How do we configure Mac Pro's to use external storage drives for all Applications?

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Level 1

8 points

How do we configure Mac Pro's to use external storage drives for all Applications?

If the premise of the Mac Pro 2013 is modular drive storage (be it SSD/Thunderbolt or traditional HDD), what application is supposed to aid in the migration of data from earlier computers where all apps were able to rely on on-board storage to present where there's no way I can store anything on my Mac Pro?

At the end of the configuration process do you actually have to spend and additional $2000 on OWC SSD's to get snappy performance and accommodate all your applications?

Do we have to manually configure every application to run from an external drive?

How do we auto-mac-magically setup Apple Mail, Photos, etc to run from External Drives while installing Library items onto the main drive?

If back up applications like BackBlaze require local disk space what happens when we can't prevent it from installing a 30+GB file into the Application Folder?

Again, I'm receiving good help with AppleCare but I want to know how others are getting the platform to work without NOT turning this machine into a PC experience rather than "it just working".

Mac Pro (Late 2013), OS X Yosemite (10.10.3), 16GB/256GB 6-core Config?

Posted on May 26, 2015 11:46 AM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

May 26, 2015 12:28 PM in response to pnolan01

DIY ebay OEM Apple/Samsung blade PCIe-SSD 1TB are faster and better for now.

See the ebay links and discussion in the MacRumors thread linked to below.

* External storage, even PCIe blades or SATA III via Thunderbolt2 expansion boxes.

* The ideal is to buy BTO with the 1TB if your apps need it. Also the 256GB I think is slower model.

Media and data of course would go on USB3/TB external drives.

* The old Classic Mac Pro can be outfitted with the same and new/better SSD devices.

SATA Express meets the '09 MacPro - Bootable NGFF PCIE SSD

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1685821

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Answer 2

May 26, 2015 1:55 PM in response to pnolan01

One way is to move the entire Home Folder to an "external" drive (which, for the Mac Pro 6,1 dark cylinder, is any drive other than the Boot SSD).

User Tip: Creating a lean, fast Boot Drive

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Answer 3

pnolan01 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 27, 2015 11:58 AM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

I moved my USER folder to the external Thunderbolt drive but I've run into permissions issues and even with fresh installations of some Apps, some just don't want to run. Basically, the Library reference point moved for them.

Does this not seem like an application that should be a part of Migration Assistant for the Mac Pro?

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Answer 4

May 27, 2015 5:09 PM in response to pnolan01

If you followed those recipes faithfully, the "Home Directory" for each user must be individually copied to a new location, and its major location reference in Users & Groups is then re-assigned. This must be done on a user-by-user basis.

Applications do not move. The System Library, /Library does not move.

Only the library at ~/Library (where ~ is the active shorthand for 'current user', for each relocated User moves, and that should cause no problems whatsoever.

There should be no need to re-Install Applications that were 'installed for all users', as most of your Applications should be.

This procedure is a little complicated, but if you follow one or the other of those recipes carefully, they have been completely trouble-free.

Almost everything in Mac OS X is already set up for relocated 'Home folders', because it supports both Open Directory and Active Directory, where the 'Home Folder' can be on a server computer on your local network.

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Answer 5

kaz-k

Level 8

49,068 points

May 27, 2015 6:42 PM in response to pnolan01

http://computers.tutsplus.com/tutorials/relocate-the-home-folder-to-another-driv e-or-volume--mac-48822

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Answer 6

May 27, 2015 7:10 PM in response to kaz-k

RE: Finder Copying

The trouble with Finder copying things (especially whole systems from drive-to-drive) is that Finder ignores invisibles that occur at the top level. The mach-kernel file, essential for Mac OSX Booting, as well as /tmp, /usr, and /var directories (required for its operation) fall into this category. That's why we have to clone, or use Terminal, not Finder copy.

But if the only invisible files/folders are inside another folder, Finder will copy ALL without issue.

The top level of a User's 'Home Folder' is the Visible folder with their user_short-name, so there is nothing invisible there.

