Imgix Blog

I loved how imgix solved this: https://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros (definitely not cheap, but super slick)

Almost no one. For example IMGX uses Macs in its data center for image processing. https://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros I remember reading somewhere the performance they got with CoreImage was worth the extra hardware cost.

imgix (YC S11) | Many Positions | San Francisco, CA | Full-time imgix is real-time image resizing service and CDN. We are hiring a few different types of engineers to help grow and maintain our infrastructure. Our service is loved by our customers. You might have come across us when we wrote about our unconventional choices in architecture: http://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros We currently power the images behind Kickstarter, Zillow, Unsplash, Bonobos, Bustle, Hotel Tonight, and many more. If interested, you can read more here: https://www.imgix.com/jobs

The Minis are incredibly simple machines inside, and their airflow is not great. You could pop their logic boards out and run them without the chassis. With some thought it wouldn't be too tough to significantly improve their airflow for this environment. I do have an existing rack design that holds 64 of them (and other people have gone denser, with operational compromises I prefer not to make), so there's no great impetus on my side to rip them out of their enclosures. My Mac Mini rack design is shown in a little more detail in our previous article: http://photos.imgix.com/building-a-graphics-card-for-the-internet

Unlike the old rack mount options for the trashcan Mac Pro units (eg https://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros), it doesn't seem like much thought has been given here to a front-to-back airflow. I'm also surprised they're touting the density of this solution— seems like the obvious thing would be to put the Minis on their sides. A 4U chassis has 17.5cm vertical space in it, and a Mac Mini is 17cm wide. With the Mini being 2in in height, that suggests 8-9 Minis in a 4U rack, vs 2 Minis in a 2U rack for Scaleway's trays. EDIT: Here's a commercially-available solution that's 6/4U: https://www.mk1manufacturing.com/Rack-Mount-for-6-M4-mac-minis-p102.ht… you'd think it could basically be this but with the management plane behind or in front. And as others have said, making the management plane be more shared, so it's not 1:1.

IMGIX (a image scaling service) used to use Mac Pros [1]. Dunno if they still do though. [1] http://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros

Check out this company that built their whole infrastructure around the Mac Pro. What a waste of capital. http://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros

I would guess that the only people buying Mac Pros at this point are people who need to for infrastructure compatibility reasons, and/or who need something more powerful than a MBP but absolutely can't go with an iMac for whatever reason. These are mostly people who probably would have been buying more even without the bump. So the bump is just a nice bonus and tip of the hat from Apple to hang in there. Example of what I'm talking about? Check out this Mac Pro server rack setup: http://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros

I wonder if their render service is still backed by racked Mac Pros (http://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros). If so, considering the lack of updates around that machine for the last several years, I wonder if they are planning to remain with that solution.

I think this (http://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros) is what you are after. Their earlier article about racking mac minis is good too: http://photos.imgix.com/building-a-graphics-card-for-the-internet

I think last time I read they are really tied to an Apple specific infrastructure. It does seem rather expensive for just an aesthetic benefit. They used Mac Mini's before: http://photos.imgix.com/building-a-graphics-card-for-the-internet

Not me personally, but Imgix uses Mac Pros in their datacenter for graphics related work. http://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros And not directly what you asked, but a thread that comes to mind is this one, where an unnamed company (presumably Mathworks) built a rack of Macbook Pros for testing purposes. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9967357

Came across an incredible photo series of their dataserver. http://photos.imgix.com/building-a-graphics-card-for-the-internet

Maybe not Apple data centers, but it is possible to have a data center of Mac pros: http://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros

Not very related, but it reminds me that there are a lot of people who rack Mac Pros in data centers. Not Mac Mini. Mac Pros. Yes, the cylinder one. I guess it's mostly for graphics and rendering capabilities or when testing requires the original machines. People come up with all sorts of tricks because it is very inefficient - like vents [1] - or this other company who 3D-printed pieces to keep the Macbook Pros open at 7mm (=0,05 banana) [2]. [1] I especially liked this blog: http://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros [2] https://simbimbo.wordpress.com/2015/07/24/well-im-at-it-again-this-tim…

Also, Mac Minis and Pros in a rack: http://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros (still seems weird to me, but makes a bit more sense than racking laptops…)

Why when the aftermarket will do it for them? http://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros

> You asked if macOS can be virtualised. The answer is yes, it can, on Mac hardware. I guess that's fair enough. It used to be you couldn't virtualize OSX/macOS on anything, period. So this is a step in the right direction. I suppose the historical lack of virtualization provisions in the license agreement led to the rise of insane concoctions like Imgix[1] - literally custom fabricating racks to hold a bunch of Mac Pros in a data center - absolutely insane, but necessary if you wanted a macOS/OSX stack. I guess it's implied that virtualization would be hardware agnostic... since that's a primary reason to virtualize an OS. Artificial limitations of only two (2) instances on only Apple hardware is absurd, and barely useful at all. From kbutler's post[1]: > "(iii) to install, use and run up to two (2) additional copies or instances of the Apple Software within virtual operating system environments on each Mac Computer you own or control that is already running the Apple Software, for purposes of: (a) software development; (b) testing during software development; (c) using macOS Server; or (d) personal, non-commercial use." This seems to imply you can only virtualize macOS on Apple hardware that is already running macOS. Since ESXi is a Type-1 Hypervisor and includes it's own kernel, etc, it seems dubious to wipe the OS, and install ESXi on Apple hardware. Perhaps you'll never be caught doing this... but it seems like it would still violate the EULA. [1]…

Have you seen http://photos.imgix.com/racking-mac-pros ?