Thanks! I'm fortunate that I work somewhere where cool old tech gets recycled quite often. I also seem to be the only one who bothers taking any of it because, let's be honest, it's not very useful for much of anything.
Interesting... in about 2008 Apple sent us several evaluation units... I worked for a Fortune 10 firm at the time. We never established Apple OS X Servers in our environment, as Apple hoped, but enjoyed testing them in a performance lab context. Would love to have one in my home lab, just for the fun of it. Apple would often lock devices to accepted types, moreover, the drives accepted likely where SATA1 only. I realize this seems insane... but I have seen it before. This is one of the reasons we never established X Servers as a world-wide firm standard, we did not want to be closely bound to anyone one vendor, since we already leveraged HP, Dell and IBM against each other. With Apple would would not have been possible. At best for us X Servers would have been a very limited niche solution. We provided the limited MacOS users a virtual infrastructure based on VMware, which let us use standard hardware below VMware.
what server dosnt have VGA? most (even modern) servers so they can be backwards compatible with older KVM consoles in the data center.... no wonder apple servers didnt really catch on all that well!
These use an ungodly amount of electricity under load, not really efficient in a household. Have had the pleasure to use one of these around 2010 when i was in an IT course. Good times.
We had a bunch of these get retired over the past 4 years at work. Aside from the ability to run Mac OS natively, these really are just plain old 1U servers from 15 years ago. As a bit of an Apple collector, it's a shame that they're not useful or something I could run for the heck of it, like I do my iMac G3 for example. Simply too loud and power hungry. My M1 MacBook Air runs circles around the Xserve. I might hang on to one when the last few get recycled this summer to add to my collection.
I will buy one on Monday for 30€ from a local seller. I don’t know what model it is but lol for 30€ any is fine. I plan to install either FreeBSD, Linux or FreeNAS on it. Maybe you’d like to experiment with these as well? They could support SSD perhaps
Great idea, maybe I'll try out some other OSes instead of just macOS. The SSD issue is one I'd want to sort out before then so I don't end up spending hours waiting for installs between the optical drive, HDD, and USB 2.
appleontheapex that’s cool. I am playing with FreeBSD on a vm right now, can’t wait to get my Xserve tomorrow. Hopefully it’s a working one lol. If so, I’ll keep you updated about installing FreeBSD on it
@@appleontheapex 15:15 did you see under Storage where it said SAS disk? I bet you could get a SAS SSD working with it (assuming 4 yrs later you still have the thing)
@@appleontheapex I did not think that video card was supported at all. Changing it to another via the PCIe slot has been a work around. So everything works fine under Catalina with the stock card? Most of us eXserve users just need basic graphic support. However, remote desktop (or VNC) performance is critical.
I can't get any video output on my Xserve A1279 3,1. I've used the micro-display port to VGA, and I've tried installing a separate video card that has DVI, HDMI connections and still no video.
Sorry for the super late reply, but are you sure the Xserve is getting far enough in the boot sequence to even start displaying video? You may have another issue.
This Xserve and others that I have worked on would sometimes show a constant flashing light. After I got Mac OS Server installed, one of the included tools allowed me to see what was causing it. I don't recall what it was - something to do with a dead battery on the RAID card maybe? What kind of damage does your board have where it is still functional?
It has been done, but I'm not sure if that would help with the drive issue. From what others have told me, it may be the Xserve's firmware that is preventing the drives from being properly accessed.
appleontheapex I have seen Mac Pro firmware being flashed thinking that it is newer unit do you know anything like that for Xserve and maybe it will see the larger drives. Thanks
I tried installing 10.5 Server, which is what this came with. It seems to be the firmware of the Xserve that doesn't like the SSD. Doesn't even show up in open firmware mode.
Nice find, I wish those things were in the recycling bins near me lol, also, nice video!
Where are those recycling bins anyway
Thanks! I'm fortunate that I work somewhere where cool old tech gets recycled quite often. I also seem to be the only one who bothers taking any of it because, let's be honest, it's not very useful for much of anything.
@@appleontheapex I see! Maybe it's not useful for any of them, but they are of course fun to us.
Look on craigslist websites. I just found a Xserve1,1 with 56GB ram for just 50 euro
If you can put them in a separate room, they're tanks for music production after dosdudes High Sierra patch.
Really? Interesting... I'm looking for a thing to replace my trusty old PowerMac G5 1.8Ghz for my music production, this is interesting
Interesting... in about 2008 Apple sent us several evaluation units... I worked for a Fortune 10 firm at the time. We never established Apple OS X Servers in our environment, as Apple hoped, but enjoyed testing them in a performance lab context. Would love to have one in my home lab, just for the fun of it. Apple would often lock devices to accepted types, moreover, the drives accepted likely where SATA1 only. I realize this seems insane... but I have seen it before. This is one of the reasons we never established X Servers as a world-wide firm standard, we did not want to be closely bound to anyone one vendor, since we already leveraged HP, Dell and IBM against each other. With Apple would would not have been possible. At best for us X Servers would have been a very limited niche solution. We provided the limited MacOS users a virtual infrastructure based on VMware, which let us use standard hardware below VMware.
Use it as a pizza tray.
