been closely studying the impact of all-flash storage on SQL Server environments that use HDD-based storage systems. NetApp® All Flash FAS platform delivers world-class performance for SQL Server plus the storage efficiency, application integration, nondisruptive operations, and data protection of clustered Data ONTAP®, making it ideal for SQL Server environments.
Tests show that All Flash FAS can drive up IOPS and database server CPU utilization by as much as 4x. And with a 95% reduction in latency, you can achieve this level of performance with half as many servers. This reduces the number of servers you need and the number of cores you have to license, driving down costs by 50% or more and paying back your investment in flash in as little as six months.
Figure 1) NetApp All Flash FAS increases CPU utilization on your SQL Server database servers, lowering costs.
Source: NetApp, 2015
Whether you're running one of the newer versions of SQL Server or facing an upgrade of an earlier version, you can't afford not to take a second look at your storage environment.
End of Support for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is Rapidly Approaching
Microsoft has set the end of extended support for SQL Server 2005 for April 2016—less than a year away. With support for Microsoft Windows 2003 ending in July 2015, time may already be running short.
If you're running Windows Server 2003, new server hardware is almost certainly needed when you upgrade SQL Server. Evaluate your server and storage options now to get costs under control.
Test Methodology
To test the impact of flash on SQL Server performance, we replaced a legacy HDD-based storage system with an All Flash FAS AFF8080 EX. The legacy system was configured with almost 150 HDDs, a typical configuration for HDD storage supporting SQL Server. The AFF8080 EX used just 48 SSDs.
Table 1) Components used in testing.
Test Configuration Components
Details
SQL Server 2014 servers
Fujitsu RX300
Server operating system
Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 Standard Edition
SQL Server database version
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise Edition
Processors per server
2 6-core Xeon E5-2630 at 2.30 GHz
Fibre channel network
8Gb FC with multipathing
Storage controller
AFF8080 EX
Data ONTAP version
Clustered Data ONTAP® 8.3.1
Drive number and type
48 SSD
Source: NetApp, 2015
The test configuration consisted of 10 database servers connected through fibre channel to both the legacy storage system and the AFF8080 EX. Each of the 10 servers ran SQL Server 2014 Enterprise Edition.
The publicly available HammerDB workload generator was used to drive an OLTP-like workload simultaneously from each of the 10 database servers to storage. We first directed the workload to the legacy storage array to establish a baseline, increasing the load to the point where read latency consistently exceeded 20ms.
That workload was then directed at the AFF8080 EX. The change in storage resulted in an overall 20x reduction in read latency, a greater than 4x improvement in IOPS, and a greater than 4x improvement in database server CPU utilization.
Figure 2) NetApp All Flash FAS increases IOPS and server CPU utilization and lowers latency.
Source: NetApp, 2015
In other words, the database servers are able to process four times as many IOPS with dramatically lower latency. CPU utilization goes up accordingly because the servers are processing 4x the work per unit time.
The All Flash FAS system still had additional headroom under this load.
Calculating the Savings
Let's look at what this performance improvement means for the total cost of running SQL Server 2014 over a 3-year period. To do the analysis we used NetApp Realize, a storage modeling and financial analysis tool designed to help quantify the value of NetApp solutions and products. NetApp sales teams and partners use this tool to assist with return on investment (ROI) calculations.
The calculation includes the cost of the AFF8080 EX, eliminates the costs associated with the existing storage system, and cuts the total number of database servers from 10 to five. This reduces SQL Server licensing costs by 50%. The same workload was run with five servers and achieved the same results. ROI analysis is summarized in Table 2.
Table 2) ROI from replacing an HDD-based storage system with All Flash FAS, thereby cutting server and licensing costs in half.
Value
Analysis Results
ROI
65%
Net present value (NPV)
$950,000
Payback period
six months
Total cost reduction
More than $1 million saved over a 3-year analysis period compared to the legacy storage system
Savings on power, space, and administration
$40,000
Additional savings due to nondisruptive operations benefits (not included in ROI)
$90,000
Source: NetApp, 2015
The takeaway here is that you can replace your existing storage with All Flash FAS and get a big performance bump while substantially reducing your costs, with the majority of the savings derived from the reduction in SQL Server licensing costs.
Replace your existing storage with All Flash FAS and get a big performance bump while substantially reducing your costs.
Maximum SQL Server 2014 Performance
In addition to the ROI analysis, we also measured the maximum performance of the AFF8080 EX with SQL Server 2014. A load-generation tool was used to simulate an industry-standard TPC-E OLTP workload against an SQL Server 2014 test configuration.
A two-node AFF8080 EX achieved a maximum throughput of 322K IOPS at just over 1ms latency. For all points other than the maximum load point, latency was consistently under 1ms and remained under 0.8ms up to 180K IOPS.
Data Reduction and Storage Efficiency
In addition to performance testing, we looked at the overall storage efficiency savings of our SQL Server database implementation. The degree of compression that can be achieved is dependent on the actual data that is written and stored in the database. For this environment, inline compression was effective. Deduplication, as is often the case in database environments, provided little additional storage savings and was not enabled.
For the test data used in the maximum performance test, we measured a compression ratio of 1.5:1. We also tested inline compression on a production SQL Server 2014 data set to further validate these results and saw a 1.8:1 compression ratio.
Space-efficient NetApp Snapshot® copies provide additional storage efficiency benefits for database environments. Unlike snapshot methods that use copy-on-write, there is no performance penalty; unlike full mirror copies, NetApp Snapshot copies use storage space sparingly. Snapshot copies only consume a small amount of storage space for metadata and additional incremental space is consumed as block-level changes occur. In a typical real-world SQL Server deployment on NetApp storage, database volume Snapshot copies are made every two hours.
First introduced more than 10 years ago, NetApp FlexClone® technology also plays an important role in SQL Server environments. Clones are fully writable, and, similar to Snapshot copies, only consume incremental storage capacity. With FlexClone, you can create as many copies of production data as you need for development and test, reporting, and so on. Cloning is a great way to support the development and test work needed when upgrading from an earlier version of SQL Server. You'll sometimes see these types of capabilities referred to as "copy data management."
A Better Way to Run Enterprise Applications
The performance benefits that all-flash storage can deliver for database environments are significant: more IOPS, lower latency, and an end to near-constant performance tuning.
If you think the performance acceleration that comes with all-flash storage is cost prohibitive, think again. All Flash FAS doesn't just deliver a performance boost, it changes the economics of your operations, paying for itself with thousands in savings on licensing and server costs. In terms of dollars per IOPS, All Flash FAS is extremely economical relative to HDD.
And, because All Flash FAS runs NetApp clustered Data ONTAP, it delivers the most complete environment to support SQL Server and all your enterprise applications with capabilities that include comprehensive storage efficiency, integrated data protection, and deep integration for your applications.
For complete details on this testing look for NetApp TR-4303, which will be available in a few weeks. Stay tuned to Tech OnTap for more information as NetApp continues to run benchmarks with important server workloads including Oracle DB and server virtualization.
Learn more about NetApp solutions for SQL Server and NetApp All-flash solutions.
Quick Links
Tech OnTap Community
Archive
PDF

