WEBVTT 00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:06.919 this is an Apple computer but unlike the 00:00:04.400 --> 00:00:11.599 ones that you've used before it's not pretty because it's intended to be 00:00:08.880 --> 00:00:16.760 hidden away in a server rack I know right like what I mean when you think of 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:22.000 Apple you think of consumer electronics because that's the only thing that they 00:00:18.720 --> 00:00:25.359 advertise but they not only made servers 00:00:22.000 --> 00:00:27.920 but they quietly did so for over 20 00:00:25.359 --> 00:00:32.119 years and by the time they reached their final form these things could be found 00:00:30.160 --> 00:00:36.760 in businesses and schools throughout the world being used for everything from 00:00:34.399 --> 00:00:43.200 file serving to Media workflow acceleration to Microsoft active 00:00:39.120 --> 00:00:46.160 directory Services wait an apple server 00:00:43.200 --> 00:00:52.079 for a Microsoft anyway the point is they were unlike other Apple products in many 00:00:49.079 --> 00:00:55.000 ways for one the xserve lineup was 00:00:52.079 --> 00:01:00.239 positioned as a budget alternative to premium solutions from PC makers it's 00:00:58.199 --> 00:01:05.400 upside down World it raises so many questions like why was it so cheap did 00:01:02.920 --> 00:01:11.320 it have any redeeming qualities why did Apple ultimately pull the plug to find 00:01:07.920 --> 00:01:13.960 out we bought the last xserve machine 00:01:11.320 --> 00:01:19.400 that Apple ever produced and we're going to take it out for a rip this is going 00:01:16.159 --> 00:01:22.680 to be fun Bud fun like this segue to our 00:01:19.400 --> 00:01:24.799 sponsor set app owning this doesn't turn 00:01:22.680 --> 00:01:28.960 you into a professional buy design it's more about great software and how you 00:01:26.960 --> 00:01:32.360 use it if you're someone who creates value with the help of your Apple 00:01:30.680 --> 00:01:37.439 devices you should check out all the superpowers that the apps from set app 00:01:34.200 --> 00:01:37.439 can give you link down 00:01:44.079 --> 00:01:50.200 below we considered the 2009 xserve 31 00:01:47.719 --> 00:01:55.680 to be the last real server from Apple because while there were server versions 00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:59.680 of the Mac Mini until 2012 they were basically the same as their desktop 00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:03.880 counterparts just with some minor tweaks to the specs with third party 00:02:01.560 --> 00:02:07.439 accessories they could be used to fill the app- shaped void in an 00:02:05.280 --> 00:02:11.840 organization's rack but it was pretty clear that Apple's Focus had moved on 00:02:10.160 --> 00:02:16.599 and over the next 10 years they would slowly chip away at the functionality of 00:02:14.120 --> 00:02:21.000 their macOS server software until its eventual death in 00:02:18.160 --> 00:02:27.959 2022 but enough about that we've got a Mac server in its prime and this is my 00:02:24.480 --> 00:02:31.840 first Hands-On what exactly did they 00:02:27.959 --> 00:02:34.239 think different well for a server she's 00:02:31.840 --> 00:02:41.200 definitely pretty slick and stylish and weighs only a mere uh 40 lb with most of 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:45.400 the drive Bays not populated the system identifier button is on both the front 00:02:43.440 --> 00:02:48.480 and the back when you press it it flashes both of them which is a nice 00:02:47.120 --> 00:02:53.040 little quality of life feature that makes it easy to locate on the rack on 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:58.040 the other side of our front USB is our Ethernet port lights then right of that 00:02:55.560 --> 00:03:01.480 are the system activity lights if you hold down the power button and the ident 00:02:59.840 --> 00:03:05.720 Iden ifier button to boot that allows you to use the lights to select a boot 