If you go to open the User's 'Home Folder' and copy it piecemeal, there will be a problem at the hidden ~/Library folder.

The punchline:

So Finder CAN be used for copying complete 'Home Folders', for those who hate to use Terminal.

The recipes I referenced in that User Tip are unique in that they do not REQUIRE Terminal.

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Answer 7

pnolan01 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 27, 2015 8:31 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

So given that I DID use the Finder and I already deleted the original User folder what are my options? Fact is, I really didn't have much on the Mac Pro because I just installed a clean Yosemite and kept all Photos, Music and Mail off it.

Instead, after I cloned my Mac Book Pro to the external drive, I used the Applications from it without much problem. It was only after I relocated my User account to that Folder on the drive that I started having most issues. According to Apple, putting the User on the External Drive without partitioning the drive isn't feasible but that doesn't make sense when you engineer the Mac Pro modularly for the specific purpose of NOT being limited by internal scale. Something's not making sense.

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Answer 8

May 27, 2015 8:44 PM in response to pnolan01

Applications work much better when they stay on the Boot Drive, because in most cases, Mac OS X uses the Application file itself as its own Page File. This means that when space gets tight, it only has to mark Application code pages "out", not literally write them out to disk. Then when needed, they can just be paged in.

Much of Mac OS X working reliably depends on this assumption -- that most Applications will be in the /Applications folder on the Boot drive. I would expect that if you are running Applications from the non-Boot drive(s), they will behave badly.

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Answer 9

pnolan01 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 27, 2015 8:57 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

That said, on my 256GB SSD, how do I put 220GB of Applications on board? Run a backup requiring a 30GB cache and keep the OS lean? My sense is that these machines were completely under provisioned for their processing strength.

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Answer 10

May 27, 2015 9:19 PM in response to pnolan01

Thats a lot of Aplications space. What are the major contributors to that?

What Backup is it that requires 30GB on the boot drive as a cache? Wouldn't caching stuff to the boot drive slow it way down?

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Answer 11

pnolan01 Author

Level 1

8 points

May 27, 2015 9:38 PM in response to Grant Bennet-Alder

As a designer, I use Adobe Creative Suite as well as numerous other utilities. The BackBlaze backup software, despite being redirected externally will grow a file that matches the size of the largest file you want to back up. If you delete it, you potentially corrupt the backup. My Mail folder was very large and I was using a VMware on a project that cause heavy swap disk use before I got 32GB of RAM installed.

My question is really what can I do now? If I do a clean install again of Yosemite, I still wouldn't be able to migrate much over to the SSD then I would still incur the pick and poke method of installing my Applications since they will fill up my drive even if I cull some away. I don't have another $1200 to spend to buy a 1TB SSD to Migrate Cleanly. IMO.

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Answer 12

May 28, 2015 1:10 PM in response to pnolan01

I think you can move VMWare's virtual drive for Windows to another drive. That would free up a lot (provided you do not need to boot Directly into Windows, no VMWare).

If BackBlaze is such a Pig about Boot Drive space, I think you should find an alternative.

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Answer 13

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

May 28, 2015 2:48 PM in response to pnolan01

I always now leave my home account ~/Library to stay with the boot drive.

Fast and easy. Then direct all media and user folders to alternate drives.

It isn''t $1200 for 1TB SSD. Varies depending but this one is $865.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-Samsung-PCIe-1TB-SSD-UBX-Apple-MacBook-Pro-Retina-Ma c-Pro-2015-655-1860F-/171783879274?pt=LH…

The 256GB unit Apple sells is really for the lite casual user only.

There is a USB3 case that can take Apple's SSD that OWC sells for $79 (may be just slightly less). Handy for cloning and other uses.

Windows can be booted from Thunderbolt AFTER it is installed internally and cloned to the TB drive, and remove the Windows partition - some people like the choice of dual boot along with in VMware.

Whether an app offers custom install other than to boot drive, and Windows offers that as well as setting user variable for default locations for folders and users so it rarely is a problem.

Apple never lowers price once a model is configured, whether RAM or storage or other items.

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