May 2015
Explore
The Buzz from Microsoft Ignite 2015
NetApp was in full force at the recent Microsoft Ignite show in Chicago, talking about solutions for hybrid cloud, and our proven solutions for Microsoft SQL Server and other Microsoft applications.
Hot topics at the NetApp booth included:
OnCommand® Shift. A revolutionary technology that lets you move virtual machines back and forth between VMware and Hyper-V environments in minutes.
Azure Site Recovery to NetApp Private Storage. Replicate on-premises SAN-based applications to NPS for disaster recovery in the Azure cloud.
These tools give you greater flexibility for managing and protecting important business applications.
Chris Lemmons
Director, EIS Technical Marketing, NetApp
If your organization runs databases such as Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle DB, you probably know that these vendors primarily license their products on a "per-core" basis. Microsoft recently switched to "per-core" rather than "per-socket" licensing for SQL Server 2012 and 2014. This change can have a big impact on the total cost of operating a database, especially as core counts on new servers continue to climb. It turns out that the right storage infrastructure can drive down database costs, increase productivity, and put your infrastructure back in balance.
In many customer environments, NetApp has noticed that server CPU utilization is low—often on the order of just 20%. This is usually the result of I/O bottlenecks. Server cores have to sit and wait for I/O from hard disk drives (HDDs). We've been closely studying the impact of all-flash storage on SQL Server environments that use HDD-based storage systems. NetApp® All Flash FAS platform delivers world-class performance for SQL Server plus the storage efficiency, application integration, nondisruptive operations, and data protection of clustered Data ONTAP®, making it ideal for SQL Server environments.
Tests show that All Flash FAS can drive up IOPS and database server CPU utilization by as much as 4x. And with a 95% reduction in latency, you can achieve this level of performance with half as many servers. This reduces the number of servers you need and the number of cores you have to license, driving down costs by 50% or more and paying back your investment in flash in as little as six months.
Figure 1) NetApp All Flash FAS increases CPU utilization on your SQL Server database servers, lowering costs.
Source: NetApp, 2015
Whether you're running one of the newer versions of SQL Server or facing an upgrade of an earlier version, you can't afford not to take a second look at your storage environment.
End of Support for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 is Rapidly Approaching
Microsoft has set the end of extended support for SQL Server 2005 for April 2016—less than a year away. With support for Microsoft Windows 2003 ending in July 2015, time may already be running short.
If you're running Windows Server 2003, new server hardware is almost certainly needed when you upgrade SQL Server. Evaluate your server and storage options now to get costs under control.
Test Methodology
To test the impact of flash on SQL Server performance, we replaced a legacy HDD-based storage system with an All Flash FAS AFF8080 EX. The legacy system was configured with almost 150 HDDs, a typical configuration for HDD storage supporting SQL Server. The AFF8080 EX used just 48 SSDs.
Table 1) Components used in testing.
Test Configuration Components
Details
SQL Server 2014 servers
Fujitsu RX300
Server operating system
Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 Standard Edition
SQL Server database version
Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Enterprise Edition
Processors per server
2 6-core Xeon E5-2630 at 2.30 GHz
Fibre channel network
8Gb FC with multipathing
Storage controller
AFF8080 EX
Data ONTAP version
Clustered Data ONTAP® 8.3.1
Drive number and type
48 SSD
Source: NetApp, 2015
The test configuration consisted of 10 database servers connected through fibre channel to both the legacy storage system and the AFF8080 EX. Each of the 10 servers ran SQL Server 2014 Enterprise Edition.
The publicly available HammerDB workload generator was used to drive an OLTP-like workload simultaneously from each of the 10 database servers to storage. We first directed the workload to the legacy storage array to establish a baseline, increasing the load to the point where read latency consistently exceeded 20ms.
That workload was then directed at the AFF8080 EX. The change in storage resulted in an overall 20x reduction in read latency, a greater than 4x improvement in IOPS, and a greater than 4x improvement in database server CPU utilization.
Figure 2) NetApp All Flash FAS increases IOPS and server CPU utilization and lowers latency.
Source: NetApp, 2015
In other words, the database servers are able to process four times as many IOPS with dramatically lower latency. CPU utilization goes up accordingly because the servers are processing 4x the work per unit time.
The All Flash FAS system still had additional headroom under this load.
Calculating the Savings
