I am curiouse to see if anyone is hosting with Macintosh Severs Running OS X Server (G3's or G4's)??? If so has anyone had any major issues???

:homer:

I've put Yellow Dog Linux on a few older macs I had laying around, just for fun. Besides having less of a user community to ask for help with issues, everything was fine. 2 things that annoy me about macs, well, theres a lot more than 2, but...

No bios settings, so if you loose power, your server doesn't come back up.

No boot without a monitor. Whoever thought that one up is a genius.

Maybe the mac 'servers' have dealt with the 2 problems above. I've never users OSX server or an actual mac server, so I have no idea how they behave.

But IMO, I wouldn't want to host my clients on a mac for 2 reasons. Too expensive and not enough community support. When things go wrong, google is my friend, not the phone. My mac is only good for photoshop and flash.

Well, im not sure which mac's you were using but any Mac that had 'Soft Power" (Performa's, Some Quadra's, Some Centris', Power Mac's) can restart after a power failier however linux is the reason that it doesent work, they didn't design it right to work with all the features of the Macintosh. In the Mac OS in the 'Energy Saver" control panel there is an option..in system 7-8 its called "Server Mode" (it will automatically take care of the auto restart) and in system 8.5-X its called "Restart After Power Failier". In our server farm we have about 40 G4 Servers, no monitors, Running OS X Server and OS 9.2, and when the power has gone out they all restart themselves and the DNS servers (Power Mac 8500,7100,iMac) restart themselves as well and using applescript they all reconfigure themselves to the proper IP address. If anything goes wrong i get a message automatically in the front office and at my home, and on my NexTel (cell phone) As far a starting up without a monitor, they all can do that in fact I have had a few different kinds of Mac's on My network running the Mac OS 8,9, and OS X and they all have no monitor attached. I think your main problem is that you were trying to run Linux on them, the best thing to do it to run a Server software running running in the Mac OS (like WebStar, AppleShare, OS X Server) and not a thrid party OS. Linux has given the Mac's a bad name because it does not utilise all the features that the Mac has, we tried linux here but has too many problems to bother, Mac OS X server is a great server and a Mac network will blow away an NT network on stablility, reliablilty, and security anyday...a few people on my staff are die hard PC people but working with the Mac's all of them said it was a better system and easier than NT machines. I know support is an issue but there are knowledge forums on Apples web site, and there are people here who can offer some assistance.:wavey:

There are some older macs that won't boot without a monitor, but they can be fooled with an adapter that would normally be used to allow them to use a standard PC monitor. This is the case with my powermac 7600, which I used to run headless with LinuxPPC, as well as with the IIci that runs some routing software on my home network.

I can't speak for newer macs (I haven't bought anything from Apple in about two years and now use Windows most of the time at home as well as at work).

-Joe

Driverdave,
I have the feeling there's a strong Linux community on the Mac, I am not running Linux on my Mac computers myself but some of my friend do and it really looks like they get a lot of support.

Now, what I don't get is why, with OS X, anyone would install Linux. After all, it's much cheaper to set up Linux on a Windows box. I guess an interesting question is: does anybody provide hosting using MAC OS?

Well, I don't. But I've played with OS X and, although I don't know about server load and that kind of thing, the features are here!

Well, i have this really odd and rich friend... He liked the way the PowerMac G4's looked so he bought it, formatted the hd, and installed linux.

I personally strongly dislike using the OS X Server software for actual webhosting needs. It's okay if you run small websites or websites that won't require to much resources but that is it.

Also if costs/performance ratio doesnt matter to you. Go ahead be my guest :).

I don't think it will ever be popular with webhosts for the above reason. Why pay 2x as much for a machine that would suit you better after you format it and install your own os.

Edit:

Note that OS X server addition is not actually a "server" but an os that comes with various servers.

Also I don't think Linux would be giving the mac hardware a bad name because Linux users normally configure and customize a system to their liking. Restarting dns and other things are a no issue.

Good luck to anyone who has the time to learn/deal with the Linux OS!!I like My Mac's, and My OS X Server (which is a server, unlike the earlier Mac's (workgroup servers) the Server isn't just a software that comes with the server...if it was I dont thing it would cost $999:eek:

cyansmoker- I provide hosting on the Mac OS..take a look
:smokin: http://onthecatwalks.com/farm.jpg

well it's just the definition of server...

