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VMware demos Leopard Server under VM

updated 05:00 pm EST, Tue January 15, 2008

Leopard Server & VMware


VMware has announced that as a part of its presentation at the Macworld Expo, it is demonstrating a completely unmodified version of Mac OS X Leopard Server running within a virtual machine. This is due to a change in Apple licensing policy, which recently allowed Mac OS X Server to be installed multiple times on the same computer so long as each copy has its own valid license. VMware further notes that all of the device drivers being used are stock, including those for USB peripherals, hard drive controllers, and a Gigabit Ethernet adapter.

While the company will not disclose any products or release dates attached to the new technology, it says that it realizes how important virtualized servers are, and hopes to exploit them in future software. It admits though that the demonstration is running on a Mac, when many users are most eager to run Leopard Server on non-Apple systems.


by MacNN Staff

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Comments

  1. Constable Odo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2007

    0

    Is this useful to...

    run multiple copies of Leopard Server on one machine that can already support unlimited users with just one copy of Leopard Server. Or is it useful as an instantaneous backup or something.

  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    0

    Re: Is this useful to...

    It's useful if you have several different server apps, and some don't play nicely with others. Or you want to keep different services on different 'servers' for security and/or structural reasons. It's also good if you have apps that require older versions of an OS, but Apple's previous license doesn't allow that, so, the benefits for that, at least, won't be seen until 10.6 (although, to me at least, that's open to interpretation, as nothing clearly said before you COULDN'T run multiple copies of an OS on the same server).

    Of course, though, the biggest issue is the license. Apple's license says you HAVE to run the OS on an Apple-branded computer. The huge benefit of virtualizing your servers is to buy a bunch of big ol' server machines and run a good number of different OS'es on them.

    What Apple wants people to do, of course, is buy their XServes so you can run OS X on that. They don't want you just buying the OS and running it in a VMWare window on that 16-core Dell server in your closet (and people call Apple a software company).

  1. benhur

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2001

    0

    even better

    in server environments, virtual servers are useful to have multipe physical servers each running a redundant virtual setup. This is great for load balancing and dynamic allocation of server resources. You can perform updates and maintenance without taking down any services.

  1. hezekiahb

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jun 2006

    0

    useful?

    Answer, extremely useful. The standard home user will care less, but this is a HUGE + for OS X Server pushing into the medium to large corporation environments (where most of Window's strong hold has been).

    Virtualized server environments are the way of the future. Ever seen one of the IBM "go green" commercials for the IBM System z9 BC mainframe? Those are virtualized server environments, gives you an approximate 10 servers to 1 beefed up controller (some even better ratios with better hardware). This cuts energy costs, cooling costs, space requirements, & makes management easier & more efficient.

  1. techguysteve

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jun 2000

    0

    THE ANSWER

    Think of the cost and what you could do with purchasing 1 server to do the work of 6. With that savings you can beef up the disk throughput with a SAN and STILl save money.

  1. techguysteve

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jun 2000

    0

    PS

    and no one said ALL of your VM's had to be OS X server, either.

  1. testudo

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Aug 2001

    0

    Re: useful?

    Well, only partly useful in pushing OS X into the server room. Because if you've got those IBM servers, the one thing you won't be able to do is run OS X on them.

  1. resuna

    Fresh-Faced Recruit

    Joined: Jan 2005

    0

    not a big deal

    This isn't Windows, where the server and OS architecture strongly pushes you to running a single instance of a server on each instance of an OS. OS X is Unix, and most UNIX application servers should have no more difficulty running multiple instances under OS X than under Solaris or Linux or any other UNIX implementation, with at most a "chroot" to keep them from 'marking' each other's lampposts.

  1. wohaha

    Baninated

    Joined: Jan 2008

    0

    jammer

    GSM Camera Mobile Phone Repeater

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