Let's look at what this performance improvement means for the total cost of running SQL Server 2014 over a 3-year period. To do the analysis we used NetApp Realize, a storage modeling and financial analysis tool designed to help quantify the value of NetApp solutions and products. NetApp sales teams and partners use this tool to assist with return on investment (ROI) calculations.
The calculation includes the cost of the AFF8080 EX, eliminates the costs associated with the existing storage system, and cuts the total number of database servers from 10 to five. This reduces SQL Server licensing costs by 50%. The same workload was run with five servers and achieved the same results. ROI analysis is summarized in Table 2.
Table 2) ROI from replacing an HDD-based storage system with All Flash FAS, thereby cutting server and licensing costs in half.
Value
Analysis Results
ROI
65%
Net present value (NPV)
$950,000
Payback period
six months
Total cost reduction
More than $1 million saved over a 3-year analysis period compared to the legacy storage system
Savings on power, space, and administration
$40,000
Additional savings due to nondisruptive operations benefits (not included in ROI)
$90,000
Source: NetApp, 2015
The takeaway here is that you can replace your existing storage with All Flash FAS and get a big performance bump while substantially reducing your costs, with the majority of the savings derived from the reduction in SQL Server licensing costs.
Replace your existing storage with All Flash FAS and get a big performance bump while substantially reducing your costs.
Maximum SQL Server 2014 Performance
In addition to the ROI analysis, we also measured the maximum performance of the AFF8080 EX with SQL Server 2014. A load-generation tool was used to simulate an industry-standard TPC-E OLTP workload against an SQL Server 2014 test configuration.
A two-node AFF8080 EX achieved a maximum throughput of 322K IOPS at just over 1ms latency. For all points other than the maximum load point, latency was consistently under 1ms and remained under 0.8ms up to 180K IOPS.
Data Reduction and Storage Efficiency
In addition to performance testing, we looked at the overall storage efficiency savings of our SQL Server database implementation. The degree of compression that can be achieved is dependent on the actual data that is written and stored in the database. For this environment, inline compression was effective. Deduplication, as is often the case in database environments, provided little additional storage savings and was not enabled.
For the test data used in the maximum performance test, we measured a compression ratio of 1.5:1. We also tested inline compression on a production SQL Server 2014 data set to further validate these results and saw a 1.8:1 compression ratio.
Space-efficient NetApp Snapshot® copies provide additional storage efficiency benefits for database environments. Unlike snapshot methods that use copy-on-write, there is no performance penalty; unlike full mirror copies, NetApp Snapshot copies use storage space sparingly. Snapshot copies only consume a small amount of storage space for metadata and additional incremental space is consumed as block-level changes occur. In a typical real-world SQL Server deployment on NetApp storage, database volume Snapshot copies are made every two hours.
First introduced more than 10 years ago, NetApp FlexClone® technology also plays an important role in SQL Server environments. Clones are fully writable, and, similar to Snapshot copies, only consume incremental storage capacity. With FlexClone, you can create as many copies of production data as you need for development and test, reporting, and so on. Cloning is a great way to support the development and test work needed when upgrading from an earlier version of SQL Server. You'll sometimes see these types of capabilities referred to as "copy data management."
A Better Way to Run Enterprise Applications
The performance benefits that all-flash storage can deliver for database environments are significant: more IOPS, lower latency, and an end to near-constant performance tuning.
If you think the performance acceleration that comes with all-flash storage is cost prohibitive, think again. All Flash FAS doesn't just deliver a performance boost, it changes the economics of your operations, paying for itself with thousands in savings on licensing and server costs. In terms of dollars per IOPS, All Flash FAS is extremely economical relative to HDD.
And, because All Flash FAS runs NetApp clustered Data ONTAP, it delivers the most complete environment to support SQL Server and all your enterprise applications with capabilities that include comprehensive storage efficiency, integrated data protection, and deep integration for your applications.
For complete details on this testing look for NetApp TR-4303, which will be available in a few weeks. Stay tuned to Tech OnTap for more information as NetApp continues to run benchmarks with important server workloads including Oracle DB and server virtualization.
Learn more about NetApp solutions for SQL Server and NetApp All-flash solutions.
Quick Links
Tech OnTap Community
Archive
PDF

