March 7, 201610 yr The project goal - Remove 6 outdated 2008 Xserve's while maintaining Mac OS X infrastructure and spending a fraction of the original price. After reading this insightful article by archedraft on Mac OS X KVM Virtual Machine https://macosxvirtualmachinekvm.wordpress.com/guide-mac-os-x-10-11-el-capitan-vm-on-unraid/ I decided to test it out on my unRaid system at home. After ironing out the bugs and successfully implementing multiple VMs of Mac OS X, I figured I could move this solution to our small server room at work. Looking for anything I may have missed or feedback. Price for everything:2,289.03 USD OS at time of building:unRAID Basic 6.1.9 CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2670 Eight Cores Processors 2.60Ghz SR0KX (2) CPU Cooler:Dynatron R23 Vapor Chamber Base with Aluminum Stacked Fin (2) Motherboard: ASRock Motherboard Intel LGA 2011 EP2C602-2TS6/D16 RAM:Kingston KVR16R11D4K4/64 (4x16) Case:NORCO 2U Rack Mount Server Chassis - Black RPC-270 Drive Cage(s):iStarUSA BPU-124V2-SS Power Supply:Athena Power AP-U2ATX80FEP8 Cables: SAS to 4 SATA (included with motherboard) Fans:Noctua NF-A8 PWM (4) (replacing NORCO fans) Parity Drive:PNY SSD7CS2211-960-RB 960GB Data Drives:PNY SSD7CS2211-960-RB 960GB (3) Total Drive Capacity: 2.61TB (Actual) unRaid Calculator http://unraid.category5.tv/ Server RailsNORCO RL-20 Heavy Duty Slide Rail Primary Use:VM Server to host DHCP, DNS, Open Directory, File Serving, NetInstall, Printer Serving, Software Caching, Render Farming for Cinema 4D, Retrospect Backups... Basically everything. Future Plans: Add 4 more SSD for capacity, more RAM if necessary. Build secondary server for Mail and Filemaker with HDD for databases.
March 8, 201610 yr Author Are you running OSX Server in the VM? Yes. 10.11.3 with Server installed. Upgrading from some 10.6/10.9 Xserves.
March 8, 201610 yr It sounds nice, but OS X licensing prevents you from legally running the OS on non-Apple hardware.
March 8, 201610 yr It sounds nice, but OS X licensing prevents you from legally running the OS on non-Apple hardware. I think you missed the thread of users unraid to run MAC vm's, while technically illegal there;s more that this community running OS X on non apple hardware.
March 8, 201610 yr Author It sounds nice, but OS X licensing prevents you from legally running the OS on non-Apple hardware. I appreciate your sentiment, and I'm not looking to get into an ethics debate. My original question, is there anything I may have missed in regards to the hardware aspect of my build? I've ordered the parts, just don't want any oversight or I'll take recommendations on improvements.
March 8, 201610 yr Hardware looks good. Definitely better than Mac Minis or upgrading to the 2009 Xserves. It sounds nice, but OS X licensing prevents you from legally running the OS on non-Apple hardware. I think you missed the thread of users unraid to run MAC vm's, while technically illegal there;s more that this community running OS X on non apple hardware. Oh I'm well aware and I have tried it out myself. I just feel business environments are quite different and a slippery slope.
March 8, 201610 yr I think you missed the thread of users unraid to run MAC vm's, while technically illegal there;s more that this community running OS X on non apple hardware.Oh I'm well aware and I have tried it out myself. I just feel business environments are quite different and a slippery slope.To the best of my knowledge, nobody has gotten in trouble for running improperly licensed in a home environment. The same is definitely NOT the case in business, there are regular reports of large judgements against businesses for violating licence agreements. Not an ethics debate, a clear consequence of getting caught statement.
March 8, 201610 yr Author Not an ethics debate, a clear consequence of getting caught statement. I appreciate the concern. If you could site some sources for the judgements against businesses running VM's of Mac OS X I would appreciate it. I'd like to understand the full scope of what I may or may not be getting myself into.
March 8, 201610 yr Not an ethics debate, a clear consequence of getting caught statement. I appreciate the concern. If you could site some sources for the judgements against businesses running VM's of Mac OS X I would appreciate it. I'd like to understand the full scope of what I may or may not be getting myself into. Apple is a member of BSA. BSA "audit" consequences are not typically public knowledge, as the businesses involved would rather settle quietly.
March 8, 201610 yr Author Apple is a member of BSA. BSA "audit" consequences are not typically public knowledge, as the businesses involved would rather settle quietly. Interesting. I'll take that into consideration in regards to what I may or may not be doing and you can consider anything I'm asking here to be hypothetical.
March 9, 201610 yr truth is we don't know your business name and you are not advertising that you are selling xserve software on cheaper hardware. So the fact is, no one knows no one cares, it just a risk you have to take.
March 9, 201610 yr truth is we don't know your business name and you are not advertising that you are selling xserve software on cheaper hardware. So the fact is, no one knows no one cares, it just a risk you have to take. Most BSA audits are a result of disgruntled clients or employees.
March 10, 201610 yr Author Will the onboard dual 10GBase-T have any issues with unRAID? It's a Intel x540 controller, but i'm not sure if i will be able to take full advantage of it in the KVM.
March 11, 201610 yr Will the onboard dual 10GBase-T have any issues with unRAID? It's a Intel x540 controller, but i'm not sure if i will be able to take full advantage of it in the KVM. Best way to know is to get a trial licenses and test it out, you get 30 days.
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