With today’s updates to the Mac mini, Apple has made the decision to stop selling the “server” version of the computer. In doing so, the company has also lowered the maximum storage available in the machine from 2 TB to just 1 TB. The server model was also the first version of the Mac mini to forego the optical drive, though the change was soon carried over to the rest of the line.
The server model was created to supplant the Xserve, which was discontinued in 2010. It originally shipped with OS X Server preinstalled, but was later loaded instead with the consumer version of OS X. OS X Server was transitioned to the Mac App Store as a $19.99 purchase and the new Mac mini was moved to a more consumer-oriented setup.
If you’re looking to expand your Mac mini’s storage, you can always take advantage of those new Thunderbolt 2 ports.
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there’s always a catch with Apple.
Wow! I didn’t see that coming!
There’s also no quad-core option any more. Not even an upgrade option. And 1.4 GHz dual core seems a bit anaemic.
Most Mac mini servers that I have deployed have all had some kind of external RAID drive attached, so this isn’t a big deal. Having all of your data locked up inside a Mac mini that could fail at any time is just dumb. I usually erase and reinstall to get rid of all the unnecessary apps that OS X claims are critical to running the system. iPhoto on a server? Really?
When one order the now defunct Mini Server, did it have iPhoto preinstalled or was it the Server ‘app’ installed on the client version of OSX?
Yes. They always had iPhoto installed. And recently, they all wanted me to accept iWork. Dumb. When I setup servers, they’re not meant to sit on someone’s desk to be a workstation. Therefore, iLife, and iWork are pretty much worthless. I only want the apps that are needed. No need to use up valuable disk space on apps that won’t be used.
No one should be running a serious production environment out of OS X, anyhow. A server with an on-box GUI? Really? That being said, it’s a sad loss of the Mac Mini Servers. I have quite a few of them spread across three data-centers, and was hoping to upgrade to new, better hardware. Looks like we’ll need to go with more conventional hardware from here, though. RIP Mac Mini Server.
I guess everywhere I’ve deployed them must be just for play and not for “serious production”. Not every company has the same needs.
I find it very disappointing. I have two mac mini servers running that havw been running for years. The are both mirrored dual drive which has saved me more than once. It is the mirrored dual drives that does it for me. Now Apple has no server product in their product line unless you buy all kind of extra peripherals. A sad day.
I’m hoping quad core becomes an option in the future. And the spec sheet doesn’t indicate user accessible RAM :(