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Amazon EC2 Mac Instances

aws.amazon.com

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Re: Amazon EC2 Mac Instances

#141

Post by phendrenad2 »

shp0ngle wrote: post #87
tootie wrote: post #50

"The instances are launched as EC2 Dedicated Hosts with a minimum tenancy of 24 hours" These are just rentable Mac Minis, not VMs. This will have only one use case and that's for build servers. Unless anyone has scalable AppleScript jobs to run?

The 24 hours is dictated by new Big Sur EULA. https://9to5mac.com/2020/11/11/macos-big-sur-adds-leasing-te... From the new EULA (not just for Amazon, paraphrased by 9to5mac): * Apple software and hardware must be leased “in its entirety to and individual or organization” * A lease period must be “for a minimum period of twenty-four (24) consecutive hours” * Customers must now accept software agreements for all instal…

Well, it's better than nothing!

Re: Amazon EC2 Mac Instances

#143

Post by detaro »

dash2 wrote: post #125
detaro wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt this is a play at M1 servers. M1 servers on Apple hardware is not what AWS wants people to use when the alternative is other AWS servers. Only for running macOS there isn't an alternative.

AWS’s value proposition isn’t the hardware. Why wouldn’t they use M1 if it’s best for their customers?

Because they'd much rather use their own high-density server designs instead of dealing with Macs that really aren't made for datacenters, and M1 has no clear must-have benefit over those justifying that effort outside of the macOS use case.

Now if Apple were to selling/license M1 chips to them, that might be different, but there is no indication that's going to happen in any way, and then the current work based on Macs wouldn't really be preparation for it.

Re: Amazon EC2 Mac Instances

#144

Post by madrox »

This seems 100% about building in XCode, which leaves me wondering why it's being offered as an EC2 instance instead of some higher order build tool. Is there a use case I'm missing?

Re: Amazon EC2 Mac Instances

#145

Post by shiftpgdn »

Shakahs wrote: post #82
sneak wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, AIUI AWS Nitro is a PCI (in this case thunderbolt?) disk abstraction system that fronts EBS for the host.

That sounds elegant for IO, but I wonder how device level security is handled, out of band management, and firmware updates.

BSDP + IPKVM?

Re: Amazon EC2 Mac Instances

#147

Post by dash2 »

detaro wrote: post #143
dash2 wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AWS’s value proposition isn’t the hardware. Why wouldn’t they use M1 if it’s best for their customers?

Because they'd much rather use their own high-density server designs instead of dealing with Macs that really aren't made for datacenters, and M1 has no clear must-have benefit over those justifying that effort outside of the macOS use case. Now if Apple were to selling/license M1 chips to them, that might be different, but there is no indication that's going to happen in any way, and then the current work based on M…

I disagree. I think it’s obvious that if they went into it big, they wouldn’t just buy retail Macs. The current work would be testing the market and the experience of providing MacOS as a server. If there’s demand for server M1 chips, why wouldn’t Apple sell them? It’s a completely different market from their laptop consumer business. Bottom line: if the market demands M1 on servers, there’s billions to be made supplying them.

Re: Amazon EC2 Mac Instances

#149

Post by dfabulich »

Amazon lists the price of mac1 instances (running on rack-mounted Intel Mac Minis) at $1.083 per hour, $9,487 per year. You have to pay for 24 hours up front, after which they bill by the second. https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/dedicated-hosts/pricing/

They don't yet display any reservation pricing for mac1 instances, but they do offer a "savings plan." https://aws.amazon.com/savingsplans/pricing/

If you pay for three years up front, you can pay $0.764 per hour, $6,692 per year, 29% off. I believe that's the lowest price Amazon will offer you.

For comparison, you can rent an equivalent Mac Mini from MacStadium for $139/month, $1,668/year. Or you can rent their cheapest model for $59/month, $708/year.

You can also buy the equivalent Mac Mini for $1,899.

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