The must-have kitchen accessory of 2020! Keeps your pizza warm and your kitchen warmer.
what server dosnt have VGA? most (even modern) servers so they can be backwards compatible with older KVM consoles in the data center.... no wonder apple servers didnt really catch on all that well!
These use an ungodly amount of electricity under load, not really efficient in a household. Have had the pleasure to use one of these around 2010 when i was in an IT course. Good times.
We had a bunch of these get retired over the past 4 years at work. Aside from the ability to run Mac OS natively, these really are just plain old 1U servers from 15 years ago. As a bit of an Apple collector, it's a shame that they're not useful or something I could run for the heck of it, like I do my iMac G3 for example. Simply too loud and power hungry. My M1 MacBook Air runs circles around the Xserve. I might hang on to one when the last few get recycled this summer to add to my collection.
Wonder if the Raid Array Write Cache Battery is dead.
I will buy one on Monday for 30€ from a local seller. I don’t know what model it is but lol for 30€ any is fine. I plan to install either FreeBSD, Linux or FreeNAS on it. Maybe you’d like to experiment with these as well? They could support SSD perhaps
Great idea, maybe I'll try out some other OSes instead of just macOS. The SSD issue is one I'd want to sort out before then so I don't end up spending hours waiting for installs between the optical drive, HDD, and USB 2.
appleontheapex that’s cool. I am playing with FreeBSD on a vm right now, can’t wait to get my Xserve tomorrow. Hopefully it’s a working one lol. If so, I’ll keep you updated about installing FreeBSD on it
@@appleontheapex 15:15 did you see under Storage where it said SAS disk? I bet you could get a SAS SSD working with it (assuming 4 yrs later you still have the thing)
I cannot believe that mezzanine video card is working. Nice!
Was this a common issue with Xserves? Or that it works at all under Catalina? I know my 2010 iMac can't run Catalina with its AMD card.
@@appleontheapex I did not think that video card was supported at all. Changing it to another via the PCIe slot has been a work around. So everything works fine under Catalina with the stock card? Most of us eXserve users just need basic graphic support. However, remote desktop (or VNC) performance is critical.
Nice post apocalyptic mousepad
NIce find ,Great video!
sounds like a church quire w the server fans running
Choir?
@@paulgupta2454 the sounds of the fans
the fan sound like it will take off anytime lol
I would have tried one of the other caddies.
How do you make the Catalina bootable usb
With dosdude1's patching tool. You must have a Mac available to do this dosdude1.com/catalina/
I can't get any video output on my Xserve A1279 3,1. I've used the micro-display port to VGA, and I've tried installing a separate video card that has DVI, HDMI connections and still no video.
Sorry for the super late reply, but are you sure the Xserve is getting far enough in the boot sequence to even start displaying video? You may have another issue.
I cringed a little when I saw you push on the optical drive frame to put the hard drive in, that part of the metal bends sooo easily.
I got an Xserve but the main board has physical damage which results in a constant flashing light but other than that the system is fully functional
This Xserve and others that I have worked on would sometimes show a constant flashing light. After I got Mac OS Server installed, one of the included tools allowed me to see what was causing it. I don't recall what it was - something to do with a dead battery on the RAID card maybe?
What kind of damage does your board have where it is still functional?
@@appleontheapex no like the raid card has PHYSICAL damage to the connector
my xserves fought ssds too
they dont even sell them in Argentina x_x i want to try one
For SSDs it needs a firmware update
Is there anywhere I can find this update? I tried the Mac OS software update, and didn't see anything during a brief search online.
Sorry I thought you could.
I just Finally picked one up and it doesn’t support a APFS only macOS extended Journal
Can you run ESXI on it and install other operating systems via VM will it work and will it also see larger drives? Thanks for sharing
It has been done, but I'm not sure if that would help with the drive issue. From what others have told me, it may be the Xserve's firmware that is preventing the drives from being properly accessed.
appleontheapex I have seen Mac Pro firmware being flashed thinking that it is newer unit do you know anything like that for Xserve and maybe it will see the larger drives. Thanks
@@HowardCallenderIT Mode enables the controller to detect and read drives that are over 2 terabytes in size.
Why not try and install the OS from the timeframe the machine comes from, instead of a hack. SSD might surprisingly work all of a sudden.
I tried installing 10.5 Server, which is what this came with. It seems to be the firmware of the Xserve that doesn't like the SSD. Doesn't even show up in open firmware mode.
@@appleontheapex Maybe a stupid question but did you try those other slots? Maybe the first one is broken..
It’s dumb to install Catalina on it. It’s a server you run Mac OS server on it w/ HS
If this were to be put to use as a server for daily use, it would certainly get High Sierra. Server on Catalina is almost completely useless now.
Damn that thing is loud
Not exactly something I'd run 24x7, for sure
sound is beautiful in contrast to other servers manufacturer
getinsidelife yeah I lowkey like it lol
Well a datacenter's last concern is noise, so they probably didn't pay too much attention to the loudness.
my rack switches off automatically after 8 seconds
does anyone have an idea what is wrong?
Make sure that you are providing the correct power.
now run games on it
How on earth can somebody install macOS Catalina on a Xserve!?
With the Catalina Patcher Tool from dosdude1.