00:03:03.599 --> 00:03:11.159 method without requiring a monitor or any input devices now given its utility 00:03:08.959 --> 00:03:16.080 as a file server and a media server you'd think it would have a lot more 00:03:12.640 --> 00:03:18.959 Drive Bays it has only three by default 00:03:16.080 --> 00:03:24.120 ah an xer server would normally be paired with an X raid which as you 00:03:21.680 --> 00:03:27.519 probably guessed is a rackm mounted raid enclosure that would sit either right 00:03:25.720 --> 00:03:32.000 above it or right below it giving it an additional 14 drive base now obviously 00:03:30.519 --> 00:03:36.840 we're not going to deploy this thing so we don't need one of those but we do 00:03:34.360 --> 00:03:41.439 need at least one and we were missing all of them out of the box so we had to 00:03:38.480 --> 00:03:47.239 order one off of eBay as it turns out the sleds are proprietary which isn't 00:03:44.040 --> 00:03:50.760 uncommon but the connectors are also 00:03:47.239 --> 00:03:52.000 proprietary which is uncommon we 00:03:50.760 --> 00:03:57.720 received what may have been one of the last remaining sealed X serve drives in 00:03:54.760 --> 00:04:02.360 existence fun fact by the way for both the xserve and the X-ray the drive 00:04:00.079 --> 00:04:08.079 themselves are just standard SATA and SAS hard drives and then beyond adapting 00:04:05.560 --> 00:04:12.239 them to this proprietary interface Apple also went a step further and vendor 00:04:10.439 --> 00:04:17.400 locked them through the firmware so even if you could get your hands on random 00:04:14.640 --> 00:04:22.199 extra sleds you couldn't simply upgrade them with off the-shelf Replacements 00:04:20.239 --> 00:04:27.360 bastards they weren't the only ones who pulled this kind of crap but that 00:04:24.720 --> 00:04:31.800 doesn't make it okay I can't wait to take this apart this thing is just kind 00:04:29.039 --> 00:04:35.759 of wild to me right some stuff may not be normal today but was at the time like 00:04:33.919 --> 00:04:39.919 having a slim optical drive in the front of your server but other things were 00:04:37.880 --> 00:04:47.560 weird even then like the fact that it has firewire ports and mini DisplayPort 00:04:43.400 --> 00:04:51.120 instead of just basic VGA how does Apple 00:04:47.560 --> 00:04:53.880 always manage to make Hardware look so 00:04:51.120 --> 00:05:01.360 pretty and what are you you look like a weird little Drive 00:04:56.880 --> 00:05:04.440 of some sort yo Tanner yes what the 00:05:01.360 --> 00:05:06.960 devil is this little guy here that 00:05:04.440 --> 00:05:12.320 little guy is the primary hard drive for it so even drive yeah even when all 00:05:09.560 --> 00:05:18.039 three of these are empty your operating system is still going to go on there and 00:05:14.320 --> 00:05:20.720 it uses a proprietary connector because 00:05:18.039 --> 00:05:26.280 just it can I'm assuming I'm going to find the fans under the cool little 00:05:22.199 --> 00:05:30.199 shroud yay so there they are they may be 00:05:26.280 --> 00:05:34.280 short but boy are they ever thick what 00:05:30.199 --> 00:05:37.400 is this card this thing is chalk full of 00:05:34.280 --> 00:05:40.199 what appears to be both nand Flash and 00:05:37.400 --> 00:05:47.360 Dam Tanner when you told me this thing is basically just a 2009 Mac Pro but in 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:54.520 server form I didn't think I was going to be finding whatever this is would 00:05:50.199 --> 00:05:57.560 that possibly be a raid card oh yes that 00:05:54.520 --> 00:06:00.319 is very possible confirmed this is a 00:05:57.560 --> 00:06:06.639 RAID card and you could have apparently buy this raid card as a PCIe card as 00:06:04.280 --> 00:06:12.400 well that is hilarious and if I had to guess I would 00:06:09.400 --> 00:06:14.199 say this plug right here is the same one 00:06:12.400 --> 00:06:17.800 that this one is using for its backup battery because I don't see a backup 00:06:15.880 --> 00:06:22.039 battery in here and under normal circumstances you would want to have a 00:06:19.880 --> 00:06:27.080 battery on a hardware raid card because that way any data that was in Flight 00:06:25.080 --> 00:06:30.160 like sitting in the cash on the raid card about to be written to the hard 00:06:28.639 --> 00:06:35.000 drives in the event of a sudden power loss could be preserved by keeping the 00:06:32.800 --> 00:06:39.800 card powered so that it could be flushed to the drives after the fact or it's 00:06:37.319 --> 00:06:46.599 possible that Apple assumed that if this thing is sitting in a data center 00:06:42.960 --> 00:06:48.800 somewhere oh no that there should be no 00:06:46.599 --> 00:06:53.599 reason for it to suddenly lose power I need to find all those screws 00:06:51.440 --> 00:06:59.160 fortunately I've got the LT store screwdriver complete with magnet screw 00:06:57.120 --> 00:07:04.759 finding bit hopefully these are fair as screws ah yes they are oh good one two 00:07:02.919 --> 00:07:08.759 got another dual gigabit network card here I'm assuming this is just gigabit 00:07:06.280 --> 00:07:13.120 right yes yeah all right nothing special about that but what I'm really 00:07:10.199 --> 00:07:20.919 interested in is this card under it you know what this looks like an mxm 00:07:17.039 --> 00:07:24.440 module is that what it is is this a GPU 00:07:20.919 --> 00:07:30.400 yep why the hell are they putting laptop 00:07:24.440 --> 00:07:33.240 gpus in servers huh oh and it's NVIDIA 00:07:30.400 --> 00:07:38.199 this is before they started quarreling and uh didn't use any of each other's 00:07:35.759 --> 00:07:44.520 products anymore for anything what is this I believe that is a 00:07:42.080 --> 00:07:49.919 gt130 I love when Apple Builds an upgradability into their products and 00:07:47.240 --> 00:07:54.440 then completely abandons them like the 2019 Mac Pro you know this reminds me of 00:07:52.360 --> 00:07:57.759 the 2019 Mac Pro in more ways than one you've got the unrealized upgrade 00:07:56.240 --> 00:08:02.520 potential and then you've also got the fact that it's uh rack mounted server 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:07.960 version of what is essentially the same Hardware running the same software Mac 00:08:04.960 --> 00:08:09.520 OS it's just that when the 2019 version 00:08:07.960 --> 00:08:13.479 rolled around and we thought o maybe they'll you know pay attention to the 00:08:11.240 --> 00:08:17.800 server space again clearly that didn't happen and oh wait yeah I guess that's 00:08:15.599 --> 00:08:23.199 not really a difference cuz that also happened here they were also both based 00:08:19.840 --> 00:08:25.840 on Intel platforms with risk-based CPUs 00:08:23.199 --> 00:08:32.000 that would proceed and follow them one difference is that I wouldn't describe 00:08:27.800 --> 00:08:34.399 the xserve lineup as a failure so where 00:08:32.000 --> 00:08:38.959 did these things come from well it was ultimately Apple's strong foothold in 00:08:36.479 --> 00:08:43.159 the education and media sectors that really kept these things alive so 00:08:40.959 --> 00:08:46.120 naturally those are two areas that remained strong targets when their 00:08:44.640 --> 00:08:51.600 Enterprise equipment first started rolling out with the new OS X created as 00:08:49.440 --> 00:08:56.200 a Rebrand with the return of Steve Jobs and the later release of the iPod so to 00:08:54.000 --> 00:09:00.600 continue to fit into these markets they allowed easy integration into existing 00:08:58.560 --> 00:09:04.519 Windows heavy environment ments easy creation and maintenance of workflows 00:09:02.600 --> 00:09:09.640 for things like Network installation of newly purchased Mac and a video podcast 00:09:07.600 --> 00:09:15.560 creation system that required minimal human intervention that ran best on xerf 00:09:13.600 --> 00:09:19.640 this last point is also important because it allowed Apple to help 00:09:17.279 --> 00:09:23.560 saturate the podcast section of iTunes with videos that were made to be viewed 00:09:21.240 --> 00:09:28.160 on things like the existing iPod video and then later the iPhone Educators 00:09:26.200 --> 00:09:32.760 could put lectures online media companies could expand to new mediums 00:09:30.640 --> 00:09:38.000 and enthusiasts were rewarded for their purchase with some of that delicious 00:09:34.800 --> 00:09:40.160 sweet content M 00:09:38.000 --> 00:09:46.279 content oh yeah right we're supposed to be making content about this uh let's 00:09:42.440 --> 00:09:48.519 turn it on wow those are just about the 00:09:46.279 --> 00:09:55.240 brightest network activity indicator LEDs I have ever seen I'm here for it I 00:09:51.560 --> 00:09:58.040 appreciate that hey look at that uh 00:09:55.240 --> 00:10:02.680 what's my name LT daddy oh sorry what we're booted up into snow left 00:10:00.160 --> 00:10:06.959 but the way we got here was very complicated with no drive for it the 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:13.279 system initially booted into recovery for yosity but recovery would get stuck 00:10:10.079 --> 00:10:15.720 because it required an Apple ID well 00:10:13.279 --> 00:10:19.600 Apple IDs these days require two Factor authentication which is something that 00:10:17.360 --> 00:10:24.320 was missing from the signin process on our yosd recovery Drive the work around 00:10:22.240 --> 00:10:29.560 is to put the 2fa number at the end of the password but then it refused to 00:10:26.880 --> 00:10:33.360 authenticate because the TLs and SS L encryption that were baked into the 00:10:30.680 --> 00:10:38.160 operating system we using expired keys and there was no way to update them the 00:10:36.360 --> 00:10:44.079 newest macOS version that supports the xerf is lcy 10 so you might say just 00:10:41.240 --> 00:10:49.079 install that right wrong when you try to create a bootable USB installer on 00:10:46.440 --> 00:10:54.800 something more modern like uh 2017 MacBook Pro it'll tell you that lcy 10 00:10:52.279 --> 00:11:01.760 will not run on the machine and refuse to create the device Apple if you need a 00:10:58.800 --> 00:11:08.000 working operating system on a machine in order to install an operating system on 00:11:05.079 --> 00:11:13.040 that same machine users with faulty drives on older systems are forced to 00:11:10.680 --> 00:11:17.560 take their devices to The Genius Bar I am not rolling up to the Guildford Apple 00:11:15.600 --> 00:11:23.920 Store with this thing they hate me enough already so we settled on Snow 00:11:20.480 --> 00:11:25.920 Leopard server it installed fine though 00:11:23.920 --> 00:11:30.360 it still refused to run the installer for lcy 10 because we needed to install 00:11:28.200 --> 00:11:34.600 software updates software updates wouldn't install because there was no 00:11:32.160 --> 00:11:38.560 app store and the Apple website couldn't be accessed to download the App Store 00:11:36.360 --> 00:11:44.360 and Safari because the old version of safari doesn't support apple.com 00:11:41.639 --> 00:11:48.600 security so we had to download Chrome to download the App Store to run the 00:11:46.120 --> 00:11:53.959 updator to run the installer to update the operating system and then finally 00:11:51.160 --> 00:11:59.240 with lcan installed all the server software was missing as it turns out 00:11:56.680 --> 00:12:03.399 after snow leopard server Apple stopped producing server specific versions of 00:12:01.040 --> 00:12:08.959 their operating systems made the old bakedin programs stop working after the 00:12:06.480 --> 00:12:14.800 upgrade and then they released the OS 10 server Suite as an app in the app store 00:12:11.680 --> 00:12:16.480 it only cost 20 bucks so no big deal 00:12:14.800 --> 00:12:22.959 except that they stopped selling it in April of 2022 and we have no way to get 00:12:20.199 --> 00:12:29.240 it we settled then on dual booting so that we can show off both the latest 00:12:24.959 --> 00:12:30.720 software and the X serves features Apple 00:12:29.240 --> 00:12:35.519 we're not saying you have to support your old Hardware but to intentionally 00:12:33.240 --> 00:12:41.800 make it impossible to use that's just plain 00:12:36.399 --> 00:12:44.440 rude maist server super cool uh wait 00:12:41.800 --> 00:12:48.800 okay so sorry is this the page oh yeah very cool right out of the box then the 00:12:46.800 --> 00:12:52.120 web server is running and we just have to go to the IP address of the server 00:12:50.279 --> 00:12:57.320 that brings us to a portal for various web services that are available then on 00:12:54.880 --> 00:13:00.320 the dock we've got the default server applications that set this apart from 00:12:58.760 --> 00:13:05.399 the Reg snow leopard that would have come on your late 2009 MacBook server 00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:09.320 preferences allows you to change basic settings for users in groups file 00:13:07.760 --> 00:13:13.079 sharing which functions the way you would assume a file sharing server would 00:13:11.040 --> 00:13:17.079 mail and IAL which would allow it to theoretically function as a replacement 00:13:14.600 --> 00:13:21.639 for Microsoft Exchange I chat The Familiar chat client from the era though 00:13:19.480 --> 00:13:26.279 this time hosted for use within work groups which allowed organizations to 00:13:23.279 --> 00:13:28.519 maintain their own chat logs inhouse and 00:13:26.279 --> 00:13:31.920 they could Federate with xmpp servers to allow for chat between members and 00:13:29.800 --> 00:13:36.040 different organizations it's got web which handled the web server with the UI 00:13:33.839 --> 00:13:40.120 making it super easy to implement simple internet Pages VPN which allowed users 00:13:38.560 --> 00:13:44.279 to connect using layer 2 or point-to-point tunneling time machine 00:13:42.240 --> 00:13:47.040 which has the server function as a storage place for other Macs in the 00:13:45.720 --> 00:13:52.000 network to dump their time machine backups and security which is pretty 00:13:49.800 --> 00:13:57.120 much just firewall rules there are also some icons to see general information 00:13:54.079 --> 00:13:59.880 text logs and system usage graphs all of 00:13:57.120 --> 00:14:04.560 this stuff looks very Apple so far right in a yeah it works but it can't be 00:14:02.279 --> 00:14:08.560 customized much going of way and if that's how you want to manage your 00:14:05.560 --> 00:14:11.079 server it's kind of a great product cuz 00:14:08.560 --> 00:14:17.600 that's how it'll function for you but right beside server preferences here is 00:14:13.959 --> 00:14:20.600 the server admin button and this is the 00:14:17.600 --> 00:14:23.560 real powerhouse this window gives access 00:14:20.600 --> 00:14:28.720 to much more minute details and some other functions that were hidden from 00:14:25.240 --> 00:14:31.279 view in preferences for some reason 00:14:28.720 --> 00:14:35.959 puzzle ly this is the only way to access things like SMB for acting as a PC 00:14:33.959 --> 00:14:41.279 compatible file server QuickTime streaming and podcast producer podcast 00:14:38.920 --> 00:14:46.320 producer was a pretty cool idea that allowed networked users to easily record 00:14:44.120 --> 00:14:51.079 video podcasts following workflows that were created beforehand in podcast 00:14:48.680 --> 00:14:55.600 composer two cameras could be connected to the server and then could be recorded 00:14:53.240 --> 00:15:00.680 from at once with the recording process controlled using the web portal or the 00:14:58.040 --> 00:15:04.519 podcast capture application on Mac once the recording was complete it would 00:15:02.519 --> 00:15:08.240 automatically be encoded and could even be published automatically if that's 00:15:06.320 --> 00:15:12.160 what the workflow called for if there were multiple servers in the network 00:15:09.920 --> 00:15:16.639 configured through X grid CPU heavy tasks like encoding could be offloaded 00:15:14.440 --> 00:15:20.199 to those servers this was probably a pretty great system to record things 00:15:18.560 --> 00:15:24.600 like University lectures without requiring too much human intervention or 00:15:22.680 --> 00:15:29.319 tying up all the compute power from a single server moving on there's workg 00:15:27.079 --> 00:15:33.560 group manager which is exactly what it sounds like podcast composer which 00:15:31.720 --> 00:15:37.519 allowed management of things like the workflows used in podcast producer 00:15:35.639 --> 00:15:43.600 screen sharing which worked like most VNC remote access tools but was Mac 00:15:40.360 --> 00:15:46.199 specific and system image utility a 00:15:43.600 --> 00:15:51.440 super cool tool for creating customized Network bootable and installable images 00:15:48.959 --> 00:15:56.399 of snow leopard this could be used to deploy standardized installs to a lot of 00:15:53.880 --> 00:15:59.920 computers at once or to have networked computers boot right off of the image on 00:15:58.480 --> 00:16:04.040 the server considering that this breadth of 00:16:01.519 --> 00:16:09.600 features came baked into a server OS that had an easy to ous guey with no 00:16:07.079 --> 00:16:13.480 cost added on top of the hardware it's a little surprising that the product 00:16:11.240 --> 00:16:17.759 wasn't popular enough to survive especially when you account for Windows 00:16:15.279 --> 00:16:22.720 Server absolutely ridiculous pricing structure I mean not only does Windows 00:16:20.120 --> 00:16:28.440 Server cost more than Desktop Windows the client access licenses or cows mean 00:16:26.759 --> 00:16:34.880 that you have to pay an additional license fee for every user who is going 00:16:31.360 --> 00:16:37.000 to access that server or come to think 00:16:34.880 --> 00:16:43.160 of it maybe that's what makes all of this not surprising at all like any 00:16:40.600 --> 00:16:47.920 Corporation Apple's raison Detra is to make money and being a forward-looking 00:16:45.920 --> 00:16:52.720 company Apple would have clearly recognized that the world was moving to 00:16:50.079 --> 00:16:58.920 cloud-based storage and services rather than locally hosted ones so with that in 00:16:56.160 --> 00:17:04.000 mind are they better off trying to literally compete and increase their 00:17:01.440 --> 00:17:08.640 one-time licensing costs for these bare metal servers or are they better off 00:17:06.439 --> 00:17:13.959 charging users monthly to build up their own centralized infrastructure and 00:17:10.839 --> 00:17:16.839 subscription-based revenue well I think 00:17:13.959 --> 00:17:20.400 we all know the answer to that but that doesn't mean the ex serve is totally 00:17:18.439 --> 00:17:23.720 dead there's an active Enthusiast community that is dedicated to keeping 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:29.160 these machines in service turning them into personal servers budget Mac Pro 00:17:26.480 --> 00:17:32.559 Replacements or whatever Franken monstrosities their Little Mac loving 00:17:30.880 --> 00:17:35.760 Minds can come up with LTT and Frankenstein monstrosities actually go 00:17:34.200 --> 00:17:39.480 hand in hand and what better way to monsterfy something than to turn it into 00:17:37.360 --> 00:17:43.080 a formidable gaming machine now unfortunately we ran into some 00:17:41.160 --> 00:17:46.280 challenges getting that going for today not the least of which was that we 00:17:44.400 --> 00:17:54.679 wanted to upgrade the CPUs for better performance and it turns out Apple uses 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:57.080 delited zons like what are they the the 00:17:54.679 --> 00:18:01.880 play it safe fruit company or are they a bunch of mad scientists enthusiasts I 00:17:59.799 --> 00:18:05.840 can never tell anyway let me know in the comments if you want to see a followup I 00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:10.960 think that would be a lot of fun fun like this segue to our sponsor Micro 00:18:08.400 --> 00:18:15.000 Center where it's monitor Madness month I mean what good is having an amazing 00:18:12.559 --> 00:18:18.760 computer if you don't have a monitor to go 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