Larry’s Things .net

I’ve never been a big Apple Mac fan.   I mostly had issues with OS 9 and its inability to handle threads properly.   The introduction of OS X changed everything.  Finally a serious operating system that can possibly put the mac into server class territory.    What I have is the dual ppc G5 server and also the “headless” (no video output, and no built-in cdrom) dual ppc G5 server.    First thing, I was never able to configure the headless dual ppc G5’s, via the network boot method - probably an indication of my own impatience - but I spent quite a while trying to get it to work.   I ended up giving up and just transplanting the hard drives to the headed server and installed the os, then transplanted it back it…  that basically worked, except that the dock started working strangely with a lot of question marks on them.

Everything worked relatively well… mostly…  except for the voltage level on one of the processors, which is somewhat on the low side of things.   Then one day I decided to allow an update to 10.4.10 .   Big mistake.   The stupid server wouldn’t boot up again, just the damn spinning icon.   Booting it in verbose mode seems to show that some kernel component was corrupted… however, there’s no reference on Apple’s site, or on any other discussion site on how to replace that module… in fact, most people who have had similar problems where told by Apple to just reinstall the operating system.   About 2 months later, another user experienced the same symptoms, but it crashed at a different point during bootup - same solution though - reinstall os.   This is quite unsettling, as it suggests to me that Apple does not have sufficient error checking in their os upgrades to ensure that the patch is installed correctly before reboots.   

I’ve been basically using the system as an SMB/CIFS fileserver and also to run Retrospect for backups.   So far, they both seem to run quite well.    No real issues with either of them.   Well, maybe that’s not entirely true…   Retrospect, which is now owned by EMC, has not had a major mac upgrade in a long time…  it doesn’t look like they consider it to be an area that one can make much money in - I wouldn’t blame them though - I’d pretty much come up with the same conclusion.

Now a big problem that’s been showing up lately has been my recent decision to use it as a print server for other macs.   This shouldn’t be something difficult, but the stupid print service keeps stalling.   I have to stop/restart it every once in a while, there are no errors indicating that anythings’ amiss.   My only guess is that the drivers to drive the HP 2600n are buggy.

I think that’s the core of the potential problems that one could have when using Macs.   There’s not a large enough user base for the peripheral companies to spend the time/money to make stable drivers/software.   Exception is of course the Adobe and Microsoft Office products, which so far work perfectly well on the Mac systems.

Mac x11 does not work properly if installed in non-boot drive.

If you have the time, energy and patience to deal with half-assed third party support, and you’re trying to decide whether to get a Mac or a linux based computer, then go with the Mac PPC Server.  

Generally - So far, it works…  but the very cheaply put together bios setup menu really scares me.   I haven’t seen menus like this since the old Commodore PET days.   Several times, the system wouldn’t recognize one of the mirror drives on bootup, but by the time it starts up the operating system and loads the driver and management software, it locates the missing mirror and starts to rebuild…  disconcerting…   Looks very similar to the ByteCC Raid controller (unverified).

If you’re using this card for a boot drive, installation on windows 2000 requires that you first create a floppy disk with the driver software included on the cd. 

The included management software can play an alarm sound or send an email alert if the mirror is degraded.

Conclusion:  I’d be hesitant to buy this product again.