Remove 6 Xserves- Build Replacement (cost less than 1 Mac Pro)


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The project goal - Remove 6 outdated 2008 Xserve's while maintaining Mac OS X infrastructure and spending a fraction of the original price.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.

 

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.
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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.

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