96 MacBook Pro’s in one server rack

[jsingleton]

Only just realised from this that MacBook Pro's no longer have an Ethernet port! When did that happen?

You need to buy an expensive thunderbolt adapter. I can understand removing it from the ultra portable super-thin models but not from the top end professional model.

[coob]

You don't 'need' the thunderbolt adaptor. Any old USB NIC will do. Like this $15 USB3 Gigabit ethernet adaptor:

http://www.amazon.com/TRENDnet-Ethernet-Chromebook-Specific-...

[jsmith0295]

Well the MacBook Pro's are ultra portable and super thin now. The laptop would probably have to be at least 20% thicker to make for enough room for an ethernet port. And since 90% of MBP Retina owners probably rarely if ever use ethernet, it's a good tradeoff to make. The Retina model is much lighter and easier to carry (especially with one hand) than it's predecessor.

[bane]

My desktop is basically filled with an octopus of dongles these days. It's ugly and annoying, and increases the footprint of my laptop 2x.

I guess USB-C is supposed to help with this?

[jwr]

Yeah, I was disappointed by that, too. It's not about the cost, I don't care about the extra $40 or so, but now there is one more "dongle/cable" I need to worry about.

[pilif]

A $30 adapter for a $2000+ machine isn't what I would call expensive. It does make the machines a lot thinner though and normally, you don't need wired Ethernet any more.

I easily reach 60+ MB/s now over WiFi, so for the times where I really need the additional power I don't care about having the additional dongle with me.

[melling]

The MacBook Pro I bought last year was the first that didn't have one. I seldom used Ethernet but I still miss it. Apple probably wouldn't use it but can't they develop a small connector for the next generation thin laptops? Microsoft Surface form factor is going to become prevalent in the PC world.

[fit2rule]

I'm more miffed about Apples' USB Type-C strategy.. but on the other hand, Docking stations have their value .. I was disappointed in this as well, but nevertheless am an rMBP user .. so until Henge upgrade this to include Ethernet:

http://hengedocks.com/pages/vertical-macbook-pro-retina

I've been doing quite fine with the DOCK as my 'need ethernet at my desktop' solution:

http://www.landingzone.net/products/for-the-macbook-pro/

I'm sure there are other options; it is a hassle that Apple removed it, but on the road I rarely need Ethernet, and at the desktop, its kind of easy to just plug-in.

[macns]

Another problem, very slow to actually connect to the wired network. I'm using it almost every day for different networks, I just can't get used to the wait.

[rocky1138]

This is a constant frustration in the office.

[ytdht]

For the ethernet port, it is very much Apple's style... but either way, using consumer Apple devices for servers only make sense if you get them for free (civil forfeiture for example)...

[hrrsn]

Retina models ditched the Ethernet port, so 2012 is when that happened.

[zimpenfish]

At least since the mid-2012 Macbook Pro Retina (which is what I have.)

[AhtiK]

If your laptop and wireless router supports 802.11ac then what are the most common reasons to still prefer Ethernet port?

Is it mostly about spectrum getting full or security concerns?

I just noticed that I haven't used Ethernet cable for the last few years.

[sudhirj]

How on earth do you test retina displays when inside a server a rack? What are they doing here that can't be done with Mac minis?

[fla]

Racking portable devices. The circle is complete

[yuvadam]

Why are you keeping the lids partially open and drawing excessive power for the displays + backlight, instead of just using InsomniaX [1] ?

[1] - http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/22211/insomniax

[shazow]

"They are actually being held open 7mm by a custom 3D printed wedge. This opening allows for the screen to be used for testing as well as ample air circulation. You can’t see the temperature sensors tucked into each notebook’s keyboard area."

Air circulation makes sense. There is a vent in between the screen pivot and the base, and also the gaps in the keys allow for some heat to escape.

Agreed that the screens should be turned off, though. Could just turn the brightness down to 0.

[hypron]

Because 3d printing is cool and trendy.

[Debilski]

Why use a menubar program…?

    $ man caffeinate

[axx]

My first guess is heat.

[kevinbowman]

I wonder why all of the display backlights are on? I understand having the laptops open to stop them going to sleep without an external display, but I'd've thought you could turn the backlight all the way to "off".

[provemewrong]

>I understand having the laptops open to stop them going to sleep without an external display, but I'd've thought you could turn the backlight all the way to "off".

You can even disable sleep with closed lid[1], but addmiteddly that might intefere with ventilation, since there are vents in front of the hinge.

