Wed 2009/01/14 06:40
Photo of a Mac Mini server farm at Apple Insider discovered through a link by Hedirman on My Twitter. Was asking whether Mac Mini's could be stacked. Hmmm. Could be a hint to the Giveaway second round?
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Posted on Wed 2009/01/14 06:40 by
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Tue 05/13 00:53 comments (70)
That is a ton of Mac Minis.
(ID #447189) Posted on 2009/01/14 06:47
A Mac Mini weights 1.31 kg. A ton of Mac Minis would be 763 computers. We can't see all of them so nobody can tell if your statement if correct or not. However as weird as it may sound I'm not going to rule out that the building could contain that many o_O
(ID #447207) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:20
university film student
...LOL. ^^;
(ID #447223) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:42
DCX001-Prototype
LOL, you is being you..........
(ID #447383) Posted on 2009/01/14 11:09
The original link says roughly 400.
(ID #447233) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:52
IT-Architect, SysAdmin, WebDesign and Coding, Virtualization (VMware + NetApp)
Thats just insane... i have seen a lot of funny stuff in my IT career but thats just... WANT... *drool* Oo
(ID #447190) Posted on 2009/01/14 06:47
That is way cool They should all be stacked!
(ID #447191) Posted on 2009/01/14 06:50
That is absolutely incredible. In response to your question, I do have a file server that I keep in my closet, but that's about it. It's pretty handy, keeps my laptop nice and uncluttered.
(ID #447193) Posted on 2009/01/14 06:51
Young Grasshopper
Whoa, that's a lot of minis. I wonder how many air coolers they have in that room.
(ID #447194) Posted on 2009/01/14 06:57
Student/Music Producer/Web Designer
Oh wow. O.O That's pretty incredible. Gotta love Apple! ^^
(ID #447197) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:01
NEET (Desktop Support / Admin)
I've seen a similar photo elsewhere. It's very cool looking.
(ID #447198) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:04
I am not a friend of Mac, but it looks cool =D And I dont run a server at home.
(ID #447202) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:14
Ha sweet I've walked past that colo cage a few times when I'm in Vegas doing maintenance. We have a few fiber rings that terminate in cage just a few rows down from them. As for the AC comment that facility has Liebert units that will almost blow you over when you walk by them. Being in Vegas means they have to have a ton of redundancy for their cooling systems.
(ID #447204) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:18
I wonder, is it really feasible to create a large scale sever setup on mac minis? I would expect there to be a cost efficient way to get high performance. At home I run a single server. Mainly used for central fileaccess (And backup) and using MythTV as a mediacenter frontend.
(ID #447208) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:20
I wonder what they are doing. It's not normal to buy that amount of CPU power (though I think Apple offered a discount). I wonder how cost effective the Mac Mini is. It looks like it's a good offer since they decided to use it. Somehow it seems like a waste that they all have a DVD drive. I bet most of them will never use it as they are likely formatted using a disk image from a firewire drive.
(ID #447209) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:24
That looks cool, although I'll admit I don't know much about computers.
(ID #447211) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:26
Blogger, consultant
tl;dr version: that's not a lot of computers in one place; space usage for the Macs aren't well optimized <_< >_> I'm going to sound really jaded here, but understand this is a comment from someone who used to run server farms. That's a lot of Macs, yes, but I've seen a lot more computers in one place. I've seen the farm used to serve up MSN back when it used to be run by Compaq (which is now HP). We're talking thousands of computers rack mounted up to 16 feet high. Even the far more humbler farm I used to run had close to 600 servers all rack mounted. All told our server room had probably 18 rows with 8 cabinets each. Each cabinet capable of taking 44u (u = 1.75 inches approx) of equipment. Of course, not all of that were servers, much of it was network gear, storage, backup and telco equipment. Danny asks a good question: can't mini Macs be stacked or more specifically, racked mounted? It looks like they are free standing, which would've been a major no-no if I ran that data center. Free standing servers tip over. Free standing servers are more difficult to access. Free standing servers can be inadvertently moved or easily taken. I see a lot of wasted space in how the Macs are positioned. Also, who did their cabling? They need to redo that. Loose cables will snag on the dumbest things causing an embarrassing network or server outage.