Why does it cost $450 to put 8GB into a Refurbished Mac Mini Server?

An 8GB Mac Mini Server has just posted in the refurbished area for $1199. The 4GB model refurbished goes for $749. Other than the RAM, I can find no other difference. Same processor, speed, video, etc.

Actually, I was looking at the two refurbished June 2010 models.
http://store.apple.com/us/product/G0LH0LL/A?fnode=MjMwNjE0ODA&mco=MjQwNTMyMTA
http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC438LL/A?fnode=MjMwNjE0ODA&mco=MjMxMjA0MTc
Don't think the 8GB model is going to move very fast unless they run out of 4s.
Love Apple's refurbs but the pricing often doesn't make sense.

Every time I try to connect to the iTunes Store I get this error message "iTunes could connect to the iTunes Store. The host is down. Make sure your network connection is active and try again." 2011 2.3 GHz i5 Mac Mini 8GB ram OS 10.7.2 iTunes ver 10.5

Every time I try to connect to the iTunes Store I get this error message
"iTunes could connect to the iTunes Store. The host is down.
Make sure your network connection is active and try again."
2011 2.3 GHz i5 Mac Mini
8GB ram
OS 10.7.2
iTunes ver 10.5.1
My internet connection is fine.
Anyone know how to fix this? Every reference I have found is old, nothing recent like Lion or newest ver of iTunes.
Help Please!

Hey thatssoivi,
If you are having an issue with being unable to connect to the iTunes store, I would suggest that you troubleshoot using the steps in this article -
iTunes for Windows: iTunes Store connection troubleshooting - Apple Support
Thanks for using Apple Support Communities.
Be well,
Brett L

Mini server 4gb or 8gb

Looking to buy a Mac mini server and wondering if I need to upgrade the ram immediately or if 4GB is adequate. Server will be a general purpose machine holding itunes and our music/video library and will also stream movies and music to various devices. Thoughts?

