XServe 2
I am looking to purchase a mid / high end web server within the next 3/6 months. And have a few questions about XServe.
1.) What are "hot-plug Apple Drive Modules"? The tech spec says upto 4 x 120Gig 7200's. Are these just normal ATA drives, can they be replaced with western digital drives that have 8Mb of cache. (These got a nice writeup, and even out performed SCSI drives in this article: <a href="http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/1549.3/)" target="_blank">http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/1549.3/)</a>
2.) Are there plans for or does the xServe support HARDWARE RAID ? Again from the same article the "Promise FastTrak 100TX2 RAID controller" got a very good writeup.
3.) I am not really interested in how it copes as a file server, but - How does the unit cope with virtual domain hosting, users, email server, web server, DNS server. On this level I am trying to compair it with the RaQ 550 series from sun (formerly cobalt) - <a href="http://www.sun.com/hardware/serverappliances/raq550/index.html"; target="_blank">http://www.sun.com/hardware/serverappliances/raq550/index.html</a>;
Your comments, and linkage to where I can get more info will be much apriciated.
1.) What are "hot-plug Apple Drive Modules"? The tech spec says upto 4 x 120Gig 7200's. Are these just normal ATA drives, can they be replaced with western digital drives that have 8Mb of cache. (These got a nice writeup, and even out performed SCSI drives in this article: <a href="http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/1549.3/)" target="_blank">http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/1549.3/)</a>
2.) Are there plans for or does the xServe support HARDWARE RAID ? Again from the same article the "Promise FastTrak 100TX2 RAID controller" got a very good writeup.
3.) I am not really interested in how it copes as a file server, but - How does the unit cope with virtual domain hosting, users, email server, web server, DNS server. On this level I am trying to compair it with the RaQ 550 series from sun (formerly cobalt) - <a href="http://www.sun.com/hardware/serverappliances/raq550/index.html"; target="_blank">http://www.sun.com/hardware/serverappliances/raq550/index.html</a>;
Your comments, and linkage to where I can get more info will be much apriciated.
Comments
<strong>I am looking to purchase a mid / high end web server within the next 3/6 months. And have a few questions about XServe.
1.) What are "hot-plug Apple Drive Modules"? The tech spec says upto 4 x 120Gig 7200's. Are these just normal ATA drives, can they be replaced with western digital drives that have 8Mb of cache. (These got a nice writeup, and even out performed SCSI drives in this article: <a href="http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/1549.3/)" target="_blank">http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/article/1549.3/)</a>
2.) Are there plans for or does the xServe support HARDWARE RAID ? Again from the same article the "Promise FastTrak 100TX2 RAID controller" got a very good writeup.
3.) I am not really interested in how it copes as a file server, but - How does the unit cope with virtual domain hosting, users, email server, web server, DNS server. On this level I am trying to compair it with the RaQ 550 series from sun (formerly cobalt) - <a href="http://www.sun.com/hardware/serverappliances/raq550/index.html"; target="_blank">http://www.sun.com/hardware/serverappliances/raq550/index.html</a>;
Your comments, and linkage to where I can get more info will be much apriciated.</strong><hr></blockquote>
1.) Apple Drive Modules come with the drives... while you can probably replace the drives in them... that would be expensive and also, Apple rates and qualifies the drives in their drive modules for use in the XServe... whie a problem may not likely happen.... it could.... and reliable is more important than a little bit of a speed boost right?
2.) hardware RAID is not supported... it can't be added via a card either cause the drives bays are not set up for it.... you can hook up an external hardware raid or wait for the XServe RAID
Apple uses a software RAID in the XServe, as applenut points out. Throughput is still quite good, but if you want more than external solutions can be attached via fiber channel (the forthcoming XServe RAID) or SCSI.
The XServe and OS X Server should handle the tasks you want it to easily. All the tools are on board by default, and <a href="http://www.tenon.com/"; target="_blank">Post.Office is available</a> if you don't want to use sendmail.
[ 10-31-2002: Message edited by: Amorph ]
[ 10-31-2002: Message edited by: Amorph ]</p>
<a href="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/xserve/"; target="_blank">Here</a> is the event where Jobs introduced the Xserve. He takes questions at the end, and addresses some of the same questions you had. He also goes on to preview the Xserve RAID which should be out by the end of the year.
Hope this helps.
[QB]I am looking to purchase a mid / high end web server within the next 3/6 months. And have a few questions about XServe.
[QB]<hr></blockquote>
Um, gerneraly high end-servers are in the $100,000 and up range.
But if you want you want a lot of Hard drives and hardware raid and don't need it to be rackmountable, get a PowerMacG4. You don't get the hardware monitoring, but it's a lot cheeper and a terminal window is enough for most things.
<strong>The Apple Drive Modules don't use vanilla ATA drives. They use drives whose interfaces allow hot-plugging. If you do manage to hack a standard ATA drive into one of the modules you could very well end up frying it.</strong><hr></blockquote>
The Xserve uses standard ATA HDDs. The drive module is fitted with a hot-pluggable SCA connector...what most servers of this nature use. If what you said was true, then all FireWire/USB HDDs would have to use non-standard ATA HDDs since they are also hot-pluggable.
<strong>
The Xserve uses standard ATA HDDs. The drive module is fitted with a hot-pluggable SCA connector...what most servers of this nature use. If what you said was true, then all FireWire/USB HDDs would have to use non-standard ATA HDDs since they are also hot-pluggable.
I seem to remember something different about the ATA drives used by Apple. I think they predict when a drive failure is about to occur and alert you via the software. I seem to remember that in the presentation but it's been awhile. I am probibly wrong so can anyone back me up?
A@ron