(ID #447213) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:29
Maybe someone needs to design a specialized rack for the Minis?
(ID #447238) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:55
Half Engineer, Half Student, All Robot
Where I used to work, we had a bunch of testbeds. Not really servers, but they were stress-tested as much as actual servers. I saw a bunch of what seems to be custom mounted machines. I mean custom mounted as gutted and mounted on a plate that was afterwards rack mounted. Given these were expendable testbeds and the data center was temperature and air conditioned, there wasn't much dust. In terms of rack mounting, 1U is 19in x 1.75in (not sure. Rule of thumb I used to use). A Mac Mini is 6 x 6 x 2 in. I guess I optimal orientation would need 2U. This also allows sufficient breathing room. Of course, the chassis would either need to be stripped or holes would need to be drilled to mount them properly (say a plate) and that plate would need to be mounted on the rack mount. All in all, I would say major PITA.
(ID #447252) Posted on 2009/01/14 08:13
Blogger, consultant
Oh, I wouldn't suggest drilling holes or making that kind of drastic modification for the chassis...that would be bad. That would be a pita indeed; that I agree with you. What would be ideal is for the mini to come out with a chassis that can be better mounted or as Bard suggested, a specialized rack be developed...maybe using clamps instead of having the servers screwed in. I think it's pretty clear that the mini Mac wasn't intended to be a data center type machine, though it is used as such.
(ID #447304) Posted on 2009/01/14 08:54
Student artist
How much does it cost to make a sever at home? and why?
(ID #447220) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:41
Blogger, consultant
It depends on what you consider a server. I don't know Mac prices, but if you wanted to go cut rate, a decent PC-based server would cost no more an expensive consumer PC. The difference between a server and a client machine, apart from their function, is the level of redundancy they happen to have and that they are optimized in serving content or doing computation functions rather than serving up graphics like a gaming rig. Having a home based server if you have a network at home is convenient. A home based server can serve as your print server (no need to attach a print/usb cable to your wireless laptop to print), can act as remote storage (your laptop can have a small hard drive, but you can backup large files to your server), and can run shared applications if you're using the network with another person (e.g., a calendar application, an expensive graphics application like Photoshop).
(ID #447237) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:55
that's really impressive i didn't know that it was possible to create a cluster with lots of mac mini they have added a couple of external HD, see the 2 western digital passport on the top right with their blue circle :)
(ID #447222) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:42
marvin (Registered on 2006/12/25 00:54)
I was wondering about the blue circles. ^^ thought they might be a few assimilated pcs. ^^ thanks for that comment froggy. ^^
(ID #447379) Posted on 2009/01/14 11:04
Wow when I saw a server they just use ordinary (not mac mini) pc and there were around 50 - 70 and it was a hot place to stay !
(ID #447236) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:54
part time illustrationist, doll clothing seamstress
I read farm, I think MOOOO ^^;
(ID #447241) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:56
Troubleshooter, Universal Exports
^o^
(ID #447294) Posted on 2009/01/14 08:43
marvin (Registered on 2006/12/25 00:54)
lol but it's an apple farm. ^^
(ID #447373) Posted on 2009/01/14 10:58
DCX001-Prototype
Apple Milk, I'm game.
(ID #447387) Posted on 2009/01/14 11:14
Student.
uhmm... *cough* O.O"
(ID #447242) Posted on 2009/01/14 07:58
Half Engineer, Half Student, All Robot
Excellent. This minimizes the area, but doesn't it maximize cost? Although it depends on the type of servers this guy's running, but I don't believe the Core 2 Duo architecture is suited for this sort of application as compared to say a Xeon. Just my opinion, but this seems like another case of pee'ing your money away for something that looks cool (Apple).
(ID #447243) Posted on 2009/01/14 08:00
Half Engineer, Half Student, All Robot
As for servers at home. I run a small media server / VPN server that I use as a centralized location for my media and personal files. This also lets me get onto my secured home network to remotely maintain / support my family's computers. Too bad it's really crippled because my home connection sucks, but whatever. I used to run a shell server, shoutcast, and CS1.5 from a recommissioned Pentium box, but found that supporting something like that isn't worth it if you're doing it unpaid.
