actually, we have an old Sun server that's going to kick the bucket, i'd be interested in reading up on the xServes and how they run, but i'm not about to drop that kind of cash unless i have to.
<strong>I heard they were shipping last Friday. So has anyone got one yet?
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Don't have one, but got to poke at one for about an hour today.
It was the dual-G4 with all 4 drive bays filled. It's a nice layout overall - pretty traditional 1U.
The lock clamps down all drives so that they cannot be removed, prevents the CD from working, prevents the whole system from being pulled out, and sets the software switch so that the monitoring tools knows that it's been locked and all ports are locked.
The fans are as beefy as you'd expect for a server. Not as loud as some that I've heard, but you don't want this under your desk unless you've got a rack with some noise abatement, but then if you've ever had a high-end PC under your desk, this is probably comparable.
The system had the extra gigabit card and a Radeon card in it. Quite honestly, I couldn't feel any heat out of the back of the unit with everything going full blast. When we took it back apart again, nothing inside felt more than slightly warm to the touch. I don't think a full rack of these would have a big impact on the temperature of a normally ventilated room. It'd be loud, but not hot. Pretty amazing, actually.
The interior of the unit is surprisingly open. It's not nearly as tight as I was expecting. The PCI and AGP slots are pretty open, I think most standard cards would fit just fine.
There are some nice touches. If the front system identifier is set, there's a light on the back that lights as well - so if you go around to the back of the unit in a large rack, it's easy to pick out. The firewire port on the front allows you to boot the machine from an iPod.
You can do RAID 0 and RAID 1. In the future (I'm guessing this means Jaguar) there will be other RAID options. I don't know if RAID 5 will show (why bother, IMO) but RAID 0+1 would be nice and very appropriate.
All in all, a goddamn nice piece of iron for Apple. It's not going to dethrone Sun, or even Dell for that matter in the server arena, but it certainly fills a space that needed filling for Apple's customers. I can see good sell-though to media agencies, and a number of scientific and academic areas. Apple might do a nice business bundling this and PowerSchool for large k-12 institutions, but I doubt you'll see it making much headway into Apples traditional education market.
Clustering software in Jaguar would make a nice addition to this product. I'm also hoping that the presence of a solid server offering will encourage more scientific/server oriented products to be ported to Mac OS X.
I dont think anyone at Apple serious believes they will dethrone DELL or Sun with 2 configuraitons of a single 1U server.
However it will justify Macs when the argument is "we'd get Macs if they made a server to support them" situations.
I do think it can penetrate schools since its a small server, its not much more expensive for what you get as configured from DELL and it should integrate VERY well to the existing stable of Macs in a lab/classroom.
Plus there is an UNLIMITED client license, most people overlook this. Once you get the Xserve you are set for as many clients as it can handle without more software fees. Thats HUGE right there.
Xserve is a really good value and a perfect counterpart to a room full of Macs in SOHO or Schools (k-12 esp.) no matter how nitpicky you can be.
Anyone whoe DOES get an Xserve (or two)... can you snag a quick photo of the packaging and post it (them)...? I am into marketing and packaging and would love to see how the swaddle their new baby.
[quote]You can do RAID 0 and RAID 1. In the future (I'm guessing this means Jaguar) there will be other RAID options. I don't know if RAID 5 will show (why bother, IMO) but RAID 0+1 would be nice and very appropriate. <hr></blockquote>
Dang. You sure there's nothing but 0 and 1 now? Apple's killer benchmarks are for a striped array of 4 internal drives. But that just means four points of failure. One glitch and all your data is gone.
[quote]Clustering software in Jaguar would make a nice addition to this product. I'm also hoping that the presence of a solid server offering will encourage more scientific/server oriented products to be ported to Mac OS X.<hr></blockquote>
<strong>Anyone whoe DOES get an Xserve (or two)... can you snag a quick photo of the packaging and post it (them)...? I am into marketing and packaging and would love to see how the swaddle their new baby.
It would be ridiculous to bundle a keyboard and mouse with an XServe.
Most customers don't just buy one Xserve. With rackmount servers, it's uncommon to force customers to buy keyboards and mice with every single server. That's downright silly. It's better just to have them order one themselves rather than to make customers eat the costs for a dozen, two dozen or whatever number of keyboards and mice they will just lock away in the basement.
Comments
<strong>I heard they were shipping last Friday. So has anyone got one yet?
</strong><hr></blockquote>
just wait for pscates till he changes his computer...
<strong>i just order a whole rack of Xserve to run the next version of Microsoft Office
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
<strong>Surely murbot will get one eventually.</strong><hr></blockquote>
[quote]Originally posted by jaske:
<strong>TigerWoods has one. He's going to post a picture of it on the Current Set-up thread.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Oh I thought he doesn't have anything
<strong>
just wait for pscates till he changes his computer...
or was it murbot ?
