Q: A Sad day.. Xserve discontinued...

When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom, Let it Be, Let it Be, Let it Be..........

Its about the software, not the box, how many hardware suppliers have gone pear-shaped in the last 5 years? People buy Dell servers left right and centre, will they still be there in 3 years, when your applecare Xserve contract expires?

What is interesting is that apple has:
signaled it is stopping making the Xserve.
will still have to sell what Xserve stock are left.
said the Macpro server and mini server will continue.

Of great importance to us small players is for OSX server software to continue, along with a hardware platform for us small players. For all you heavy lifting guru's I cannot for the life of me see what the problem is. A nice server box may have been eol'd, but the Server software is still to exist (at present). I presume that a strategy exists to either bring a new box to market, or an implementation on someone else's hardware. Either way ios and mac's will continue to be come into business for reasons inherent to the platform, not because you run Xserves.

hutene wrote:
Its about the software, not the box...
...For all you heavy lifting guru's I cannot for the life of me see what the problem is.
...I presume that a strategy exists to either bring a new box to market
...or an implementation on someone else's hardware

Like you said, you "cannot...see what the problem is." Just because you don't have the experience to understand it, doesn't mean there's no problem.

Also, your presumptions are wrong. There is no new box. There is no "someone else's hardware."

No proper box for the job = no way to run the software. That cascades into a lot of real problems for a lot of installations.

If your needs are simple enough to be happy with what's available, then you don't need to worry about it; but you should avoid suggesting there's no problem for something you admit to not understanding.

Kia ora Beatle,

In an earlier post I made reference to why I don't use Xserve's, heat, noise, power use and nowhere to hide it.

I appreciate what you are all saying, but the future is ahead, not behind us. And Xserves, Macpros, and macmini's don't fit my bill perfectly either. Yes there should be a virtualisation option or a new server box, but the fact that it was announced as EOL while still (trying) selling down stock, and supporting it is odd. This may not be the end of the options, it may well be the start of them.

We should be saying what we want Apple to make or do to replace it, instead of reinstating an eol product. I assume you folk would know what would work to run SLS and Lion. Plenty of ways to skin a cat.

Woo hoo bring back vinyl and 45's.

Strangely enough, Apple published a Java RoadMap: http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=OpenJDKAnnounce
Direct link: http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2010/11/12openjdk.html

Ironically (euphemism to word much worse I can't even formulate) I would not mind too much if Java RoadMap wasn't published, but XServe and Enterprise solutions man, that is a obligation and a PDF with Mac Mini and Mac Pro as the only solutions, it's not a roadmap it's a marketing ********.

We're on the dark and without even a short, rude and arrogant email saying that a solution is on the way.

Let's hope this is not all

Agreed that "Xserve Transition Guide" is a complete joke, albeit a cruel one. Looks like something from the Onion, rather than from a technology company. Thanks for the bone Steve. What makes you think this is remotely acceptable?

Kia ora Beatle,

Of course you big setups face a significant dilemma, and you and I are victims of the market. Only Apple knows what they are up to and what the rationale was for dropping it. Apart from a one liner about not selling enough of them.

But the dilemma over Server and Xserve will have an impact on small setups because improving the top end improves the the small setups. The impact on Server ceasing to be a viable heavy lifter product would have a massive affect on us. Relative to our overall turnover, IT makes up a big part of our spend.
So its down to; is Apple going to do something?, or are the big users, such as yourself?
Who blinks first?, at the end of the day a solution will be found.

Just got my last Xserve: it was put in the last minute budget for the end of the year. Unfortunately I had to reconsider ordering 22 more next year.

Meanwhile Apple is hiring an Enterprise Server T1 Advisor:
"The AppleCare Enterprise team is seeking someone to provide basic to complex technical support for Apple server products such as: Mac OS X Server, Xserve, Xserve RAID, Xsan, and other associated components or products, including all Apple hardware and software products."
http://www.techcareers.com/job.asp?id=28206500&aff=AC44BA2E-E3EB-4DBC-8BDB-9FCE0 1C58B09

Turn off the lights when you leave in 3 years!