Apple charges too much for their RAM.
I buy with the minimum and then get more from either Crucial or MacSales, which ever one is cheaper at the moment.
Allan

Can I make cluster of two Mac mini's to increase performance

I like to know if it is poseble to make cluster of two Mac mini's to increase performance
or to do load balance and if it is poseble how it done ?

I also need to know... I would like to know if such a thing will be possible via thunderbolt...
Thanks!

Late 2009 Mini with 10.6 and 8GB RAM crashes, please advise ?!

Hi
I have a late 2009 Mac Mini with 8GB of RAM and an Intel X25-M 160GB SSD. Running 10.6 fully updated and installed from scratch.
I have been getting out of the blue crashes while the system is most of the times idle. Can it be the 8GB Ram? The SSD runs latest firmware.
This is the log from the last crash which happened a little ago. Can anyone help please?
Interval Since Last Panic Report: 139426 sec
Panics Since Last Report: 1
Anonymous UUID: 01A96B0F-D497-443A-8E19-9111DF3604EE
Sat Oct 23 18:20:04 2010
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x2a8ab2): Kernel trap at 0x0046f064, type 14=page fault, registers:
CR0: 0x8001003b, CR2: 0x19efc004, CR3: 0x20de6000, CR4: 0x000006e0
EAX: 0x19efc004, EBX: 0x0c273560, ECX: 0x02000000, EDX: 0x0c22ea80
CR2: 0x19efc004, EBP: 0x8085bef8, ESI: 0x174f9f40, EDI: 0x0ce14d20
EFL: 0x00010202, EIP: 0x0046f064, CS: 0x00000008, DS: 0x0d5a0010
Error code: 0x00000000
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x8085bce8 : 0x21b455 (0x5cf328 0x8085bd1c 0x2238b1 0x0)
0x8085bd38 : 0x2a8ab2 (0x591664 0x46f064 0xe 0x59182e)
0x8085be18 : 0x29e9a8 (0x8085be30 0x2e 0x8085bef8 0x46f064)
0x8085be28 : 0x46f064 (0xe 0x48 0x80850010 0x350010)
0x8085bef8 : 0x46b46c (0xce14d20 0x39 0x0 0x0)
0x8085bf38 : 0x46b57e (0x0 0x39 0x8085bf5c 0x1)
0x8085bf78 : 0x4edaf8 (0xce14d20 0xcf2a648 0xceeb044 0x0)
0x8085bfc8 : 0x29f43d (0xcf2a644 0x0 0x10 0xc63f5a4)
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: mDNSResponder
Mac OS version:
10F569
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 10.4.0: Fri Apr 23 18:28:53 PDT 2010; root:xnu-1504.7.4~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: Macmini3,1 (Mac-F22C86C8)
System uptime in nanoseconds: 29430208060717
unloaded kexts:
com.apple.driver.AppleFileSystemDriver 2.0 (addr 0x7a67b000, size 0x12288) - last unloaded 113401677315
loaded kexts:
com.paragon-software.filesystems.ntfs 82 - last loaded 38804534103
com.eset.kext.esets_kac 1.0.0d1
com.parallels.kext.prl_vnic 6.0 11826.611899
com.parallels.kext.prl_netbridge 6.0 11826.611899
com.parallels.kext.prlusbconnect 6.0 11826.611899
com.parallels.kext.prlhidhook 6.0 11826.611899
com.parallels.kext.prl_hypervisor 6.0 11826.611899
com.apple.driver.AppleHWSensor 1.9.3d0
com.apple.filesystems.autofs 2.1.0
com.apple.driver.ApplePlatformEnabler 2.0.0d2
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com.apple.driver.AppleIntelPenrynProfile 17
com.apple.DontSteal_Mac_OSX 7.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHDA 1.8.7f1
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Model: Macmini3,1, BootROM MM31.00AD.B00, 2 processors, Intel Core 2 Duo, 2.26 GHz, 8 GB, SMC 1.35f1
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce 9400, NVIDIA GeForce 9400, PCI, 256 MB
Memory Module: global_name
AirPort: spairportwireless_card_type_airportextreme (0x14E4, 0x90), Broadcom BCM43xx 1.0 (5.10.91.27)
Bluetooth: Version 2.3.3f8, 2 service, 19 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Ethernet, Ethernet, en0
Serial ATA Device: INTEL SSDSA2MH160G1GN, 149.05 GB
Serial ATA Device: OPTIARC DVD RW AD-5670S
USB Device: Keyboard Hub, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x1006, 0x24100000
USB Device: Optical USB Mouse, 0x046d (Logitech Inc.), 0xc016, 0x24130000
USB Device: Apple Keyboard, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x0221, 0x24120000
USB Device: Hub, 0x0409 (NEC Corporation), 0x0059, 0x26200000
USB Device: Hub, 0x0409 (NEC Corporation), 0x0059, 0x26240000
USB Device: USB2.0 Hub, 0x05e3 (Genesys Logic, Inc.), 0x0608, 0x26241000
USB Device: FV Audio, 0x0408 (Quanta Computer Inc.), 0x0103, 0x26241400
USB Device: FV TouchCam N1, 0x0408 (Quanta Computer Inc.), 0x1030, 0x26241200
USB Device: ESU2DSATA10DC12 FW:1.1593, 0x3873, 0x5744, 0x26210000
USB Device: USB HUB, 0x056d, 0x26230000
USB Device: EIZO USB HID Monitor, 0x056d, 0x0002, 0x26233000
USB Device: IR Receiver, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x8242, 0x04500000
USB Device: BRCM2046 Hub, 0x0a5c (Broadcom Corp.), 0x4500, 0x06100000
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller, 0x05ac (Apple Inc.), 0x8216, 0x06110000
Message was edited by: dtakias

