Coming soon to a generic server near you: OS X Server

I’m not privy to any inside information, but I think that Apple is setting up the ability to run OS X Server on generic x86 servers. It’s probably just an attack of wishful thinking, but check my logic.

Apple sends mixed signals about the future of its server hardware. Its storage array, Xserve RAID, was fast, reliable, easy to manage and frequently updated with new firmware, admin tools and higher-capacity drives. It got the boot, as it were, because Apple chose not to reengineer it to work with Serial ATA or Serially Attached SCSI drives, which Apple would have to do in order to keep Xserve RAID’s capacity rising.

This makes me wonder about the discussions at Apple about Xserve. To accommodate Nehalem Xeon, Xserve’s logic would have to be reengineered. Intel changed everything with Nehalem, and Apple would have to tackle as much engineering as Xserve RAID would have required. For example, Xserve is unique in the type and number of hardware sensors. Nehalem’s completely redesigned I/O, memory busses and DDR3 RAM require changes in Xserve’s circuit board components and their layout. I envision a discussion about Xserve’s future similar to that had for Xserve RAID.

If it were my call (and I realize that I have negative influence on Apple’s choices), I’d let the current model of Xserve be its last. Throw the R & D capital and manpower into Virtual OS X Server. Apple wouldn’t need to touch one hair on the head of its server OS to make it run on a generic x86 machine. It can simply go to a virtual machine manager (VMM) vendor like Parallels, VMware, Microsoft and Sun and say, “if you want to run OS X Server as guest, the virtual environment must look exactly like this.” And “exactly like this” models a baseline Mac, right down to virtual EFI and the keys you hold down to change boot behavior.

Apple can’t just toss Xserve. That’d chop off the heads of OS X Server and Xsan, both of which are profitable. The only alternative would to do what Microsoft and Linux do, create drivers for every device in the wild, and become answerable to users’ problems with what Apple didn’t create.

I have a better idea. Apple could divest itself of Xserve by making OS X Server a UNIX that runs only in virtualization. From Apple’s point of view, it would be sweet. No squirrelly device drivers to worry about; leave that to the host OS. RAID? Fine. Put it in the host and make it look like a volume.

Apple created a test case for this scenario by allowing Parallels and VMWare to virtualize OS X Server on Macs running an OS X host. It’s a short throw from there to running OS X Server and Xsan on more generic PC servers.

I’m told that everything, I mean everything to virtualize OS X Server on x86 hardware is in place. All that’s need is a green light from Apple, and they’re worried about a little thing called protecting its intellectual property.

I’ve got a response to that, too. Require that Remote Desktop, a Mac-only product, be used to administer virtual OS X Server instances. The existing licensing and activation in Remote Desktop would make a great fit. That it takes a real Mac client to administer virtual OS X Server instances is good for businesses. Allowing the OS X client to run as a virtual guest would defeat this purpose.

What I’d hate to see is flagging interest in OS X Server at Apple. Certified UNIX with an open source kernel, free dev tools and documentation, a rich community with a yearly educational summit can’t be permitted to flounder.

If you build it, Steve, they will come.

They will come for the Open Group certified UNIX.

They’ll come for the free, actively engineered dev tools.

They will come for OS X Server.

They will come, Steve.

They’ll come for the resilience and throughput of OS X Server

They’ll come for the delight of seeing the login window on their server’s console

They will gladly pay $995 plus AppleCare, and for Xsan they’d pay considerably more

For it is money they have, and it is out of the box productivity they want

Yes, they will come, Steve. They will most definitely come.