First impressions with Apple’s XServer - Hardware
I was tasked with setting up a network for a new company, a population of 4 employees so far. They had already made the decision to go strictly with Macs for desktops and laptops. They wanted a server to share files on and handle their email. Since they already were a Mac shop, why not get an XServer for them? And that is what I did.
The Hardware
As with anything Apple, the hardware is sleek. It’s a silver 1U server that racks pretty easily and looks a bit like an overgrown Macbook except the lid doesn’t swing open. All the connections you need are on the back. I had no problem hooking it up to our KVM switch. Two GB Ethernet ports, as well as all the other standard connections on the back. On the surface, there isn’t much not to like.
But I do have some gripes about it. For one, it does not come standard with a raid controller. Who sells a $5,000+ server these days without at least throwing in a cheap raid controller? The other thing, probably owing to its 1U height, is that it only holds 3 drives. Normally for a server that will serve files or email I will create two raid 1 arrays — a small one for the OS and a large one for the file share/email. If a drive dies, it’s not going to kill the server and bring productivity to a halt. This requires 4 drives, which forgetting the physical limitation o f 3 drives, the lack of a raid controller makes it a mute point.
The 3 drive bays on the front make swapping drives pretty easy. Just push in on the face plate to release it and pull it out. I wouldn’t recommend doing it while the server is running though. Each drive has an indicator light on it for online and access status. For some reason, the lights on the 3rd drive of this one don’t want to light up even though the drive is in use. Might have to get that fixed.
Other than that, the hardware seems fine. OSX Server obviously runs well on it. Writing a server OS to work well with the hardware it’s running on is a lot easier when you control what hardware can be used. But the reason to get the XServer was for the OS. In theory, it should make managing the Macs on the network easier…..in theory.
Bottom line: Unless you have a network with a lot of Macs on it and you want a server that will work with them, then an XServer is a decent buy. Otherwise, I think it’s overpriced for what you get — especially given some of the software it ships with, which I’ll start griping about tomorrow.