Apple Error Confirms Xserve Refresh Coming Soon

[MacRumors]

PC World reports that an error on Apple's Hong Kong online store reveals that an announcement of new Xserve models featuring Intel "Nehalem" processors should be occurring in the near future. The error involves a broken image on the main Xserve ordering page with a filename of "promo-ribbon-nehalem.jpg" and an alt attribute reading "Pre-order the new Xserve with Intel Xeon (Nehalem)."

A notice on Apple's Hong Kong online store is offering to take preorders of the Xserve based on Intel's latest Xeon server chips. However, preorders cannot be placed as the link hasn't been activated yet, and customization capabilities for the old Xserve products have been disabled.

Rumors of an Xserve refresh have been gathering steam in recent days, with changes in Apple's estimated shipping times and text strings in the OS X 10.5.7 beta pointing to an imminent update to Apple's rackmountable server computers.

Article Link: Apple Error Confirms Xserve Refresh Coming Soon

[Grimace]

Bring it. We need to order our new XServes in the next few weeks!!

[InkMaster]

Just a damn shame that all 3rd party RAIDs look so dreadful when next to XServes

[AidenShaw]

Originally Posted by InkMaster

Just a damn shame that all 3rd party RAIDs look so dreadful when next to XServes

Since Apple has no RAID, I guess you're stuck with dreadful 3rd party kit....

Funny, though, I've never seen "looks" pop up on the requirements for an RFP for servers.

[iMacmatician]

So, earlier than June?

[Toe]

Woah... now PC World is a source for rumors about Macs?

My, how times have changed.

[hiimamac]

Originally Posted by iMacmatician

So, earlier than June?

I'm excited about this - especially since working with entertainment clients who are mostly mac. Final Cut Server soon, new Xserve, and Intel released new chips yesterday (mid range), that are getting rave reviews. You would think after all this time that Apple would pass this savings onto it's customers, sure it would affect their top of the line Mac Pro, but still, they can build machines and sell them for $1500 that beat the last gen Mac Pros.

I know it's a strange position to take, but part of me hopes something happens on the CPU front the same way the Palm Pre and Android pushed Apple to release a software/hardware update in the new 3G phone, that looks to be really great.

Anywhooooo, wouldn't it be great if Apple started to push their server solutions and made them much more affordable. For audio/video, man would I be pumped up about this.

:-)

[Pants Dragon]

Originally Posted by AidenShaw

Since Apple has no RAID, I guess you're stuck with dreadful 3rd party kit....

Funny, though, I've never seen "looks" pop up on the requirements for an RFP for servers.

RAID Card
Enhance storage performance and data protection by configuring your system with the Xserve RAID Card and multiple SAS or SATA hard drives. The Xserve RAID Card replaces the built-in SATA/SAS controller board and does not use a PCI Express slot. Please note that when you select the Xserve RAID Card you must choose either all SATA or SAS drives in drive bays 1 through 3.

That's from the Apple store. Configuring an Xserve.

EDIT: Misunderstood. I'm stupid.

[InkMaster]

Originally Posted by AidenShaw

Since Apple has no RAID, I guess you're stuck with dreadful 3rd party kit....

Funny, though, I've never seen "looks" pop up on the requirements for an RFP for servers.

Well, as you may remember Apple did have xRAID. It was of course heavily overpriced and did much less then the competition, but oh man did it look pretty doing it

[AidenShaw]

Originally Posted by hiimamac

Anywhooooo, wouldn't it be great if Apple started to push their server solutions and made them much more affordable.

If Apple wants to play in the server space, they need much more than one entry level 1U server.

They need a 2U with twice as many slots and disks, and a 4U with 8 times as many.

The Xserve is the "Mac Mini" of servers. Interesting, but too constrained to be seriously considered. Every other server manufacturer has a family of systems that are similar in concept, but vary in expandability. The Xserver has no place to grow.

[Toe]

Originally Posted by AidenShaw

Funny, though, I've never seen "looks" pop up on the requirements for an RFP for servers.

All other features being equal, I would go for the cooler-looking thing for my rack. (Not that equality is very frequent.)

A rack doesn't get seen very much, but the people who do see it are either stuffed suits or visiting geeks. The former are better wowed by cool-looking things, and the latter, well... it's always fun to show off your cool-looking rack o' stuff to other nerds.

On my last rack(s), we had a glowing power-strip (got it for really cheap off geeks.com) mostly 'cause, well it looked cool. And it still served a function, so what the heck.

[Toe]

Originally Posted by AidenShaw

The Xserve is the "Mac Mini" of servers. Interesting, but too constrained to be seriously considered. Every other server manufacturer has a family of systems that are similar in concept, but vary in expandability. The Xserver has no place to grow.

It's great for RAICs. That seems to be Apple's answer to every argument about the lack of expandability: don't stuff one server full of drives; spread over several slim servers. And if you need lotsa storage, it should be external. (I'm not saying I agree; just that that's what they seem to propose.)

[khaos34]

Just gotta say, it's alt attribute, not alt tag. Alt tag would be like <alt>.
Anyway, these would be awesome to get for work to replace the years-old servers that half-work.

[KnightWRX]

Originally Posted by AidenShaw

Since Apple has no RAID, I guess you're stuck with dreadful 3rd party kit....

I'm puzzled by this comment too. Did you mean Apple has no external storage arrays ? Because I sure do see a lot of RAID options on both the Xserve and Mac Pro.

[AidenShaw]

Originally Posted by Toe

... the people who do see it are either stuffed suits or visiting geeks.

We have a separate "glass room" computer room for the stuffed suits to see.

No Apple gear there - quite frankly a rack of HP or IBM or Dell gear is just as impressive as a rack of Xserves. The impact comes from an array of systems. It doesn't matter if the individual systems are brushed aluminum or black magnesium - it's the look of a tower of the same thing.

[AidenShaw]

Originally Posted by KnightWRX

I'm puzzled by this comment too. Did you mean Apple has no external storage arrays ?

Correct. Apple discontinued the Xserve RAID a long time ago. They recommend 3rd party storage now.

See http://www.apple.com/server/storage/

[KnightWRX]

Originally Posted by AidenShaw

We have a separate "glass room" computer room for the stuffed suits to see.

No Apple gear there - quite frankly a rack of HP or IBM or Dell gear is just as impressive as a rack of Xserves. The impact comes from an array of systems. It doesn't matter if the individual systems are brushed aluminum or black magnesium - it's the look of a tower of the same thing.

Pffft... 1U racks look cheap. Anybody with a Hyundai Accent budget can get a rack together. It's much more impressive when the suits walk into the room and stand face to face with the monolith (the only reason we keep ours around) :

[AidenShaw]

Originally Posted by KnightWRX

Pffft... 1U racks look cheap. Anybody with a Hyundai Accent budget can get a rack together. It's much more impressive when the suits walk into the room and stand face to face with the monolith (the only reason we keep ours around) :

We keep our Z-series in another lab, where we can use them.

The stuffed suits wouldn't understand.

[polaris20]

Originally Posted by AidenShaw

If Apple wants to play in the server space, they need much more than one entry level 1U server.

They need a 2U with twice as many slots and disks, and a 4U with 8 times as many.

The Xserve is the "Mac Mini" of servers. Interesting, but too constrained to be seriously considered. Every other server manufacturer has a family of systems that are similar in concept, but vary in expandability. The Xserver has no place to grow.

They'd be fine at a 1U if they switched to 2.5 SAS drives, ala HP DL360 G6.

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en...2-3907823.html

The 360 is a nice server, and definitely not entry level (that's be the DL100 series).

I kinda doubt Apple will be releasing anything else (2U, 4U) anytime soon, unfortunately.

[Mykbibby]

Xserve update = FCS3. Count me in!

[Toe]

Originally Posted by AidenShaw

We have a separate "glass room" computer room for the stuffed suits to see.

No Apple gear there - quite frankly a rack of HP or IBM or Dell gear is just as impressive as a rack of Xserves. The impact comes from an array of systems. It doesn't matter if the individual systems are brushed aluminum or black magnesium - it's the look of a tower of the same thing.

Actually, now that you mention it… the most impressive thing I have found is to set each server on a different stats view (or some even on just a fast-moving log view) and then to set the KVM to rotate through them every 2 seconds. Looks like important stuff is happening.

[polaris20]

Originally Posted by Toe

Actually, now that you mention it… the most impressive thing I have found is to set each server on a different stats view (or some even on just a fast-moving log view) and then to set the KVM to rotate through them every 2 seconds. Looks like important stuff is happening.

I find the binary clock, lava lamp, and plasma ball to be equally effective.

[Sehnsucht]

Originally Posted by AidenShaw

If Apple wants to play in the server space, they need much more than one entry level 1U server.

They need a 2U with twice as many slots and disks, and a 4U with 8 times as many.

The Xserve is the "Mac Mini" of servers. Interesting, but too constrained to be seriously considered. Every other server manufacturer has a family of systems that are similar in concept, but vary in expandability. The Xserve has no place to grow.

Dell PowerEdge R900

Agreed, Apple should definitely roll out a 4U Xserve with support for 256 gigabytes of RAM and eight HDDs like the Dell above. Of course, were they ever to do so, it would be ridiculed for being too expensive...I mean, come on, 256GB of memory is a $30,200 (thirty-thousand dollars!!!) add-on with the 4U PowerEdge from Dell!

Anyways, I think it's hilarious when people complain about the price of a freaking server (and we all know they will) especially when you work for a corporation that buys $250,000-servers in bulk. When you're talking about that much money in your budget, I'd say the alleged "Apple Tax" is the least of your worries.

Known facts about the (upcoming) 4U Xserve "Extreme"

1. It will be better than the Dell.
2. It will be more expensive than the Dell.
3. It will be less of a hassle to maintain and experience much less downtime than the Dell.
4. It will probably not have Red Hat Linux as a CTO option.

Originally Posted by AidenShaw

Funny, though, I've never seen "looks" pop up on the requirements for an RFP for servers.

5. It will look better than the Dell.

[iMaggot]

Originally Posted by hiimamac

I'm excited about this - especially since working with entertainment clients who are mostly mac. Final Cut Server soon, new Xserve, and Intel released new chips yesterday (mid range), that are getting rave reviews. You would think after all this time that Apple would pass this savings onto it's customers, sure it would affect their top of the line Mac Pro, but still, they can build machines and sell them for $1500 that beat the last gen Mac Pros.

I know it's a strange position to take, but part of me hopes something happens on the CPU front the same way the Palm Pre and Android pushed Apple to release a software/hardware update in the new 3G phone, that looks to be really great.

Anywhooooo, wouldn't it be great if Apple started to push their server solutions and made them much more affordable. For audio/video, man would I be pumped up about this.

:-)

Agreed man

[hiimamac]

Originally Posted by InkMaster

Just a damn shame that all 3rd party RAIDs look so dreadful when next to XServes

not sure where you shop but have you ever seen Xserve beside promise, avid or active storage racks? It looks preety cool. Most clients I see that use Xserve (editors) need only 3-4 racks. One backup, one meta, one server, sometimes one more.