Connectivity question for the mob...

[David Schwartz]

I’ve got a 2014 Mac Mini with 16GB RAM and 2TB of SSD.

I’m thinking of getting a newer one with more RAM, which can be upgraded by uers. But the SSD is soldered to the board, so it’s not expandable. (My 2014 unit has space for a couple of 2.5” drives I guess, and it can be upgraded in the field as well, although I bought this from an outfit that did the upgrade.)

I have some VMs that take up 80-120 GB of disk space, and they eat up nearly 700 GB of SSD.

At work, we have a bunch of VMs on servers somewhere that we can access via VNC connections. Of course, we have to be logged in to our company domain using VPN. So there’s a lot of overhead in communicating with those VMs.

As an aside, I think one of the coolest things about MacOS is it’s multiple desktops — I think they call them “Spaces” these days. I have 10 of them set up that I can access via <Ctrl-1> .. <Ctrl-0>. I use different desktops for different things, and usually keep apps and browser windows open for related stuff on the same desktop. 

Now suppose I were to get a new faster Mac Mini with more RAM and literally stack it on top of my existing one. I’m curious about a couple of things. 

First, what’s the best way to set things up so I could use one the way I currently am (eg, as my “desktop” machine), and then set up a VNC window (or ?) on one or more of the desktops so when I switch to them, it looks like I’m working on the other machine?

The other thing I’m wondering is how to go about using the “desktop” machine (assume it’s the newer one) to run VMs or apps that reside on the other (headless) machine with minimal delays in data access.

Like … would I stick a short ethernet cable between the two e-net ports? (Would it need to be wired as a null-modem / cross-over cable?) Or maybe a short Thunderbolt or USB3 cable between them? Would a hardwire connection be faster than using WiFi through my router? I do realize that if I got a 3rd machine, I’d probably need a switch. But with just two?

As I said, my VMs are 80-120 GB, and since I only have 16 GB of RAM, clearly it’s not necessary to have the entire VM loaded to run it. Copying them in their entirey can take a while, so is it even possible to run one on my “desktop” machine even if it’s residing on the other machine — without copying it?

(I’ve read where people used to use Apple’s OSX Server for things like this, but it has apparently been so dumbed-down that people say it’s useless today.)

-David Schwartz