-alcimedes
<strong>I heard they were shipping last Friday. So has anyone got one yet?
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Don't have one, but got to poke at one for about an hour today.
It was the dual-G4 with all 4 drive bays filled. It's a nice layout overall - pretty traditional 1U.
The lock clamps down all drives so that they cannot be removed, prevents the CD from working, prevents the whole system from being pulled out, and sets the software switch so that the monitoring tools knows that it's been locked and all ports are locked.
The fans are as beefy as you'd expect for a server. Not as loud as some that I've heard, but you don't want this under your desk unless you've got a rack with some noise abatement, but then if you've ever had a high-end PC under your desk, this is probably comparable.
The system had the extra gigabit card and a Radeon card in it. Quite honestly, I couldn't feel any heat out of the back of the unit with everything going full blast. When we took it back apart again, nothing inside felt more than slightly warm to the touch. I don't think a full rack of these would have a big impact on the temperature of a normally ventilated room. It'd be loud, but not hot. Pretty amazing, actually.
The interior of the unit is surprisingly open. It's not nearly as tight as I was expecting. The PCI and AGP slots are pretty open, I think most standard cards would fit just fine.
There are some nice touches. If the front system identifier is set, there's a light on the back that lights as well - so if you go around to the back of the unit in a large rack, it's easy to pick out. The firewire port on the front allows you to boot the machine from an iPod.
You can do RAID 0 and RAID 1. In the future (I'm guessing this means Jaguar) there will be other RAID options. I don't know if RAID 5 will show (why bother, IMO) but RAID 0+1 would be nice and very appropriate.
All in all, a goddamn nice piece of iron for Apple. It's not going to dethrone Sun, or even Dell for that matter in the server arena, but it certainly fills a space that needed filling for Apple's customers. I can see good sell-though to media agencies, and a number of scientific and academic areas. Apple might do a nice business bundling this and PowerSchool for large k-12 institutions, but I doubt you'll see it making much headway into Apples traditional education market.
Clustering software in Jaguar would make a nice addition to this product. I'm also hoping that the presence of a solid server offering will encourage more scientific/server oriented products to be ported to Mac OS X.
However it will justify Macs when the argument is "we'd get Macs if they made a server to support them" situations.
I do think it can penetrate schools since its a small server, its not much more expensive for what you get as configured from DELL and it should integrate VERY well to the existing stable of Macs in a lab/classroom.
Plus there is an UNLIMITED client license, most people overlook this. Once you get the Xserve you are set for as many clients as it can handle without more software fees. Thats HUGE right there.
Xserve is a really good value and a perfect counterpart to a room full of Macs in SOHO or Schools (k-12 esp.) no matter how nitpicky you can be.
<strong>
Don't have one, but got to poke at one for about an hour today.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Cheers for that johnsonwax -- really interesting and a good run down of what they are like up close.
Anyone whoe DOES get an Xserve (or two)... can you snag a quick photo of the packaging and post it (them)...? I am into marketing and packaging and would love to see how the swaddle their new baby.
Greatly appreciated... thanks!
- Scott
<a href="http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020701/lam059_1.html"; target="_blank">http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/020701/lam059_1.html</a>;
for what its worth...
Dang. You sure there's nothing but 0 and 1 now? Apple's killer benchmarks are for a striped array of 4 internal drives. But that just means four points of failure. One glitch and all your data is gone.
[quote]Clustering software in Jaguar would make a nice addition to this product. I'm also hoping that the presence of a solid server offering will encourage more scientific/server oriented products to be ported to Mac OS X.<hr></blockquote>
Till then, at least there's Linda....
<a href="http://www.lindaspaces.com/news/news071901.html"; target="_blank">http://www.lindaspaces.com/news/news071901.html</A>;
? Can Xserve connect to a monitor out of the box?
? Is it necessary/practical to connect a monitor?
?Should machines served by Xserve run OS X server or client?
?Does added RAM mean a greater number of computers served/more reliable/faster connections?
?How much RAM is necessary to serve 15 computers well (fast and reliable)?
<strong>Anyone whoe DOES get an Xserve (or two)... can you snag a quick photo of the packaging and post it (them)...? I am into marketing and packaging and would love to see how the swaddle their new baby.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
Take a look at this page: <a href="http://homepage.mac.com/xibalba/xserve/"; target="_blank">Xserve unpacking</a>
Most customers don't just buy one Xserve. With rackmount servers, it's uncommon to force customers to buy keyboards and mice with every single server. That's downright silly. It's better just to have them order one themselves rather than to make customers eat the costs for a dozen, two dozen or whatever number of keyboards and mice they will just lock away in the basement.
I'd also like to add that the design of XServe's cardboard box looks frigging awesome!