(ID #447567) Posted on 2009/01/14 16:11
Pretty amazing! O:
(ID #447244) Posted on 2009/01/14 08:03
Troubleshooter, Universal Exports
This photo is from the Macminicolo http://www.macminicolo.net/ facilities at Switch Communications in Las Vegas. Currently they have over 400 minis at their facility according to their numbers. To make a long story short, they offer hosting to clients in a unique way. You can either buy a mini from them or send one to them to host your site. It's a very interesting setup... Yes, I do have an older Pentium PC running Windows that I use for files and entertainment media. I really want to upgrade it to a mini or two with a RAID array for the data.
(ID #447248) Posted on 2009/01/14 08:06
ah~ s-s-servers! glorious server! server sweet server!
(ID #447257) Posted on 2009/01/14 08:17
Holy power consumption batman!
(ID #447274) Posted on 2009/01/14 08:25
AdvDip Network Security - CCNA - Ironport - Security+
I have a server in the 'office' (really a converted spare bedroom) at home - It usually stores most of my anime, manga and movies and also handles all my torrenting But i recently got myself a 1TB ext drive for my desktop and now i rarely run my server im thinking of converting it into a smoothwall to go in between the demarc point and my router
(ID #447300) Posted on 2009/01/14 08:47
Impressive, but set up seems bad. I don't run a server at home because I never really needed to and you can actually save quite a bit of money on electricity ^^
(ID #447301) Posted on 2009/01/14 08:50
DSL Tech Support T____T, Kita-Kon Chairman
I run a simple NAS storage on my network. I also have a Server box for LAN parties but its never plugged in.
(ID #447325) Posted on 2009/01/14 09:24
amatuer bum
Seeing all those led lights reminds me of some of the tokyo at night pictures I see around here.
(ID #447334) Posted on 2009/01/14 09:49
And here we see the exact location from which the Macbot self-assembled and took over the world. *shiver*
(ID #447347) Posted on 2009/01/14 10:08
College student, Mech programmer and striving photographer.
Servers for what exactly? The apple company or something else?
(ID #447355) Posted on 2009/01/14 10:23
Woooooow. I seriously think I've been there if that's at Switch. :D Super cool, never thought I'd see a picture posted here that I've actually seen.
(ID #447370) Posted on 2009/01/14 10:54
marvin (Registered on 2006/12/25 00:54)
wow! that's a lot of mac minis... hey look over there, it's Steve Jobs! *pockets a mini under his jacket*
(ID #447377) Posted on 2009/01/14 11:00
DCX001-Prototype
where? where? *searching for Steve Jobs*
(ID #447395) Posted on 2009/01/14 11:19
marvin (Registered on 2006/12/25 00:54)
lol ^^
(ID #447430) Posted on 2009/01/14 12:40
DCX001-Prototype
O_O That's really a lot of Mac Mini~~~~~~~~~ I think it's becuz of the small form-factor that people chose Mac Mini to use as a server, but why not get a single powerful server instead? Probably due to pricing.
(ID #447392) Posted on 2009/01/14 11:19
Black Knight, White King
I have been researching hosting my own mac mini server for the last few weeks. Still curious just how big of a server load the little box can handle though. It would be nice to be able to do my hosting for my site, but worry if it would be able to handle traffic growth. (Not that I have to worry about that issue for a while)
(ID #447393) Posted on 2009/01/14 11:19
Bounty Hunter
LOL....
(ID #447399) Posted on 2009/01/14 11:30
That's a lot of mini's...
