xserve posts

Parallels has announced a new version of Parallels Server for Mac called the Mac Bare Metal Edition. It's optimized to provide better performance for virtual machines running on an Xserve, and allows multiple, isolated virtual machines to run simultaneously on the same server. Using "hypervisor" server virtualization, system administrators can run, say, Snow Leopard Server, Windows 7 and Linux all at once.

In case you're curious, a hypervisor is a virtual machine monitor which directly controls the hardware ("bare metal") of the host machine without using device drivers from another operating system. At least, that's how I understand it.

A new utility, Parallels Virtual Automation, also provides an extended set of tools for managing, monitoring and maintaining virtual machines.

This is the first "bare metal" hypervisor for Intel-powered Apple machines, and it sounds pretty cool. I'm not in a position to try this out, but I'd welcome feedback from readers who get their hands on a copy and put it to the test. Single licenses of Parallels Server for Mac Bare Metal Edition are priced at US$1,248.75, and there's a trial download available.

Mac Pro and Xserve owners, take note -- Apple has released the following updates today:

Xserve EFI Firmware Update 1.2 for Xserve (Early 2009)

• Improved compatibility with virtualization products utilizing VT-d
• Improved system reliability during the boot process

• Restoration CD for the following products: Mac Pro (Early 2009), Xserve (Early 2009).

• Addresses reliability issues, targeting the use of multiple Unitors.

After the introduction of the new 27" Intel Core i7 iMac in October, a lot of us in the Mac world were puzzled by the lack of a new higher-end Mac Pro. After all, the Mac Pro has traditionally been the most powerful Mac with the highest level of expandability.

This morning, Apple quietly announced a speed bump for the Mac Pro, as well as new storage options for both the Mac Pro and the Xserve. For the quad-core Mac Pro (but not the eight-core model), you can now order a 3.33 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon "Nehalem" processor. This is an amazing CPU, with 8 MB of fully shared L3 cache, Hyper-Threading technology, an integrated memory controller, and Turbo Boost for short bursts of speed up to 3.6 GHz.

Now that prices have come down a bit on 2 TB hard drives, Apple has made them a configure-to-order option for Mac Pro and Xserve systems. Using high-performance 7200 RPM SATA drives with 32 MB of cache and a potential throughput of 3 Gb/s, the Mac Pro can now have a total storage capacity of 8 TB, while the Xserve can max out at 6 TB of storage.

The new options are available immediately from the online Apple Store.

Just days after all the hardware updates on Tuesday, Apple has posted two new support downloads.

The first, Pro Applications Update 2009-01, contains several updates for applications in Final Cut Studio. This update includes Final Cut Pro 7.0.1, Motion 4.0.1, Soundtrack Pro 3.0.1, Color 1.5.1, and Compressor 3.5.1.

This update addresses general compatibility issues, improves overall stability, and addresses a number of other minor issues.

You can download this update through Software Update, or on the Apple Support Downloads page.

Also, Apple released Apple Server Diagnostics 3X106, which replaces Apple Server Diagnostics 3X104 to provide support for Snow Leopard Server. This is compatiable with the Xserve (Early 2008 or Early 2009) or the Mac mini server config (Early 2009).

This download is also available on the Apple Support Downloads page.

In this morning's rush to figure out what had changed at the Apple Store, one of our readers pointed out that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server (US$499 for an unlimited license) was priced lower than Leopard Server (US$999 for unlimited users). While this is nothing new -- we've known about the price change since June -- it bears repeating.

For businesses with small, single offices to large enterprises with racks full of Xserves, Snow Leopard Server makes a lot of sense. That $499 license provides a lot -- a mail server (not Exchange-compatible, however), CalDAV server for group calendars, group-wide Time Machine backups to a server, a podcast producer, a wiki server, an iChat server, and the new Mobile Access Server, in addition to a plethora of other administrative and client management options.

Along with the Xserve, which I've found to be comparably priced to other enterprise-class servers, and the Mac mini, which makes a great little inexpensive headless server for small offices, Apple has created a set of powerful business tools. Considering that it's now half the price of Leopard Server, Snow Leopard Server is something that more system admins may want to look at, especially in Microsoft-dominated shops.

When a Leopard user wants a backup of the data on her computer, she might just attach an external hard disk to her machine and let Time Machine perform its magic. But how do you do backups for Xserves or large groups of Mac users? In many cases, you use tape libraries attached to servers, client software on the Macs that directs backup data to the server, and an application on the server to sort it all out.

