“The Mac Pro Server comes with one 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon ‘Nehalem’ processor, 8GB of RAM, and two 1TB hard drives. It also has Mac OS X Server unlimited with a client license, and an ATI HD 5770 graphics card with 1GB of GDDR5 memory,” AppleInsider reports. “The new configuration starts at $2,999 and ships in 2 to 4 weeks.”
AppleInsider reports, “The new Mac Pro Server can also be upgraded, with custom build-to-order options offering up to two 2.93GHz six-core Intel Xeon “Westmere” processors, for a total of 12 processing cores at an added cost of $3,475.”
More info in the full article here.
Great but expensive solution
http://www.acaiberrypurescam.com/
This is not a server. Where is the hardware RAID, redundancy and hot swappable components? I won’t bet my job on a half-ass MacPro configuration.
This makes buys Macs even more complicated since I cannot buy a single solution from the top down.
FAIL
This is very disappointing news. The much criticized Dell manages to design and ship several different variants of server, with or without OS. Apple, with more resources and the worlds best designer doesn’t want to support the rackmount environment anymore. Without rackmount servers, its hard to see Apple taken seriously in the future as a business computer supplier and manufacturer.
Two years ago I would have said “no way” to the idea that apple may licence OSX to IBM or Oracle (Sun) but it actually makes sense to let these guys handle the true enterprise solutions with Mac software and their own hardware. Quite frankly they do a really great job without OSX already.
There is also something else to consider as a possibility as well. A near-future Mac Pro redesign. Picture a Mac Pro with no need to open the case. Hot swappable drives (w/ hardware RAID) and power supplies combined with a drive tray like enclosure for PCIx expansion cards. Pro users would benefit from the increased reliability and server users would benefit from the increased economies of scale (price).
The specs don’t matter much. What you want in a real server would be the equipment itself and the support. As for the equipment, Real servers have dual, hot-swappable *everything.* Further, the server knows when something is about to go wrong, and lets you or the vendor know before it fails. Real servers tend to come from IBM, HP, or Sun. (Not Dell. Dell is utter shit and whoever buys that crap deserves what he gets).
Next, you want *support* from the company that built it. All equipment *will* eventually break. What makes enterprise class is, what happens when the hardware does break. With IBM, somebody from IBM will show up before you even know something is about to go wrong. With Apple? You’re on your own. When you are looking at dead iron or blinking red lights, it is a real comfort to have pro support on your side — even if you do have staff. Apple has never been able to provide enterprise-class support.
I don’t think Apple has any interest in ever providing it in the future. The Big Three do a great job with real iron, so why should Apple try to get into that business?
Apple servers have always been for home and small business. Basically places that need one or two machines. The 1U form factor was nice, but it never had a chance in the big leagues.
As for Apple’s plans in enterprise, I have no idea – maybe they are looking at providing cloud services – the way of the future rather than bothering with your own racks full of stuff.
Some third party should make a U1 “tray” (the size of Xserve) that is designed to hold a bunch of Mac mini servers. The Xserve is 1.73 x 17.6 x 30 inches. That would hold up to a two-by-three array of Mac mini servers, with room to spare for a few 3.5-inch mass storage hard drives; the new Mac mini no longer has no separate power brick, so it works eve better. So six Mac minis, each running off of one 64GB SSD, working in a cluster sharing common RAID storage (up to four 3.5-inch hard drives), all in an enclosure the size of Xserve.
This seems to be just another instance of Apple further segmenting itself into “iPad” “iPhone” “Other shit we sell”. While I don’t believe they have any plans on dropping Macintosh, I sometimes really miss the days when they only sold computers.
I have had the honor of jousting with the windmill that is the IT server rack. Twice.
In order to get an Xserve into that rack with the Dulls and the HPees
I basically had to perform all of the usual blowjobs and bribes my self!
The Dell guy was not there to get down on his knees and the HP guy was not there for the reacharound.
M$ basically opted to put a hit out on me…
I got my Xserve (a year later) and the IT guys never forgave me.
It’s a real shame. I know Jonny Ivie could design a cool and efficient rackmount case that used all the CNC resources that apple has that used less materials, probably using hot swap 2.5″ sata devices, a souped up mbp motherboard, enough room to leverage engineering that has already been done to create a great successor to the xserve (and all those dell 1 and 2U servers out there). Snow Leopard 10.6 can handle it, it’s too bad that Apple didn’t have enough faith for it.
Here you go.
http://www.macessitywebstore.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=MX4-V2
Unless Apple has bought some server company and are already using their products in their massive server farm.
@ ken1w
“Some third party should make a U1 “tray” (the size of Xserve) that is designed to hold a bunch of Mac mini servers.”
You’re forgetting about power and ventilation. You’d have to run power to the forward-most minis in your 2×3 array, leaving no room for additional hard drives. You’d need to add a fan or two to channel air through such an enclosure. And nothing’s hot-swappable; servicing any of the minis means having to pull out the enclosure.
In short, except for not having Mac OS X Server, if you can afford (or “need” the power of) 6 Mac Minis in a custom enclosure, you’re better off with a dedicated 1U server from HP, IBM or whatever, which would also have server-grade components including CPU, redundant power supplies, and hot-swappable hard drives.
(happy sigh) Isn’t it great to finally have a long, intelligent thread about a real Mac topic without the astroturfers? Now that the election is over, they’ve all been laid-off!
Dialtone:
Here comes the Enterprise.
Good ridins to the trash and the tetrads on their way back to the sewer.
There are 3rd party tray racks for the mini servers. You can hold 4 mini servers in one of these 3rd party racks and the help manage the mini server power brick.
That’s not the point. Companies have server rooms, with server racks. We’re not putting a Mac Pro in there, taking 12U of space. The Mini Server has some major drawbacks.
I don’t know the master plan, but I think Apple needs a 1U or 2U server. The mini doesn’t cut it and the Mac Pro takes up too much valuable rack space.
I’d be surprised if a 3rd party company is permitted to make a Mac Server. The only possibility I could see is if only one company is allowed to do it and they have to adhere to Apple’s specs, in order to maintain the close tie of the Mac OS to the hardware.
There is a reason a Mac “just works”. Apple doesn’t just buy the latest NIC or graphics card that is on sale at the time and then expect the customer to deal with the drivers. Anyone ever try to download a video driver for your Dell? You can even put in your serial number and they provide numerous different drivers, because they don’t even know which one went into your Dell.
That’s not what I’ve come to expect from Apple.
Find a way to put the Mac Pro into a 2U server (Xserve is 1U), or even 4U and I’ll be happy. Small shops don’t often have racks. We have over 50 servers and we are not a large company. I can’t take up 12U with one or two Mac Servers.
We need the Mac Pro, with dual internal power supplies, 2-8 NICs and all in a rack mountable 4U or smaller form factor. A regular Mac Pro or the Mini Server is a step backwards for Apple.
FYI: You’ve always been able to run Mac OS X Server on the Mac Pro
Here’s another possible option. Change the OS X Server license so that VMWare servers can have OS X Server as a host. That would solve the issue. My understanding is that it can’t be done at the moment due to the licensing. Remember Psystar? Apple could license to VMWare and collaborate with them to make certain that the hardware emulation works perfectly.
@ Olmecmystic
NO!
That is EXACTLY NOT Apple’s strategy. Apple IS NOT a Microsoft. That’s why they have become successful.