The Mini came with 1GB Samsung which I've upgraded to 2 x 2GB Samsung. Then after a few months I bought the 2 x 4GB OCZ which initially was ok, but after a few months the system would crash out of nowhere. So I wiped off the OS and reinstalled 10.6 After a few days my first crash appeared, which is where the logs on my first post come from.
I will keep my 4GB Samsung RAM for a few weeks and if no errors appear then it was most probably because of the RAM. I believe there is some incompatibility between the Mini and some memory chips as the memory itself come out clean from Memtest86 and has lifetime warranty as well.

Mac Mini Server Benchmarks? Performance? vs. HP MediaSmart Server

Has anyone compiled the performance or speed of the Mac Mini Snow Leopard Server?? The one thing that worries me is the 5400 RPM hard drives in the server.
I'd like to know what the throughput is for this device and using it as central storage.
I'm coming from an HP MediaSmart Server and I am happy with it's speed but it's feature set doesn't match what I'd like from Snow Leopard Server.

The one thing that worries me is the 5400 RPM hard drives in the server.
Whether or not that might be a problem would depend on exactly what you intend to use it for and what kind of load you expect in terms of users.
I ordered a Mac mini server to evaluate as a potential replacement for our expensive leased servers. It appears to be a server in a box that's ready to configure and run. For individuals and small businesses who need a cost-effective general purpose server, it looks like a pretty good deal, at least based on the specs. Once I actually have my hands on one I'll know for certain.

How Do I Increase The Speed Of Sending Emails Using The Mail Service on my Mac Mini Server?

Note: This is the first time I have set up a mail server.
I have a Ruby on Rails application where I am currently sending approx. 240 individual emails with the potential of more being sent each week as more people add themselves to our mailing list. I am sending them invidually in order to personalize the emails and to hopefully prevent my emails being falsely identified as spam.
The GoDaddy email address I was using in my Rails application has a daily limit of sending 250 emails each day. With our mailing list fastly approaching 250 I decided to set up an email address on my Mac Mini Server using Mountain Lion (OS X Server). The email address was set up to be stored locally at the advice of Apple Enterprise Support. This email address will not be used in an email program. It will only be used in all my Rails applications.
My emails send properly but take almost 10 seconds an email. When I use the same software with GoDaddy's email address the emails take about eight minutes to send. With the email address I created it takes about 41 minutes. The difference seems to have to do with the sacl_check being done. Here is an example of what I see for each email in mail.log.
Mar 14 11:06:50 hostname.domain1.com postfix/qmgr[45322]: 4B2C5603D25: removed
Mar 14 11:06:59 hostname.domain1.com postfix/smtpd[99464]: sacl_check: mbr_user_name_to_uuid([email protected]) failed: No such file or directory
There is 9-10 seconds that elapses when the sacl_check. If I subtract this difference the remaining time is almost the time that the GoDaddy email takes to send the same number of emails.
The link below is a post about the sacl_check. I was looking at the comments by powercore from Germany at the comments where settings in /etc/postfix/main.cf are discussed.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3241121?start=0&tstart=0
Will making these setting changes speed up the sending of the emails from my Mail Server or is there something else I can check?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Quick_Sync_Video
OS X [edit]
Apple added Quick Sync support in OS X Mountain Lion for AirPlay Mirroring and QuickTime X.[9]

