here here, apple kits rocks for low end server work, sun kit rocks for high end server work.
Colin > On 19 Feb 2015, at 20:55, Mel Beckman <m...@beckman.org> wrote: > > Keenan, > > Red. Herrings. > > You can provision macs over the network. That's one of the functions of Mac > OSX Server OS. It's trivial to then promote them to servers themselves. All > remotely. > > Also, the Mac is running a full BIND9 implementation, not some cutdown > version. Yes the GUI is minimal, but there's no need to use the GUI, and you > don't even have a GUI on other platforms for the most part. > > BGP speaker? Come on, you're gilding the lily. > > Yes, Apple is silent about its plans. But the Mac Mini and Server OS have > been well supported for over a decade. I don't know why you're bringing > server hardware into this, the whole point of the discussion is to avoid > using server hardware. And how much open source "road map" has failed to > materialize? Lots! The future-proofing argument cuts both ways, my friend. > > You may have little confidence in Apple, but the rest of the world seems to > have great confidence. Just look at Apple's stock performance and market cap. > > As a famous scientist one said: "The absence of data is not data." :-) > > -mel beckman > > On Feb 19, 2015, at 12:43 PM, "Keenan Tims" > <kt...@stargate.ca<mailto:kt...@stargate.ca>> wrote: > > If you have a lot of locations, as I believe Ray is looking for, all of > this is a manual process you need to do for each instance. That is slow > and inefficient. If you're doing more than a few, you probably want > something you can PXE boot for provisioning and manage with your > preferred DevOps tools. It also sounds like he wants to run anycast for > this service, so probably needs a BGP speaker and other site-specific > configuration that I assume is not covered by the cookie-cutter OSX > tools. Of course you could still do it this way with a Mac Mini running > some other OS, but why would you want to when there are plenty of other > mini-PC options that are more appropriate? > > Also: With Apple dropping their Pro products and leaving customers in > the lurch, and no longer having any actual server hardware, I would have > very little confidence in their server software product's quality org > likely longevity. And of course they're mum on their plans, so it's > impossible to plan around if they decide to exit the market. > > Keenan > > On 02/19/2015 11:47 AM, Mel Beckman wrote: > If your time is worth anything, you can't beat the Mac Mini, especially for a > branch office mission-critical application like DNS. > > I just picked up a Mini from BestBuy for $480. I plugged it in, applied the > latest updates, purchased the MacOSX Server component from the Apples Store > ($19), and then via the Server control panel enabled DNS with forwarding. > > Total time from unboxing to working DNS: 20 minutes. > > The Server component smartly ships with all services disabled, in contrast to > a lot of Linux distros, so it's pretty secure out of the box. You can harden > it a bit more with the built-in PF firewall. The machine is also IPv6 ready > out of the box, so my new DNS server automatically services both IPv4 and > IPv6 clients. > > You get Apple's warranty and full support. Any Apple store can do testing and > repair. > > And with a dual-core 1.4GHz I5 and 4GB memory, it's going to handle loads of > DNS requests. > > Of course, if your time is worth little, spend a lot of time tweaking slow, > unsupported, incomplete solutions. > > -mel > > On Feb 19, 2015, at 11:32 AM, Denys Fedoryshchenko > <de...@visp.net.lb<mailto:de...@visp.net.lb>> > wrote: > > On 2015-02-19 18:26, valdis.kletni...@vt.edu<mailto:valdis.kletni...@vt.edu> > wrote: > On Thu, 19 Feb 2015 14:52:42 +0000, David Reader said: > I'm using several to connect sensors, actuators, and such to a private > network, which it's great for - but I'd think at least twice before deploying > one as a public-serving host in user-experience-critical role in a remote > location. > I have a Pi that's found a purpose in life as a remote smokeping sensor and > related network monitoring, a task it does quite nicely. > Note that they just released the Pi 2, which goes from the original > single-core > ARM V6 to a quad-core ARM V7, and increases memory from 256M to1G. All at the > same price point. That may change the calculus. I admit not having gotten one > in hand to play with yet. > Weird thing - it still has Ethernet over ugly USB 2.0 > That kills any interest to run it for any serious networking applications. > > --- > Best regards, > Denys >