Many Mac, Windows, and Linux system administrators rely on an application from TOLIS Group, Inc. called BRU Server. Last week, TOLIS Group announced BRU Server 2.0, an upgrade to their flagship backup product. The new version has a redesigned GUI that is common to all three OS platforms, and a faster encryption algorithm. One new feature is that client machines running the BRU Server Agent can now initiate their own backups and file restores via drag-and-drop. There's also full support of Access Control Lists (ACLs) and extended attributes on Mac OS X and Linux clients.

TOLIS Group is also offering complete backup bundles consisting of the BRU Server software and tape drives or libraries (up to 96 slots) that have been fully tested for compatibility with Mac OS X and Linux. BRU Server 2.0 starts at $599 for two clients, and workgroup and enterprise licenses available.

If you have Mac servers in your business, you weren't left out of the Snow Leopard fun during the keynote earlier today. Apple also announced that Mac OS X Server 10.6, A.K.A. Snow Leopard Server, will be shipping in September. Like Snow Leopard, the server version of the OS provides 64-bit support, and many of the Apple applications have been updated to take advantage of that. For example, SMB file server performance is 2.3x faster than Leopard Server, and AFP file server performance is now 1.3x faster.

New features include:

iCal Server 2 -- This upgrade to Leopard's iCal Server now provides push notification, wireless accessibility to your calendar from any iPhone, a new web-based calendaring interface, and updates to CalDAV that now allow you to invite colleagues to meetings via email.

Podcast Producer 2 -- Podcast Producer, which was added to the server mix in Leopard, is now improved with Podcast Composer. This new feature lets you create your own workflows for automating completion and publishing of podcasts. There's also a new Setup Assistant in Server Admin that can set up Podcast Producer 2 in a manner of minutes, even if you're setting up a cluster of servers.

Wiki Server 2 -- Workgroups wishing to collaborate now have a little bit more to love from Wiki Server. The only real new feature is iPhone support; users can securely log into confidential wikis and content, and even review content and comments from the iPhone.

Mobile Access Server -- The piece that I'm probably the most excited about as an Xserve admin is Mobile Access Server. This new feature is like a custom VPN for Mac and iPhone users. As long as they're set up in the server's directory service, users can get secure, encrypted access to the server and network with very little hassle.

Mail Server -- The engine running Mail Server has been totally redesigned for much faster service, and now provides push email, vacation messages and server-side rules, and improvements to mail server clustering.

Web Server -- The biggest change to Web Server is that it can now do HTTP live video streaming. Performance is about 1.3x faster than Leopard Server's web services as well.

Client Management -- Organizations that are deploying many iPhones will love the new client management piece of Snow Leopard Server. It has an iPhone configuration utility for creating profiles that can be emailed to corporate users, thus setting up secure services in a few seconds. Administrators can now also use NetRestore to rebuild Macs over networks, based on either a custom build disk image or a standard OS X install disk.

Best of all, Snow Leopard Server will cost $499 for unlimited users (a sharp reduction from Leopard Server's price of $999 unlimited, $499 for 10 users) and should be shipping at the same time OS X 10.6 is available to the rest of us. I'd just be happy if Apple has finally fixed a lot of the issues with backing up network users to Mac OS X Server using Time Machine.

As Mike mentioned in the news roundup yesterday, word is going around that the corporate overlords at Apple are planning to build a massive server farm in the state of North Carolina within the next decade or so. How do we know? Because the company is working on getting a few nice tax breaks to go along with the deal, eventually worth about $46 million if Apple fulfills their end of the agreement. Their end of the agreement being a huge investment of a whopping $1 billion (that's over 333,000 Xserves, if that is indeed what they're installing -- and we bet not) into an economy that could probably use it. What exactly will go in there? We aren't sure -- lawmakers say the investment is worth it, and obviously Apple isn't showing their cards.

[Note: the $1B investment figure is not an upfront number, but rather a total investment over the first 9 years of operation. –Ed.]

But the facility, once up and running, will start by employing at least 100 people, so that's a nice start. Google has apparently gone through the same deal with North Carolina recently, though their deal was a little smaller: $600 million investment for a server farm that opened last year.

More backend for Mobile Me? More power for the App Store or a project like it? A giant building full of Cubes running 24 hours a day? Or something we haven't even dreamt of yet?

Astute readers noticed some Apple store downtime earlier this morning. While I was hoping for something soaked in Unicorn tears, I guess I'll settle for a drool-worthy Xserve update.

The rumors were right on target, and the new Xserve sports Intel's "Nehalem" Xeon processor (just like the recent Mac Pro refresh), which Apple is touting as offering "twice the performance" when compared to last year's model.*

* There is always an asterisk in these types of comparison so please read the fine print before taking any marketing slogans as gospel.

The new Xserve systems look really hot. Check out these specs for the $2999US base model:

• a single 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Xeon 5500 series processor with 8MB of fully shared L3 cache
• 3GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC RAM
• a single 160GB 7200 rpm SATA Apple Drive Module
• dual Gigabit Ethernet on-board
• two PCI Express 2.0 x16 expansion slots
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 256 MB with Mini DisplayPort output
• two FireWire® 800 and three USB 2.0 ports

And of course, the requisite unlimited client license for Mac OS X Server version 10.5 Leopard.

If the standard offerings aren't powerful enough, the Xserve can be customized to include two Quad-Core Xeon's running at 2.26, 2.66 or 2.93 GHz. An 8-core 2.26 Xserve configure like the base system runs $3599US.

The new Xserve also offers an optional 128-GB SSD boot drive, as well as options for RAID cards, and dual or quad channel 4Gb Fibre channel cards.

This generation of chipsets is more energy efficient and Apple is touting the newest Xserve as the "greenest ever."

The new Xserve is available now at Apple.com and at your local Apple store or authorized dealer.

MacRumors is calling attention to a PC World report: new Nehalem-based Xserve models are expected soon, based on a slipup on Apple's Hong Kong site (gotta watch those ALT tags, folks!). The replacement units for Apple's Harpertown and Penryn Xeon-based rackmount gear should be able to leverage the new chip architecture and power management features to supercharge parallel operations in the Snow Leopard version of Mac OS X Server.

If you're in the market for Xserves, would you buy now for a known quantity or wait for the latest and greatest? Let us know below.

Attention Xserve administrators: Apple has created an Xserve Field Guide web app that can you can use to jog your memory when you're standing in front of a server and can't remember how to perform some manual task.

The web app is designed to be viewed on a Mac, iPhone, or iPod touch, and requires Safari as the browser. If you need to identify what model of XServe you're working on, want to know how to install spare parts, would like to decode what blinking lights on the Xserve mean, or even determine how to choose a startup drive using the system identifier button, it's all in this web app.

You can visit the web app from your favorite browser here:

http://help.apple.com/server/guide/desktop.html

or from your iPhone at this URL:

http://help.apple.com/server/guide/main.html

Thanks to TwitterMail tipster mvcoile!

Along with the 10.5.4 update, Apple has just released Security Update 2008-004 for users of Mac OS X Tiger (10.4). According to Apple, the update "is recommended for all [Mac OS X Tiger (10.4)] users and improves the security of Mac OS X." You can download this update for the following systems:

• Security Update 2008-004 (PPC)
• Security Update 2008-004 (Intel)
• Security Update 2008-004 Server (PPC)
• Security Update 2008-004 Server (Intel)

The update is available through Software Update (Apple menu > Software Update) or by downloading the installer packages by clicking the links above for your system. Apple has provided a support article for more details on this update.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in!

Amazingly, the commercial hackintosh maker Psystar (whose efforts in building non-Apple machines running OS X we've covered at some length) still hasn't been beat down by Apple Legal and now they're back for more. They are releasing the OpenServ series of rackmount servers which they offer with a variety of OSes including OS X Leopard Server.

There are two models: the 1U OpenServ 1100 (starting $1599) and the 2U OpenServ 2400 (starting $1999) either of which can be purchased with OS X Leopard Server pre-installed for an extra $155 (no clients), $525 (10 clients), or $1025 (unlimited clients). This machines are obviously in direct competition with Apple's Xserve. Frankly, I'm amazed that Psystar is still in business, and they keep pressing their luck. I wonder if this will be enough to push Apple over the edge.

[via Gizmodo]

Apple just released an update for the Xserve. This EFI firmware update helps "improve the stability of Xserve computers," so if your Xserver has had stability issues, maybe this is just the update you've been praying for.

If you use Xsan, then you might want to take note of the new update that Apple dropped yesterday. Apple updated Xsan Admin, Xsan Filesystem and the Xsan Uninstaller to version 2.1. According to the update note, the Xsan Filesystem update fixes:

• Metadata controller reliability
• Using and validating file system Access Control Lists
• Upgrading from Xsan 1.4

The Xsan Admin update provides fixes for:

• Using SAN Setup Assistant to configure volumes, LUNs and affinities
• Changing a computer between client and metadata controller roles
• Listing computers connected to the SAN
• Visually displaying when LUNs have been truncated

You can download these updates by opening Software Update on the Mac running Xsan or by downloading the installer packages from Apple's Support Downloads website. For detailed information about this Xsan update, refer to the support note on Xsan 2.1.