Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers

scaleway.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 106 posts

Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers

#71

Post by mikepurvis »

notpeter wrote: post #46
mikepurvis wrote: post #13

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…

This is what MacStadium does. Here's a drawer design for the previous gen intel macs: https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/687e650a56916806eaaf8f62/... You can find a bunch more detail in their related patent filings: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20240397658A1/en?q=(%22m...

I was thinking the units all face the front in a shallow drawer, whereas MS is doing a deep drawer, which is almost certainly even better for density.

Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers

#72

Post by itrash »

3eb7988a1663 wrote: post #39
jitl wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

also hot air rises, and the vent is on the bottom

Why are they still even in the cases? I would assume that shucking them would ever so slightly improve thermals.

We were a little team, doing the API dev, the infra, the hardware and countless things. The product is improving and it was impossible to even imagine remoing the case as we spent so many time wiring everything, going to DC and setting up everything. Yes the team is actually doing all of this, even going to DC installing the macs in the racks.

But I agree that for a big scale, this is a good solution. (cf: github)

Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers

#73

Post by jandrese »

itrash wrote: post #66
trebligdivad wrote: post #32

You'd think that from an environmental point of view, Apple would be able to sell packs of Mac Mini boards without the case and packaging for people doing this; with no physical board or electronic change, it would be easy.

Yes, and the actual license is pretty limiting as we have to sell the mac for at least 24h, not less, and no virtualization.

It's kind of amazing to offer this service at all when the vendor is so blatantly hostile to the idea.

Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers

#74

Post by kccqzy »

itrash wrote: post #66
trebligdivad wrote: post #32

You'd think that from an environmental point of view, Apple would be able to sell packs of Mac Mini boards without the case and packaging for people doing this; with no physical board or electronic change, it would be easy.

Yes, and the actual license is pretty limiting as we have to sell the mac for at least 24h, not less, and no virtualization.

It’s madness that Apple can dictate that you have to sell it for at least 24h, not less. Ideally the manufacturer shouldn’t dictate how the property is being rented.

Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers

#75

Post by pm »

BozeWolf wrote: post #61
sparrish wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Scaleway's site and support is horrible, as you've found. But their pricing and offerings are solid and their network is... OK. For the price, they're better than Hetzner... if you can get signed up!

Totally different experience here! For a project I wanted to try “euro cloud”. Something comparable to digital ocean. No need for hyperscaler functionality. It has been great. Good terraform provider and reliable service. I like their console, although the design feel very vaporwave to me. Of course stuff can be better, but it is rapidly improving. The way they implemented grafana + user management was shit. But that…

I won't comment on the reliability of their services, as I've not experienced it. I was signing up specifically to provision a M1 mac mini, and couldn't navigate it. It was unfortunate, but worth a comment, in case others experience the same issue (or someone else could point me in the right direction).

Glad to know you've got good experiences though.

Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers

#76

Post by schmuckonwheels »

Continuing to act like these ugly hacks are a normal way of doing business, is a continual signal to Apple that they don't need to build a rack-mount PC or server ever again.

If their developer community grew a pair and made themselves heard, then maybe the billion dollar company would do their effing job and provide a proper rackable development platform.

Which they had many years ago, before they morphed into a company that builds telephones and furniture that occasionally functions as a computer.

Instead we pretend like extension cords and gluing Raspberry Pi's together is totally ok for professional purposes.

Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers

#77

Post by pm »

sparrish wrote: post #50
pm wrote: post #16

I was interested in provisioning one of these a few months back through Scaleway, but couldn't navigate their sign-up process without it dumping me back to the start everytime. Nor did I receive a reply when I e-mailed their support e-mail. I don't know if that's changed (they had odd pricing too, like Startup vs. Business, of which the difference wasn't clear), but aware. I hope someone has more success than I did.

Scaleway's site and support is horrible, as you've found. But their pricing and offerings are solid and their network is... OK. For the price, they're better than Hetzner... if you can get signed up!

It was specifically for the M1 mac minis, so not too fussed about everything else, but judging from the comments, experiences are mixed.

I'll try to sign up again in a week or two.

Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers

#78

Post by itrash »

schmuckonwheels wrote: post #76

Continuing to act like these ugly hacks are a normal way of doing business, is a continual signal to Apple that they don't need to build a rack-mount PC or server ever again. If their developer community grew a pair and made themselves heard, then maybe the billion dollar company would do their effing job and provide a proper rackable development platform. Which they had many years ago, before they morphed into a com…

Trust me, at our scale ... Apple didn't care at all about us, even if Scaleway is one of the biggest cloud provider in France.

And actually the project was made to be faster on the market than AWS on their M1 offer, not to be industrialized at first.

Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers

#79

Post by itrash »

jandrese wrote: post #73
itrash wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and the actual license is pretty limiting as we have to sell the mac for at least 24h, not less, and no virtualization.

It's kind of amazing to offer this service at all when the vendor is so blatantly hostile to the idea.

This project was actually kickstart to compete against AWS launching the first apple as service, there were no consider about this.

Re: Scaleway turns Mac Minis into high‑density, Raspberry Pi–managed servers

#80

Post by schmuckonwheels »

itrash wrote: post #78
schmuckonwheels wrote: post #76

Continuing to act like these ugly hacks are a normal way of doing business, is a continual signal to Apple that they don't need to build a rack-mount PC or server ever again. If their developer community grew a pair and made themselves heard, then maybe the billion dollar company would do their effing job and provide a proper rackable development platform. Which they had many years ago, before they morphed into a com…

Trust me, at our scale ... Apple didn't care at all about us, even if Scaleway is one of the biggest cloud provider in France. And actually the project was made to be faster on the market than AWS on their M1 offer, not to be industrialized at first.

I get it, you did what you had to do, but you're not the only example.

They have the knowledge and it's existed in the past (Xserve) but they will never do it again because they design and sell furniture now.

Tell me they couldn't design a Mac Mini with holes for rack ears, built in BMC or serial console.... even if it was a specialty product people would pay a premium

Post reply on HN