If Apple was in serious financial trouble and was looking for ways to create new revenue streams then I could see it as a last gasp, desperate move to continue surviving. Apple has always indicated that they will not create a version of their operating system that will run on non-Apple hardware. In my opinion, refreshing the Xserve and MacPro lines would make more sense. Apple has tried to convince us that they are more than a 'me too' company, they want to be a leader.

If they are just clearing their stock and waiting to announce a new product next month they are fools. When the iPhone 4 antenna issue started to make news in Consumer Reports, CNN and Wall Street Journal it was just an annoyance for them. When it became clear it was effecting sales it took less than 30 days for Apple to put together a public response and open up their labs trying to prove how 'professional' they were. Until this issue becomes an embarrassment or effects sales Apple has no reason to respond.

Maybe they need to divert their Xserve engineers to assist with the problems of the white iPhone 4, surely that is higher on Steve's list than pleasing the Apple IT demographic.

Just want to re-iterate a point another poster made. Our 80 imac purchases in the past year have a direct result of a fully integrated apple solution of hardware and software. Without the XServe options, we would not have felt comfortable with all the apple purchases.

With possible expansions on the horizon, I am now looking to get out of the apple world for good. We need to show Steve this was a bad decision all around, and hurt in the numbers. My next phone will be Android os, not ios. My next computers will not be apple.

Low blow Steve.

Like most others we can not plan our technology needs (desktop or server) around a company that will simply pull the plug on products in this nature.

We are back to looking at IBM options. Expensive but reliable.

Sadly, this is going to be the path that many others will be inclined to take as well. I think Apple is going to lose a fair amount of market share in niche markets, such as education and media due to this.

I know that we are also looking at moving our entire company over to Windows in the long term.

As an Education customer with a small budget this is going to bite us. Currently we run Open Directory and a backend of mainly OS X server.

Transitioning our directory and other Mac applications to other platforms is not going to be cheap for us and the Mini or Pro are not part of our discussions in their current form. Further, with no comment from Apple on any VM or replacement product and no mention of Lion Server, it looks like the end of the line for OS X Server.

We will need to continue to support Macs (and Windows machines) with network homes and portable home directories and manage them with managed preferences (MCX). However, this is not so straight forward without an OS X Server. This means we have to consider what place the Mac desktops and laptops (130) will have (if any) in the future for us.

For the directory there appears to be 2 choices.

1.) AD
2.) *nix box running Open LDAP.

I am sure AD is rock solid, but it's not going to be cheap (Microsoft licensing and CALs). Given that we don't want to use the Mini or Pro, we can't use a "golden triangle" arrangement. For our purposes, we will have to either modify the schema as per the 2009 Apple white paper or buy 3rd party software to integrate the Macs if we don't want to modify the AD schema. The irony here is the cost (including on-going cost of licensing) is likely to exceed that of buying an Xserve with OS X server.

My limited experience with modifying the AD schema was not very successful for managed preferences (MCX) and I'm not convinced of depending on a modification of AD, where the success will be dependant on both Microsoft and Apple software updates. Be happy to hear from anyone who has this running correctly.

In terms of the 3rd party plugins, the cost of licensing makes a good business case for getting rid of all the Apple kit and by relying on the 3rd party plugin you introduce another dependancy for the whole infrastructure.

My preference is for native support. Presumably Lion (client) will have better integration, with an SMB/CIFS client that doesn't depend on Samba (GPLv3) and support for Sync and Windows Group Polices.

Has anyone managed to get a nix box running a modified Open LDAP schema to provide portable home directories, extended permissions for file shares, Kerberos and allow Workgroup Manager integration for managed preferences ? For the Windows boxes, I guess we will have to wait until Samba 4 is stable for authentication. In Lion (client), production quality full NFSv4 support would be very useful.

If Apple really are walking way from the rack server market (I'm not counting a rackable Mac Pro) and possibly OS X server, it would be sensible for them to produce another white paper on integration with Open LDAP and AD if they want to sell any more Apple kit to Education or Enterprise.

Message was edited by: gen_bunty