Mac OS X Server is the OS but it's bundled with software like apache, bind, etc., which are servers.

True, but it is intergrated...you can't remove thoes elements...but...is Linux really a 'Server'...it runs apache just like OS X????:D

Umm... they are somewhat integrated but you can remove them. Also who said linux was a server? It's an OS as well :).

AHAAAA!!! The Heck With Both Of Us Then!!! ROFLOL!!!
:beer:

Originally posted by onthecatwalk
cyansmoker- I provide hosting on the Mac OS..take a look
:smokin: http://onthecatwalks.com/farm.jpg

Wow...you sure know how to decorate a room with taste. What color are these?

well that isn't a recent picture....there are now about 4 G3 Servers (blue), and the rest are apples new Quick Silver server (grey)

I just got a new quicksilver for testing... I must say the outside looks really good. Now to see how it performs :).

Good Luck With The Quick Silver Tower...they are really good..what are the specs on it???

(I think they should make an iMac server.....just because it would look neat and take up no space, well eventhouh you can use it as a server it would be better to be sold as one...i dunno :rolleyes: )

Originally posted by onthecatwalk
Good Luck With The Quick Silver Tower...they are really good..what are the specs on it???

(I think they should make an iMac server.....just because it would look neat and take up no space, well eventhouh you can use it as a server it would be better to be sold as one...i dunno :rolleyes: )

A server version of the new iMac would rock.
I happen to be a Mac fan myself. Don't believe me? Take a look at my home LAN ;) http://gabe.int0r.net/pics/network.jpg

Wow...good to see another Mac Fan!!!!! Check out my LAN..LOL...http://onthecatwalks.com/farm.jpg ..now thats a LAN!!!:D

At home i've got a New G4 QuickSilver, a Blueberry iMac DV (slot-loading), a tangerine iBook (which i still like better than the new one), and a 7100/66 av...time to get a new iMac though!!!:pimp:

It's the one with 733 mhz (wish i had the dual 800 mhz, but couldn't find a reason to spend more money) processor, 256 megs ram, 80 gig hd, etc...

I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with the Geforce in the server though. Don't think I'll be playing any games or using graphics intensive programs :).

At home all I have are pcs so...

Hmm... what about imacs mounted on racks :)

Somebody should do that... just cuz it looks good LOL...

well....you could always get a really high powered screen saver..LOL :laugh:

oh, as far as iMacs on Racks...give me a few months....who knows what you will find in the farm! :rolleyes:

http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/
^--pretty sweet, saw the BriQs at Linux World Expo NYC last year.... hopefully I'll be able to get a better look this year.

onthecatwalk,

I went to your company but you don't post your prices. I run a website idevgames.com which is geared to Mac developers but host it on a shared virtual server. I am thinking of paying $99 to rachshack for a dedicated machine. How are your prices?

How about co-locate? Bandwidth?

Thanks

Carlos Camacho
Editor

our shared server prices are listed you just have to click on the Pricing info link....Dedicated is not listed, we can't beat $99/mo our servers start at $249.99/mo for a G4 Server. But we do make deals with advertising and stuff. It depends, I probably can go as low as $175/mo for a G3 Server, if a site can be hosted with AppleShare around....$99 ...Macintosh Hosting Is Expensive :rolleyes: ...We currently don't offer co-loaction.

Yeah, the machines i put YDL on were an old powercomputing and my very first mac, a 7500. Neither would boot without a monitor, but I never even thought to dig around the control panels for a re-boot after power failure option. I'll have to look.

OSX is pretty nice, I too see no reason for linux on mac, except for older machines which won't take OSX without some tweaking. I've heard it's pretty easy to ditch the GUI on OSX too, and run everything from command line. Probably speeds things up, server wise, about 100%.

I'm a mac fan, but I see no advantage of hosting on them, just disadvantages.

a lot of people were disouraged by all these problems, well seeing as the older Macs were not designed for web hosting, only the

Quadra 900 & 950
Work Group Server Line (68040 & PPC)
G3 & G4 Servers
iMacs

But these machines do a really good job....when i need Windows 2000 Server all i do is fire up virtual PC :rolleyes: