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Tag: Mac OS X Server

  • TidBITS Macs & Mac OS X: Apple Reveals More about Mac OS X Lion

    Image representing Apple as depicted in CrunchBase
    Image via CrunchBase

    Finally, despite Apple’s dropping of the Xserve line (see “A Eulogy for the Xserve: May It Rack in Peace,” 8 November 2010), Mac OS X Server will make the transition to Lion, with Apple promising that the new version will make setting up a server easier than ever. That’s in part because Lion Server will be built directly into Lion, with software that guides you through configuring the Mac as a server. Also, a new Profile Manager will add support for setting up and managing Mac OS X Lion, iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch devices. Wiki Server 3 will offer improved navigation and a new Page Editor. And Lion Server’s WebDAV support will provide iPad users the ability to access, copy, and share server-based documents.

    via TidBITS Macs & Mac OS X: Apple Reveals More about Mac OS X Lion.

    Here’s to seeing a great democratization of OS X Server once and for all time. While Apple did deserve to make some extra cash on a server version of the OS, I’m sure it had very little impact on their sales overall (positive or negative). However, including/bundling it with the base level OS and letting it be unlocked (for money or for free) can only be a good thing. Where I work I already run a single CPU 4core Intel Xserve. I think I should buy some cheap RAM and max out the memory and upgrade this Summer to OS X Lion Server.

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  • TidBITS Opinion: A Eulogy for the Xserve: May It Rack in Peace

     

    Image representing Apple as depicted in CrunchBase
    Image via CrunchBase

     

    Apple’s Xserve was born in the spring of 2002 and is scheduled to die in the winter of 2011, and I now step up before its mourners to speak the eulogy for Apple’s maligned and misunderstood server product.

    via TidBITS Opinion: A Eulogy for the Xserve: May It Rack in Peace.

    Chuck Goolsbee’s Eulogy is spot on, and every point is true according even to my limited experience. I’ve purchased 2 different Xserves since they were introduced. On is 2nd generation G4 model, the other is a 2006 Intel model (thankfully I skipped the G5 altogether). Other than a weird bug in the Intel based Xserve (weird blue video screen), there have been no bumps or quirks to report. I agree that form factor of the housing is way too long. Even in the rack I used (a discard SUN Microsystems unit),  the thing was really inelegant. Speaking of the drive bays too is a sore point for me. I have wanted dearly to re-arrange reconfigure and upgrade the drive bays on both the old and newer Xserve but the expense of acquiring new units was prohibitive at best, and they went out of manufacture very quickly after being introduced. If you neglected to buy your Xserve fully configured with the maximum storage available when it shipped you were more or less left to fend for yourself. You could troll Ebay and Bulletin Boards to score a bona fide Apple Drivebay but the supply was so limited it drove up prices and became a black market. The XRaid didn’t help things either, as drivebays were not consistently swappable from the Xserve to the XRaid box. Given the limited time most sysadmins have with doing research on purchases like this to upgrade an existing machine, it was a total disaster, big fail and unsurprising.

    I will continue to run my Xserve units until the drives or power supplies fail. It could happen any day, any time and hopefully I will have sufficient warning to get a new Mac mini server to replace it. Until then, I too, along with Chuck Goolsbee among the rest of the Xserve sysadmins will kind of wonder what could have been.