Need Advice: Does Ram Upgrade Increase Performance?

I'm thinking of upgrading my ram from 512 to at least a gig. For those of you that have upgraded ram - what performance enhancements should I expect?
Will it run faster with more programs open? While iPhoto actually open quickly? Will rendering movies to quicktimes go quicker?
Just curious if this will actually improve some of the speed issues I have on my system.

yes...i have 2 gigs in my pbook and it is amazingly fast...it really depends on what you are doing...a good way to tell...
open up activity monitor while you have all of the programs that you normally run open
see how much free memory...you want to leave yourself with about 100 mb free
hope that helps
alex

RAID on Mac mini Server (2011 i7)

I just purchased a new Mac mini Server today (the base configuration 2011 Quad Core i7 with 4GB RAM and 2x 500GB 7200RPM magnetic hard disks) and wanted to share what I've learned about setting up RAID on the system.
First, as you may have heard, the Mac mini Server does not include any installation/reinstallation media (I was hoping for a USB reinstall key, but it seems that the new systems don't include these or optical discs; last year's Mac mini Server included handy reinstall DVDs even though the system didn't have an optical drive). Out of the box, the new Mac mini Server has Mac OS X Lion, the iLife suite, and the Mac OS X Lion Server tools pre-installed on one of the two 500GB internal drives; the other disk is formatted as a separate, second drive.
If this is the configuration you're looking for, you're good to go right out of the box. As an aside, this shipping configuration is ideal for using the second disk as a Time Machine drive. I would argue that Time Machine would be a better use of the second volume than a RAID 1 configuration, as Time Machine provides versioned backups and you don't incur the write performance penalty RAID 1 requires every time data is saved to the disk. I would further caution that, while an internal Time Machine disk is a convenient safety measure, any critical data should be backed up outside of the system as well.
Now for those like me who were intrigued by the opportunity to mate the Quad Core i7 with a RAID 0/striped configuration for a performance boost (or if you want to use RAID 1), a RAID configuration is possible, but it there are a few caveats.
First, Apple has two recovery options for the new Macs: a small hidden recovery partition on the boot drive and their Internet Recovery system. While it's possible to boot other systems from a Lion installation DVD extracted from the App Store Lion installer, such bootable optical discs will not boot the Mac mini Server at this time (this may change if Apple modifies the App Store Lion installer). Therefore, as of right now, the recovery partition or the Internet Recovery system are the best options for installing/reinstalling on a RAID set.
Second, if you boot the system using Command+R to access the recovery partition, you can wipe the two drives and create a RAID set, but this process will remove the recovery partition and is incompatible with FileVault encryption (a warning to this effect comes up when you try to start an install/reinstalll on a RAID set, but at that point, you've likely already erased the recovery partition in Disk Utility). If the system boots after the recovery partition is deleted, the only install/reinstall option is Apple's Internet Recovery.
Third, as might be expected depending upon your internet bandwidth, the Internet Recovery system can take a while to boot the recovery tools (10-15 minutes to boot on a standard cable modem connection) and to reinstall the OS (50+ minutes on a standard cable modem connection). Internet Recovery currently reinstalls only Mac OS X Lion and the Server tools on the mini Server; there's no option to install iLife during the OS install (Apple could always change this by updating their servers, and there is a Customize button on the installer, but it is greyed out and cannot be clicked at the present).
Fourth, once the OS is reinstalled, it's possible to reinstall the iLife applications by launching the App Store from within Mac OS and selecting Purchased. The store will indicate that the system is eligible to download the iLife apps and you can do so by agreeing to upload system-identifying information to Apple and signing in with your Apple ID.
I hope all this helps. Here's a more concise step-by-step of how to set up the system with RAID:
THINGS YOU NEED
A fast Internet connection for the mini
Patience
Hold Command+R on the keyboard at start up to boot from the system's recovery partition (if the recovery partition has been deleted, the system should start from Apple's Internet Recovery system; you may need to connect to WiFi if wired ethernet isn't available)
Once you get into the recovery utility, select Disk Utility and for each of the two hard drives:
highlight the drive
select the Partition tab
select 1 Partition from the Partition Layout pulldown menu
select Free Space from the Format pulldown menu
click Apply
After you've wiped both of the drives, highlight one of the disks and click the RAID tab, then create a RAID set (striped or mirrored, as you prefer)
Quit Disk Utility and from the main recovery utility menu select Reinstall Lion (from this point on, if you have any trouble, you can restart the mini from the Internet Recovery system and return to this point, but the recovery partition will be gone as long as you keep the RAID set)
After you install and configure Mac OS X Lion Server (which can take well over an hour to download and install), you should be able to reinstall the iLife applications by launching the App Store App and selecting Purchased, then logging in with your Apple ID and agreeing to send your system info to Apple to download the iLife Applications
If you're using the mini as a production server, I highly suggest setting up some local, external recovery tool, as you don't want to have system downtime protracted by having to wait for an Internet Recovery boot/reinstall. I would also beg Apple to consider this sort of scenario and to provide more supported methods for recovering and reinstalling from local media.
Best of luck to you all.