(ID #447426) Posted on 2009/01/14 12:34
thats cool but also ridiculous...for the cost of getting 400 mac minis you can get a really good server thatz probably more powerful too XD
(ID #447429) Posted on 2009/01/14 12:39
Aeronautical Engineer
Lol... was wondering if I could stack a load of them like this... well this answers my question. XD
(ID #447438) Posted on 2009/01/14 13:01
Dog of the Country
it looks kinda exp..@_@
(ID #447442) Posted on 2009/01/14 13:11
Mechanical Engineering student
One EMP blast and it's all over... O_o
(ID #447477) Posted on 2009/01/14 13:57
Otaku
My servers are in Linux but I usually moving things around all the time
(ID #447485) Posted on 2009/01/14 14:09
anime/cosplay events organizer
wow! that's some server farm there i wonder what are they using this mac minis for?
(ID #447492) Posted on 2009/01/14 14:16
former Emperor of Britannia
Minis in stacks XD
(ID #447522) Posted on 2009/01/14 14:57
Otaku / Student in Computer Science
Nah..Too much things to setup a server
(ID #447573) Posted on 2009/01/14 16:14
Student, part-time Haruhi wannabe (that bit about godhood etc)
Don't tell me you're gonna get the winners to count the number of servers in there this time? ^^; Wouldn't mind having that in my backyard though...
(ID #447615) Posted on 2009/01/14 17:07
Legionnarion_Conquistadorz (Registered on 2008/12/18 20:49)
Student
wow, nice...
(ID #447656) Posted on 2009/01/14 17:48
Lot's and lot's of mac minis. Wonder how much would that cost?
(ID #447671) Posted on 2009/01/14 18:04
graduate studant (TV Broadcasting & Cinema )
NO BUT I WISH..... i'm just a beginner in the server, PHP, CSS stuff... buy the way, Danny what's the best way to have a good set-up like that? Could you do a segment or a series of that? Like best systems, price, odds and evens, etc... Thanks ^_^
(ID #447713) Posted on 2009/01/14 18:56
gotta take my hat off to him, he must be a real mac fan!
(ID #447738) Posted on 2009/01/14 19:24
gotta take my hat off to him, he must be a real mac fan!
(ID #447739) Posted on 2009/01/14 19:24
Imagine you are the one in charge of maintaining it...
(ID #447793) Posted on 2009/01/14 21:29
It looks like some type of secret evil headquarters...
(ID #447877) Posted on 2009/01/14 23:45
I don't run a server at home per se but I have one computer that has all the important documents and stuff in it. And it is almost always running...
(ID #448116) Posted on 2009/01/15 03:15
Student
servers are quite inexpensive now and they are quite convenient. i have a old p4 server running all my hds. i just keep slamming hds into that computer. its got over 2 TB of hd space in it and it works great. connected it to a gigabit switch and i can now get good throughput watch HD video and BT-ing at the same time. works great. + the extra desktop space cant hurt :P
(ID #448178) Posted on 2009/01/15 04:23
Wow that's a lot of em. That reminds me, I should get to setting up a server at home.
(ID #448221) Posted on 2009/01/15 05:01
Student
Makes my two Mac Mini server look pathetic. I would love to open my closet door to this, although like others have said, I would not want to be the one maintaining it all.
(ID #448327) Posted on 2009/01/15 07:22
This many Mac Mini's in a big stack would certainly fall over. And you can't just replace one at a time in case it breaks (but they won't anyway ^^). At home, it's a simple 2.6.24-gentoo-r8 on at Athlon. Too lazy to get firewall back up, so plz don't hack me.
(ID #448366) Posted on 2009/01/15 08:00
Grocery Store Clerk
A few IBM blades would have been a better investment than those pieces of shit.
(ID #450076) Posted on 2009/01/16 12:06
Must be expensive to get that many Macs running even though they are Mac Minis.
(ID #452860) Posted on 2009/01/18 21:18
But probably the best when factoring in their size.
(ID #643094) Posted on 2009/06/13 07:36
tennislord94 (Registered on 2008/10/26 14:11)
That has got to be expensive
(ID #523593) Posted on 2009/03/16 15:08
I'm planning to get the 2009 version of Mac Mini, to try out MacOS X. Since I have two 24" LCD monitor, I can use one for Windows and one for MacOS. =P d@@b
(ID #533793) Posted on 2009/03/25 21:20
part-time professional part-timer
Holy crap! =P~
(ID #642919) Posted on 2009/06/13 03:05
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