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Apple hardware in data center like mac mini etc...
dragonballz2k
Member
I am using the macincloud service, but I was wondering does stuff like kvm switch work with apple hardware, and other remote management tools? Since it seems apple hardware as a server or in a data center is sort of a niche compared to other stuff. What I mainly wondering is do they treat apple hardware different than other servers in the data center like how they manage it etc..
Comments
@pbgben where is that?
WOW ....where is that?
If that's really their IP address, then the answer is Belgium :-)
What? I thought @pbgben was a
sheep fuckerkiwi.Yeh, totally mine... Thats how I do VDI for macabusers
I did have the idea to use small desktops like the dell ssf(Tiny and cheaper then nuc) and have a rack full of them for VDI as the M$ licencing is cheaper. like 600USD one time for a 8GB i5 SSD dedicated box inc win 10 pro
I wish apple would let people run their os on non apple hardware. It would be amazing for them to support kvm officially. I think it would be very popular in vdi market. I wouldn't mind paying the license fee either,but sadly I don't apple is really not focusing on the server market
It's actually common (hackintosh) but unsupported.
Is that really your IP address? I wasn't really being serious earlier...
http://gizmodo.com/5967189/this-custom-datacenter-rack-has-160-mac-minis-crammed-inside-of-it
https://simbimbo.wordpress.com/2012/12/07/in-production/
like what exactly? A spider KVM and similar works on a Mac mini just like on anything else; you just need to adapt mini DP to either DVI, HDMI or VGA depending on KVM model.
They have no PS2 port and OSX generally has no PS2 support so the KVM needs to support USB. It also needs to support output in at least 1024x768 at any time (BIOS on old desktop mainboards is sometimes 800x600 or 640x480 while the Mac EFI is always high resolution).
Macs have no accessible BIOS/EFI but will, with correct config, do PXE which allows remote install of pretty much any OS so this is also covered. Commercial solutions as noc-ps do not support them however.
Remote reboot needs external outlets as there is no reset pins to tap into for eg. the popular in German market "webresetter".
HW wise mini is rather expensive, but it does offer some interesting options for expansion, notably the 2 TB2 ports on more recent ones.
If you want one, buy used though, Apple did not update in forever but charges the same price for a new one still.
They are not 1U but 6-8 fit nicely on a 1U shelf, height wise they are less/nearly exactly 1U as well. Integrated PSU so no cabling issues with the bricks. Cat6 port for ethernet.
Commercially selling hackintosh as servers sounds like extremely thin legal ice in the US, outside not as much but still questionable....
Never. Apple makes most money on hardware and the OS is basically free on top, this would literally kill their business.
OSX/Apple support VMWare on an OSX host officially. VMWare Workstation on OSX comes with a special EFI that is Apple emulating and displays also an Apple logo on boot.
Interesting if you're a Thunderbolt patent holder, but not of much interest to the general public...heck, I've got a half-dozen thunderbolt ports among my various devices and have never plugged anything into them.
Not only - interesting also if you can grab a cheap PCIe expansion chassis of ebay:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AKiTiO-Thunderbolt-2-PCIe-Expansion-Box-T2PC-TIA-AKT1U-/311727818250
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sonnet-Echo-Express-SEL-Thunderbolt-2-Expansion-System-for-Low-Pro-PCIe-Cards-/142431495481
http://www.ebay.com/itm/AKiTiO-Thunder2-PCIe-Expansion-Chassis-USED-T2PC-TIA-AKT1U/322557237736
Keep in mind - the new Apple TB3 adapter is two-way, which means you CAN connect TB3 devices like eGPU things to any TB2 port.
In the Mac mini price area something with not only one but two TB ports is very rare, the expensive NUCs only come with one either IIRC.
As a Mac fanboy I find this thread stimulating
Just a coincidence it looks like an ip, those are the mac numbers. 81, 82, 83, 84
do those mac mini's last a good while, or do they a fail often?
I am using 7 Mac mini in different DCs and they all work very well. Since about 8 years I never had any hardware failure. But yes sure they can also broke down.
Can recommend also macstadium.com if you want to colo or rent a dedicated Mac mini.
My experience (since the Apple ][e days!) is that Apple hardware is pretty durable.
However, the Mac Mini is a sealed unit - they literally solder the RAM in place so you can't possibly change it.
]PR#6
I am using macincloud right now, because their prices are pretty decent. I was going to use hostmyapple since I don't need a dedicated server, and just a vm, but I haven't seen as much reviews on them compared macincloud, and macstadium.
I wish there was more mac osx virtual machine providers, but sadly their is only a couple.
Not that I care about Apple's "IP", but how does hostmyapple get away with that? Officially, there's zero support for running macOS in a VM and it's a violation of the software license to do so. Apple can't stop homemade hackintoshes (well, they could but they don't), but I think they'd be interested in someone running a business based on taking macOS and putting it on a VM.
I'm actually more interested in how they do it :-) I guess someone did the work to get Sierra running reliably on KVM.
Its complex, like windows licencing... Ughhh... But you are permitted to run OSX VM on apple hardware, so if they use mac pro's to host them then all is ok... Buuut, IMO, apple can get fucked. 250Billion in the bank is pure evil.
Had HDD failures, they got warm. Fans get loose and not good for office use. Better cooling as this was outside of a cold isle (30c static)
OSX does not officially support HDDs anymore anyway, and this is not an issue with SSDs.
Again, this is not true. VMWare licenses the right to VT OSX and offers this on all products on an OSX host system.
There is also MacStadium. Haven't used it, but I've been looking into it for a while.
Right, that makes sense...I was imprecise. I was thinking of someone setting up KVMs with hackintosh and trying to sell them.
Which, of course, I might buy but that's a different story...
you can get mac osx on kvm https://github.com/kholia/OSX-KVM but I wouldn't trust the stability part of it.
Much like everything else Jobs has been involved with..