Comments on: The Hydra.

Apple to allow virtualization of Leopard Server.

[yipcanjo]

Who is using Apple servers?

You don't hear much about them. What are they doing? Web boxes? Workgroup servers? Is anything truly "production" being served up on Apple servers / OSX server??

[Orenge]

Large-scale Xserve deployments

I can answer that: Xserves have been used for widely-varied and VERY large-
scale applications. I have a list (the info's around a year old and was never
exhaustive--just a sampling) that I'll paste below, plus the iTunes Music
Store itself (and presumably the entire Apple Store too) runs on Xserves.

* 256 processors - US Army Space and Missile Defense Command's LIMIT
cluster
(128 dual G5 nodes, at Florida A&M U,
http://www.macnn.com/articles/05/11/29/u.s..army.projectused to develop
methods for detecting hazardous materials)

* Under construction - Omneta cluster
(Thousands of dual nodes planned,
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1861506,00.asprented out for
corporate data processing in Europe)

* 260 processors - York NeuroImaging Centre's cluster
(130 dual nodes, largest G5 cluster in the UK,
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=25160used
for brain research)

* AstroVision's cluster
(Xserves running Tiger, QuickTime 7 and Xgrid, will be the fastest
supercomputer in Australia,
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,12824308%5E15321%5E%5E
nbv%5E15306,00.htmlused for live satellite image processing starting in
2007)

* 448 processors - Bowie State's "Xseed"
(224 dual 2.0 nodes, http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?
RSS&NewsID=11043used for animation and other computation)

* 1280 processors - U. of Illinois' "Turing Cluster"
(640 dual 2.0 nodes, possibly to be doubled,
http://www.cse.uiuc.edu/turing/used for a range of academic research and
replacing a Dell/HP Linux cluster)

* 250 processors - U. Pitt's Human Genetics cluster
(125 dual G5 nodes http://www.apple.com/science/profiles/upittused for
genetics research)

* 200 processors - GeoCenter cluster
(100 dual 2.0 nodes
http://www.geocenter.com/news/xserve_overview.htmlused for seismic data
processing)

* 1344 processors - French CGG cluster
(672 dual nodes, http://www.hardmac.com/niouzcontenu.php?date=2004-
09-03#2783integrated into an existing 40 TFLOP cluster for oil prospecting)

* 48 processors - Louisiana State's "Nemaux"
(24 dual G5 nodes with Xgrid, http://www.tgc.com/breaking/2344.htmlused
for 3D animation, audio, and scientific computing)

* 2200 processors - VA Tech's "System X" aka "Big Mac"
(1100 dual 2.3 nodes and counting, http://www.tcf.vt.edu/used for a range
of academic research - with
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/aug2004/tc2004083_71
26_tc153.htmmuch larger Mac clusters System L and System C under
consideration)

* 256 processors - UCLA's "Dawson"
(128 dual 2.0 nodes, http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?
home&NewsID=10601used for plasma physics research)

* 64 processors - Australian Defence Force's "Checkmate"
(32 dual nodes running Tiger, half G5 and half G4,
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Next/Apple-upgrade-bears-
fruit/2005/05/02/1114886287215.htmlused for Chess-based command
and control simulations)

* 86 processors - UNC's cluster
(43 dual nodes, http://www.apple.com/pro/science/giddings/used for
proteomics research)

* 76 processors - UC Davis's cluster
(38 dual nodes, http://www.apple.com/science/profiles/benham/used for
Genome Center research)

* 72 processors - UC Santa Cruz's cluster
(36 dual nodes and counting, http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?
NewsID=9247used for a range of academic research)

* 3132 processors - US Army's "MACH 5"
(1566 dual nodes, http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?
NewsID=8971used by the Army and NASA for hypersonic flight research)

* 512 processors - U. Maine's "Baby MACH 5"
(256 dual nodes,
http://www.umaine.edu/news/071904/ArmySupercomputer.htmused for
software development and optimization for MACH 5)

* 52 processors ? UC Irvine's "HIPerWall"
(50 30" Cinema Displays and 26 PowerMac G5s
http://www.apple.com/science/profiles/hiperwalldelivering over 200
megapixels--double the previous record--of resolution for scientific
imaging)

* French-speaking Belgian schools
(http://www.hardmac.com/news/2007-03-20/#65533300 Intel Xserves plus
additional Macs)

* DTS Digital Images
(600 PowerMac G5s and 700 TB storage,
http://www.mi6.co.uk/news/index.php?itemid=3780used for digital film
restoration)

* US Navy
(Xserves on submarines
http://www.computerworld.com/softwaretopics/os/macos/story/0,10801,83
783,00.htmlused for their Linux-based sonar imaging system)

* Polish news channel TVN 24
(30 Xserves G5s, 50 PowerMac G5s, 22 Xserve RAIDs, 55 Xsans, 10
PowerBooks, 50 Final Cut Pros etc., and growing,
http://www.apple.com/uk/pro/video/tvn/index.htmlused for server-based
video editing)

[Mr. Blister]

cheaper OS X Server hosting perhaps?

Could this mean cheaper (virtual) OS X Server hosting? I'd rather see OS X than
Linux running my webapp... I'm always a little nervous with Linux that I'll bork
something up ...

[The Real John Muir]

How about on generic boxes?

But does the licence allow for virtualisation on non-Apple hardware?

This is a big question simply because if the answer is yes (which I doubt) it means there's a legitimate market for the inverse of Parallels Desktop for Mac ? a Mac virtualiser for Windows. Eerie! And quite possibly a big mistake for Apple whose OS is their crown jewels.

[Orenge]

No generic boxes

That's clear from the linked article:

"This License allows you to install and use one copy of the Mac OS X Server
software (the "Mac OS X Server Software") on a single Apple-labeled computer.
You may also install and use other copies of Mac OS X Server Software on the
same Apple-labeled computer, provided that you acquire an individual and valid
license from Apple for each of these other copies of Mac OS X Server Software."