[1]: https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin...

[jabbernotty]

Perhaps the light is on so that they can spot dead devices at a glance?

[ceejayoz]

Maybe it's just that it makes a cooler photo.

[titzer]

This is pretty neat, but I wonder how much more dense this configuration could be made if one took away the display, keyboard, battery, and chassis of the laptops and just had the motherboard, which (presumably) is fully integrated with a DIMM connector.

[thraxil]

Is it really simpler and more efficient to have 96 individual power bricks with custom mounting hardware rather than one (or a few) larger, high-efficiency AC to DC converters and just distributing DC within the rack?

[adriancooney]

That's an expense rack. If the average MBP cost $1500, that's a total of $144,000 in the one rack. They must have some serious reasons to create something like this.

[Joeri]

For a full rack that's not a ridiculous price. Oracle will gladly sell you racks that cost in excess of a million.

[taspeotis]

It would make sense to try the refurbished ones. I doubt you'd get 96 of the same model, though.

http://www.apple.com/shop/browse/home/specialdeals/mac/macbo...

    Refurbished 13.3-inch MacBook Pro 2.7GHz Dual-core Intel i5 with Retina Display
    $1,099.00
    Save $200.00
    15% off

[masklinn]

$1500 is the entry price for 4-way xeons, and that's before you factor in the chassis, motherboard, RAM and PSUs. You can easily find 4U servers more expensive than that, the rack seems to have a 32U capacity and could fit 8 such servers.

[skuhn]

A standard server rack (fully populated, just regular app or web servers) can easily be 400k+. Everything built to run in a datacenter is pretty expensive, even if you've done your negotiating work and aren't foolishly paying list.

[rhaps0dy]

What kind of testing do you do with this?

[helb]

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…)

[ins0]

Here is a QA where he answers some of the main questions we all have in mind.

https://simbimbo.wordpress.com/2012/12/11/102/

[artsandsci]

At first I thought the headline meant he was using MacBook Pro's from 1996.

[ta223]

That would be "'96 MacBook Pros..." or I guess, since it was written by a Mac user, "’96 MacBook Pros..."

[rvalue]

This is ridiculous! Is there no other way to test features on OSX ? or like a cloud environment?

Not only is this waste of money but also non eco friendly buying all that hardware

[sudioStudio64]

That's pretty amazing. It would be interesting to hear more about the testing they are doing.

[jchomali]

why creating something like this?

[jacquesm]

Test farm.

[jkot]

There was similar post with ARM Chromebooks. A few years ago it was impossible to find stable ARMs which could sustain decent load without crashing. Company had to buy bunch of Chromebooks, strip batteries and put them into rack.

[keenerd]

> There was similar post with ARM Chromebooks. A few years ago it was impossible to find stable ARMs which could sustain decent load without crashing. Company had to buy bunch of Chromebooks, strip batteries and put them into rack.

Well, no. The guy putting that rack together didn't know what he was doing and insisted on using the stock AC adapter for the devices. You NEVER use the stock AC adapters in a cluster. They are (usually) made to be cheap and not operate at full load. Maybe 5% will fail under continuous full load. Put 16 in a cluster and now you are looking at a 60% chance of a single failure.

ALWAYS ditch the bundled AC adapter and use a single, good quality, high power PSU that branches out to all the boards. 5 volts and 40 amps, for example. These PSUs are more like 99.9% reliable, and as a bonus output much cleaner power.

The only reason that this guy had success with Chromebooks is because laptop PSUs are typically sized at 3x capacity (for battery charging). Running a stock PSU 24x7 but only at 30% output greatly reduces the failure rate.

edit:

http://www.systemcall.eu/blog/2014/06/trashing-chromebooks/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7876235

Besides ignoring the power supplies, the original author used SD cards on the HK boards instead of eMMC, which is another reliability no-no. Though HK is pretty good about shipping quality PSUs with their hardware, so I suspect it was uSD being flaky in this guy's case.

[akhilcacharya]

Do you have a link? This sounds like an interesting problem.

[shoover]

I've have the distinct pleasure of opening an Apple package twice in my life. Looking at that cart full of boxes, 96 in one day/week/whatever... I don't know what to say about that.

[golergka]

Any idea who's that Steve and what he's testing? Parallels?

[k8tte]

> I know some of you will reply with the standard “Why didn’t you just use Linux?”

No, i ask myself why dont you just use the Mac Pro (ie the one which isnt a laptop?????)