Parallels Server for Mac Pricing
Fresh from my inbox..
Parallels Server for Mac will be available soon. As a thank you to all participating Parallels Server for Mac Beta users, Parallels is offering an exclusive discount on a single Parallels Server for Mac license. Purchase this new software for only $700* - a 30% savings.
Hmm… well, the product has been working fairly well for us at OpenRain, but I’m not sure $700 per major version is going to be worth it as opposed to buying another cheap Dell machine and running VMWare Server on Linux for free, which we already do in some of our hosted environments. Here’s the kicker in tiny font at the bottom of the email explaining the asterisk after “$700″..
* The limited-time discount offer is limited to a single server from May 30 - June 30, 2008. Annual maintenance is required at the time of purchase, starting at an additional $249.75 per year. For academic pricing and volume licensing, register now or contact Parallels Sales at +1 (425) 282-6400.
So that’s $950 for the first year of our first system alone. Hmmmm…
Tags: apple, mac, openrain, parallels, server, virtualization
. 10 Jun 08 | Computer | Comments (2)
Xserve w/Leopard Server (Mac OS X 10.5), First Impressions
We just picked up a refurbished 2.66GHz quad-core Xeon from Apple, which we’ll be using for internal infrastructure. (We’re in the process of migrating from a mix of Solaris and Linux). After about 8 hours of learning the ins and outs of Leopard Server over the weekend, we had the box running Open Directory (Kerberos and OpenLDAP), DNS, AFP, SMB, FTP, domain account and machine management, mobile home directories, MySQL, Software Update, Xgrid controller, Wikis, Blogs, iCal and VPN services, all tightly integrated with single sign-on (via Kerberos) into a sexy 1U package.
- Xserve (refurbished discount, direct from Apple): ~$3K
- 3 x 750GB Disks (Newegg): ~$450
- 2 x Apple Drive Module (direct from Apple): ~$380
- 2 x 2GB FB-DIMM RAM (Crucial): ~$300
- Infrastructural sanity: priceless. (…or ~$4.5K after tax and random small stuff)
That’s some serious value considering how much of a PITA setting all this up can be in Linux (or whatever) without vendor support, and far cheaper than paying a Systems Administrator in the long run. The Server Admin and Workgroup Manager tools are pretty freakin’ usable, too, relative to the internal complexity of the system. I’m a happy camper for now… let’s see if it lasts.
Tags: apple, expensive, leopard, mac, openldap, openrain, opinion, review, server, solaris, xserve
. 10 Dec 07 | Computer | Comments (0)
The $1,000 (USD), 2TB OpenSolaris File Server
Here’s how to score a sweet OpenSolaris-compatible 2TB file server for $1000 (USD). I’m running Solaris Express Developer Edition on it with a ZFS RAIDZ1 file system.
- Motherboard: Asus M2NPV-VM. A great, inexpensive mATX board w/4 SATA ports, 2 IDE, PCI-X, GigE, built-in nVidia graphics w/DVI and VGA outs, FireWire, and tons of USB love. Oh, and the official nVidia driver works like a charm. Sweet! (The only thing that hasn’t run out-of-the-box is the built-in audio controller. Oh well.) $100.
- CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Dual Core Processor. 2.5GHz, 2×512KB, 1GHz Bus. $130.
- Memory: 4×1GB via OCZ OCZ2G8002GK DDR2-800 PC2-6400 kits. $175 total (after MIR).
- Drives: 4x500GB Western Digital Caviar SE 16 WD5000AAKS 7200RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s for the ZFS data volume. $450. (Old, small, slow and cheap PATA disks reused for the system volume. FMV ~$25.)
- Optical Drive: Reused old typical IDE DVD-ROM. FMV ~$20.
- Case: Reused typical ATX tower w/450 watt PSU. FMV ~$80.
- Peripherals: Reused optical mouse and keyboard. FMV ~$20.
Total: $1,000. Nice!
. 02 Jun 07 | Computer | Comments (2)