Best Is Better Than Xserve

Back in February, Apple stopped making Xserve, their server computer.

For many BestMacs clients, this is not a huge deal – you don’t have an Xserve and got a Mini Server instead.  But read on: we came up with a way to give you better than what an Xserve delivered and at half the price.  For those of you who do have an aging Xserve, we have your upgrade path.

Back around 2006, we touted the Mac Mini as a server before Apple did.  But there were many situations where the needs were simply too great and an Xserve was required. Even then, and especially later in as the official Mini Server lowered cost of entry and offered “more than enough” performance, the main appeal of Xserve was in its hardware redundancy.

• Two power supplies meant that a burn out didn’t take down the server while people were using it.
• Easy access to internal components and spare part kits meant that repairs took just minutes.
• Lights Out Management was a way to remotely turn the server on and off, even if the OS had crashed.

All of this was designed to keep the Xserve up and accessible in the event of some kind of failure.  The Mini Server (nor the new Mac Pro Server) does not have any of this.

• If the Mini’s power supply burns out, you’re down until it’s replaced.
• Want to put a new logic board in?  Hope you have special tools and a lot of patience.
• System is locked up: you’ll need someone to go unplug it.

We have a solution.  Part of it is obvious: two Minis.  But that’s not the whole answer.  We found a software technique combined with some proprietary hardware that allows a Mini to automatically failover to a second Mini with no recovery time.

• Okay, so your Mini’s logic board burns out.  Whatever.  Shut it off and reboot the second Mini, you’re up and running in seconds.
• Take the broken Mini to get repaired, when it comes back, plug it in and you’re redundant again with no downtime – the live server doesn’t even need a reboot.
• The OS locks up and no one is in the office to help unplug it.  No biggie, we pull up a web page to control the power supply and reboot it.

How much? This is the best part.  To add this on the your existing Mini Server solution, figure on $300-600 for a second Mini to match your current setup (brand new Minis only run Lion but refurb and older models that can run 10.5 or 10.6 are plentiful for cheap – and they don’t need to be the Server model.)   And $400 for the extra proprietary hardware that enables the solution.  That’s as low as $700.

If you’re starting from scratch, or retiring an old Xserve, two brand new Minis are $600 each (skip the $1000 Server model, we’re doubling up all the hardware not just the hard drives), the proprietary hardware at $400, and Lion Server is only $50.  You weren’t getting a new Xserve for $1650.  Take storage to another level with a crazy-fast Thunderbolt disk solution (like the Promise Pegasus RAID) and you’ll get huge, fast storage that exceeds Xserve performance (And you’re still under the price of a new Xserve.)

Our labor for a project to get this going will vary based on your existing server storage, but the project cost will likely be less than $1500.  Sometimes as low as $800.

If you figure an Xserve gave you hardware redundancy for $3000 more than the cost of a Mini Server – and our solution comes in at well under half that and delivers better protection.  No wonder Apple discontinued Xserve: who needs it?

Want to experience the peace of mind that a fault tolerant server provides?  Call us today!