Mac Managers rejoice! Apple has updated both the Client and Admin packages of Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) to version 3.1. The update is said to address "numerous issues related to overall reliability, usability and compatibility." Specifically there's now support for the new Intel-based Xserve Lights Out Management feature and other improvements noted in the areas of software distribution, asset management, remote control, remote assistance and automation. The complete change log can be viewed on Apple's site.
If you are updating from ARD 3.0 you can download the Client update here and the Admin Update here. Both require Mac OS X 10.3.9 or later and are Universal Binary.
We mentioned before that the new Intel Xserves were shipping in mid-November. If you check you calendar you will notice that it pretty much is mid-November right now, and yes the Intel Xserves are shipping. The Apple Store reports that a base configuration Xserve will ship in 3 to 5 business days.
If anyone out there has ordered on of these babies feel free to take some unpacking pics and send 'em our way.
The Xserve, the jewel in Apple's enterprise crown. We all know that Apple missed their target ship date, but that's ok if you believe what Tom Yager is saying. His two part review (part one, part two) paints a picture of a near perfect 1U server that is more than capable of handling most jobs. Tom does warn that if you are just looking at the list of parts that make up the Xserve you won't see the full picture. As with all Macs the Xserve is more than its components, it is also the software that is running on it. All Xserves come with Mac OS X Server 10.4 Unlimited-Client Edition at no extra cost, and once you power it on this thing is ready to go.
Now, Tom mentions that this isn't a perfect server and if you're looking only at numbers you can build on for yourself at a cheaper price, but you'll be missing out on all the nice touches: the OS, the mix and match hard drives, the large number of Firewire and USB ports, and so much more.
How I love servers. It seems that Tom Yager might love them more than I do. He waxes eloquently about the newly redesigned Intel Xserve. Sure, it may look the same on the outside (for the most part) but on the inside this beast is new, and completely modular. Popping out the fans, switching out the motherboard, and getting at the RAM is an exercise in simplicity, according to Tom. I can't wait to get my hands on one, though I imagine it'll be awhile before anyone lets me near their Xserve.
Applepeels is always an interesting read. If you aren't familiar with that blog, it is written by a former Apple employee who was fairly high up on the org chart, so he brings an interesting perspective to all things Apple. His latest post covers two things that are of interest to me: working with Steve Jobs, and Apple in the enterprise.
I find it shocking (though not that shocking after using Apple's tool) that they didn't consider Active Directory integration as a top priority for OS X. OS X has come a long way in this regard, but here's hoping it is even easier in Leopard.
I think someone at Apple declared today 'Update Day.' First it was the MacBooks, then Logic, and now Xsan is getting some updating love. The Xsan Filesystem was updated to 1.4 which includes fixes for:
using file system access control lists (ACLs)
labeling and initializing LUNs greater than 2TB in size
AFP and NFS performance when re-sharing Xsan volumes
handling file system quotas and notifications
compatibility with Apple and third party applications
The Xsan Admin tool as also been updated to 1.4 with fixes including:
labeling and initializing Fibre Channel LUNs larger than 2TB in size
expanding storage pools and volumes
working with multiple Xsan metadata controllers in a heterogeneous environment
displaying progress messages while performing lengthy operations
preventing custom configuration changes from being overwritten during a save
Apple, of course, boasted how fantastic of a deal they're offering on stage with these new Xserves, but it's always prudent to hear it from the actual community these products are targeted at. Fortunately, reader Jonathan Fingas pointed us towards just such an article from IT Jungle that analyzes the offering and opportunities of new 64bit, Intel-based Xserves that can run Not only Mac OS X and Linux, but now Windows as well. They do their own price breakdown between other Enterprise server software offerings, as well as a hardware match up with a (somewhat) comparable HP server. They conclude that Apple has quite a killer offering on the table, no matter how you slice it.
Check out the IT Jungle article for yourself, and since most of us aren't exactly Enterprise gurus, keep tips like this rolling in, as they're a great window into how this particular community is reacting to Apple's big changes.
Most of the talk about Leopard server is taking place behind closed doors at WWDC this year, which makes sense since most consumers don't give a flying service about the server edition of OS X. Be that as it may, the Ruby on Rails guys (that is the hip, new Web 2.0 framework for building web apps) will be included, by default, with Leopard server.
At the moment the included version is slight older, but there are many months with which Apple engineers can use to make sure the latest and greatest is included with the final product.
Steve didn't make any note of Leopard server in his Keynote, which is a little sad. I can imagine all the engineers who work on the server OS waiting, hoping that Steve would note all the cool new features. Sadly, they were out of luck but unlike Steve I will mention one of the new features, namely this cool widget (which is mentioned at the end of this video). That's right you can (well, will be able to) monitor all sorts of neat stuff about your Leopard server right in the Dashboard. You can monitor things like how many people are connected to the iChat server, or the processor usage in the past hour. This gives sysadmins a nice thumbnail view into the health of their servers.
Along with the new Mac Pro Apple introduced some swanky new Xserves that have me drooling. Scheduled to be available in October these things sport 2 Dual-Core Intel Xeon 5100 processors (up to 3 Ghz), up to 32 Gigs of ECC FB-DIMM memory, 1.33GHz frontside bus per processor, 4MB shared L2 cache per processor, and two eight-lane PCI Express expansion slots. These things can also have up to 2.25 TB of onboard storage. They also have redundant power supplies (that was the sound of many sys admins rejoicing).
The Xserve also boasts having the first Intel ready version of Tiger server (you get an unlimited client version with an Xserve).
A little more than a week since Apple began offering a rock-bottom priced iMac configuration targeted at educational customers, the company has stopped offering the machine to anyone other than institutional buyers. The $900 replacement for the eMac differed from the baseline consumer model only in its loss of superdrive, dedicated graphics, bluetooth, and Front Row caused a big stir with students heading back to school this fall.
Rumor in the ether is that this is par-for-the-course for an education product release. The cycle goes like this: Product is announced >> lots of people get excited and order it >> Apple realizes that if they keep getting orders at the current pace, they won't be able to supply the institutional buyers who they originally targeted >> Apple pulls product from mainstream consumer stores >> ...time passes... >> the educational buying season ends >> Apple allows us regular people to place orders again.
In the last 12 months, the storage demand at my workplace (a university of 10,000 students) has risen exponentially. The 2.4TB NAS purchased last summer was outstripped by the end of our second semester just a few weeks ago. We'll recover a lot of that space by deep-sixing unused and stale accounts--which we can do every semester--but this does not address the growing problem of long-term storage and archival of data generated by our students, faculty, and staff. Eventually, we'll need to figure out a way to keep some--if not most--of this data indefinitely. The good news is that storage costs continue to decline--one terabyte of data storage is about $1500-$2000 right now. The bad news is that managing these massive amounts of data only continues to get more and more complex.
Microsoft's answer to this problem is WinFS, a new filesystem and storage manager that was to be included in Vista. WinFS would be the solution to some of these storage problems by providing a scalable filesystem built on top of a relational database. WinFS would have allowed for metadata tagging, datastore consolidation and sophisticated backup/restore, notifications, and access rules (ACL's). It's exactly what the Enterprise market needs right now, a sophisticated and stable solution for this growing problem. The problem is that Microsoft has yanked WinFS from Vista and will only be using pieces of it in Vista's Server version. Vista will run on the increasing old and creaky NTFS.
Some industry experts are suggesting that Apple may include the open source ZFS file system/content manager in their upcoming Leopard Server. ZFS was produced at Sun Microsystems about two years ago and was recently integrated into the most recent version of Solaris 10. An employee at Sun has posted to the Mac OS X Server mailing list that Apple may be interested in porting Mac OS X to run on ZFS.
If it's true that Apple may build Leopard Server to run on top of ZFS (instead of HFS+), it would place them in a strong position in the Enterprise market. Apple's X-Serve, X-RAID, and X-SAN are already some of the most affordable enterprise-level storage products on the market. Having a new, fast, scalable, reliable file system and content management system combined with Apple's traditionally easy-to-use admin tools might give Apple a powerful push into the coveted Enterprise storage market.
I truly wish that I didn't have such sad news. I've learned today that Michael Bartosh has suddenly passed away. Michael was the co-author of the best Mac OS X Server book on the market, O'Reilly's "Essential Mac OS X Panther Server Administration" and was a tireless advocate for Mac OS X. Many, myself included, held him in awe for the amazing breadth of knowledge he possessed about Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server and his countless posts to the mailing lists that us Mac admins frequent.
I had the privilege of meeting Michael at an O'Reilly Mac OS X conference a few years ago and learned that he was also great fun to hang out with.
We're going to miss you Michael. Our deepest condolences to your family.
Note: John C. Welch has some nice commentary about Bartosh and his effect on our community.
So much for those "Apple isn't interested in the science/business/pro sector" theories. Behold, Mac at Work, a new promotional site from Apple with information, case studies, online seminars and real world event listings for just about every interest and sector besides consumers. Just look at the first section, Science, with a brief case example of UC Irvine's "HIPerWall", a 200-megapixel (yes, 200) display built from fifty 30-inch Apple Cinema Displays driven by twenty-five PowerMac G5s (I wonder if their interns sneak in at night to load up World of Warcraft). Other notable case studies include an OB-GYN whose office is 100% Mac OS X, a business learning to use podcasts and even a section just for the IT Pros (though I'm not sure if that section is entirely new).
It's nice to see Apple pimping their products to people who are in the market for more than just an iPod. Here's hoping they deliver the Intel-based pro goods (Mac Pros, Xserves) in August to really get the ball rolling on this push into the professional world of computing.
Mac Managers rejoice! Apple has updated both the Client and Admin packages of Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) to version 3.1. The update is said to address "numerous issues related to overall reliability, usability and compatibility." Specifically there's now support for the new Intel-based Xserve Lights Out Management feature and other improvements noted in the areas of software distribution, asset management, remote control, remote assistance and automation. The complete change log can be viewed on Apple's site.
I think someone at Apple declared today 'Update Day.' First it was the 
Most of the talk about Leopard server is taking place behind closed doors at WWDC this year, which makes sense since most consumers don't give a flying service about the server edition of OS X. Be that as it may, the Ruby on Rails guys (that is the hip, new Web 2.0 framework for building web apps) will be 
A little more than a week since Apple 
In the last 12 months, the storage demand at my workplace (a university of 10,000 students) has risen exponentially. The 2.4TB NAS purchased last summer was outstripped by the end of our second semester just a few weeks ago. We'll recover a lot of that space by deep-sixing unused and stale accounts--which we can do every semester--but this does not address the growing problem of long-term storage and archival of data generated by our students, faculty, and staff. Eventually, we'll need to figure out a way to keep some--if not most--of this data indefinitely. The good news is that storage costs continue to decline--one terabyte of data storage is about $1500-$2000 right now. The bad news is that managing these massive amounts of data only continues to get more and more complex.
I truly wish that I didn't have such sad news. I've learned today that 
So much for those "Apple isn't interested in the science/business/pro sector" theories. Behold, 