I found the basic principle on another forum thanks to a guy called 'e-whizz' and this what I did to make RAID 1 work on a mac mini server with LION server.
You can easily configure the second drive on a mac mini server for a Mirrored RAID 1 set with Lion Server without either reinstalling or erasing your existing setup.
The initial setup process takes about 30 minutes, though the rebuilding of the mirror disk will take several hours, depending on the amount of data you have on the drive. It took around 3 hours on a new mac mini server with lion server installed, nothing else configured.
Before you start, please ensure you have a current backup of the server. Getting the following commands wrong can render you server unusable.
What you need to use is the command line version of Disk Utility, diskutil.
Before you start, clone the hard drive. You can use SuperDuper (or similar, I have used SuperDuper) with copying all files onto a USB memory stick. If Lion is freshly installed, 8Gb will do. SuperDuper will create a bootable copy on the USB.
Boot the mac mini from the external USB. To do that, reboot and hold down the option key while restarting. You will see a window, select the USB drive to boot from.
Launch the terminal and type the following command:
diskutil list
This gives you a list of all the drives and partitions your system knows about.
You need to find the Server HD partition (the first disk) and the HD2 partitions (the second disk). These are the two main ~500GB drives. You will be using the disk IDENTIFIERs when issuing the diskutil commands. For a stock standard Mac Mini Server, the commands below are correct, but if you have previously changed the volume names, or repartitioned at any stage the disk identifiers and volume names may differ.
First enable RAID mirroring on existing Server HD volume. This will create a single disk, unpaired mirror, without affecting your data.
Using this syntax:
diskutil appleRAID enable mirror disktomirror
where disktomirror is your disk identifier for Server HD
On my mac mini server, Server HD was disk0s2, so I used this command:
diskutil appleRAID enable mirror disk0s2
You now need to run diskutil list again to see the disk identifier for the new RAID volume. The new RAID volume will be listed as disk# on its own at the bottom of the list.
On my mac mini server this was disk3 (disk 2 was the USB I booted from, disk 0 the first disk and disk 1 the second disk)
Next add the disk HD2 to the Server HD raid mirror volume (on my mac, as I said before, this is disk3) as a new member.
This step will erase disk HD2 and begin an auto repair of the Server HD.
Using this syntax:
diskutil appleRAID add member newdisk raidvolume
replacing newdisk and raidvolume with your particular disk identifiers
On my server this was:
diskutil appleRAID add member disk1s2 disk3
To follow the progress of rebuilding the mirror set, type
diskutil list
It will show you the progress in % of the rebuilding under status
Once finished, reboot and your RAID 1 is up and running and you have also a working backup on your USB (coz' that's where you booted from ;-)
After reboot you can check the status of your RAID with
diskutil appleRAID list
Both drives should show ONLINE under status, interestingly, the device node for the RAID changed on my mac mini server from disk3 to disk2
That's it

4g- 8gb Ram increased performance!! (mini server i7)

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