At work we have received a couple dozen of these Apple Xservers. The HDDs have been wiped on all but one so there's no OS installed. The ID/Status LED on the front/rear panel of these servers (all of them!) is doing the intermittent-blink thing that, as far as I can tell, means "There's an error." This is not the continuous flashing that's enabled by the front panel button to ID the server from the other side. I suspect it's a chassis intrusion indication but that's just a theory The LED begins blinking as soon as power is applied; even before the power button is pressed & while the white Power LED is off. I have tried resetting the NVRAM/PRAM through the keyboard Option/Command/P/R and also through the front panel, using the button next to the status LED to select a function. No help there. I've seen this question and that's the right LED, but that question is about the Server ID usage of the LED, and my question is about the Error Indicator usage of the same LED. I can boot 10.7 from an external HDD but I do not have an OSX/Server disk available and booting OSX Server 10.6.8 to the login screen (I don't know the password) does not clear the indication. How do I make this LED stop flashing?

I am reconfiguring a working Apple Xserve (Early 2009) [Xserve3,1][model A1279][MB449LL/A] which does not currently have an SSD installed, neither the factory 128GB SATA, nor any aftermarket. I'm planning to replace the standard 3-drive SATA *Drive Interconnect Backplane* with the Apple *Xserve RAID Card*. The fans howl something fierce, so I plan to replace the *Fan Array*. I also plan to replace the single processor *Logic Board* with the dual processor *Logic Board*. It seems to me that performance would be better, and overhead lower if I install a current generation PCIe SSD in the *PCI-E Riser Card* (ie, PCIe “backplane”), rather than install an Apple circa-2009 SATA SSD (which connects through the Front Panel Board). Has anyone successfully installed a PCIe SSD in an Xserve *PCI-E Riser Card*?

I'm running Vmware ESXi 6.5 on an Xserve 3.1 and due to the power saving settings it puts the internal drives to sleep a short while after boot which prevents ESXi from saving settings. I've tried booting into OSX and disabling there but the problem persists in ESXi. I've also tried the usual SMC and NVRAM resets. The symptom is a 'disk timeout' for all internal and FireWire attached drives (same for SSD and HDD) after about 15 minutes. Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

I have 2 Xserve servers running OS X Server 10.6.4 with the following hardware configuration: They each have Xserve RAID cards and drives. I have recently moved them from a data center, where they sat behind a pair of firewall devices and they had originally been configured for failover between the two machines. At the data center they had fixed IP addresses. Now I have the machines set up at home, connected by Ethernet to an Apple Time Capsule that serves as my primary home networking device. Finding and removing or disabling all of the legacy settings on these machines has proved daunting. I keep having conflicts that arise when I attempt to install new software and services. So I thought I'd cast about for options and advice. I have backups of all critical data these machines hold. I primarily use these machines for parallel processing of Mathematica based applications (lots of number crunching). No web services, email, or anything like that. Can anyone recommend a way to identify and remove or disable all of the legacy configuration and then set up the servers to to operate in their new simplified environment? If not, do I need to wipe them clean, reinstall OS X, and configure them anew? If so, how long does a reinstall take? Do I need anything other than the original installation disks?

I have a Mac OSX Lion file share over the AFP protocol in our office and users are having trouble saving to it. Here's the process: 1. Open an existing file on the server 2. Make changes 3. Save changes, error: "The document “X” could not be autosaved. You don’t have permission." Additional notes: Users cannot save new files directly to the server (same permissions error); however, they can save the file to their desktop first and then drag it to the server in the same location. Here is a print out of the permissions for that particular directory: The permissions appear to be wide open...*right?* For what it's worth, here is a screenshot of the error: Any ideas what I can do to resolve this issue?

I was given an old retired Xserve 2008 model. This model cannot officially run Mac OS X beyond Lion Server. I have tried the tricks to get later OS X versions to boot on it, and while it works, the latest versions of OS X Server do not support this hardware - for example, most of the remote management features (power/fan/CPU speed/disk health/etc) do not work, as Apple considers this unsupported hardware. I would like to run Windows 2012 Server R2 natively on this hardware. I know that installing into a VM would be an option, but I am not licensed for versions of Fusion old enough to run on Lion, and Virtualbox has been a mixed bag for me. I also would probably lose some performance here... And the issue still stands that I'm running a severely outdated underlying OS that Apple isn't going to issue security updates for. Now I know that running Windows natively on here won't give me that server management on Apple's side, but there's plenty of Windows tools that can do essentially the same thing provided the hardware is detectable under Windows. I know that Xserves do not have the BIOS emulation layer that most Macs use for Boot Camp support, but I was wondering if it is possible to use EFI Booting to boot Windows 2012. I've tried so far to do the following: 1. Create a LiveUSB Linux device from a recovery distro which boots via EFI. *This works.* I am able to boot into Linux. The older graphics hardware seems finicky, but it does seem to run. This shows that there's enough EFI here to boot a non-Apple OS. 2. Create a Windows 2012 R2 boot DVD for installation. This completely fails - holding down Option does not show the DVD at all in the boot options. 3. Create a Windows 2012 R2 boot USB device using the NTFS file system. This does not work - guessing it's because Apple's EFI can't read NTFS (as most can't). The problem is that the 2012 R2 installation .WIM file is larger than 4GB, and while there's ways to do split WIM files (SWM), Microsoft explicitly states you can't install from one of these. 4. Try creating a standard Windows 8 x64 boot USB device on FAT32. This should theoretically work since the Windows 8 install image is only about 3GB. This *does* show up in the boot options, but when it's selected, a black screen occurs and no further movement occurs. It would seem that either I'm missing something, or that somehow this EFI implementation specifically refuses to boot Windows. Most of the posts around the Internet chastise the poster for even considering this option ("__Why__ would you want to do this! Get a PC server for God's sake!"). While they would have a point for new systems, this box is still very serviceable with its dual quad Xeons and 16GB of RAM and SAS drives - and Apple has only dropped support for it due to video card support. My next step would be to try two things: to install Windows to a SATA drive using an EFI compliant system in order to get a drive that's EFI compliant that boots Windows and shove that in the Xserve to see if it'll boot it; and also to install the EFI GRUB loader onto the Windows install flash drive and see if it can coax the Windows loader into running. But before I go through all that... is this even possible? Or has Apple done something to block this from even being possible using native EFI? I'm already aware that there may be driver issues due to lack of Boot Camp support, but from what I've read, the Xserve is more or less a Mac Pro in a 1U rack case, so I'd expect manually extracting the drivers from the Boot Camp distribution that works on the Mac Pro would likely yield many of the necessary drivers which could be installed by hand. ---------- Edit: This appears to be related to the video card. A Linux installation I tried to make to the raw hardware resulted in a black screen as well. After poking around for a while, I figured out that there seems to be an issue when the Linux install tries to flip the video card into a more "native" video mode. I got Linux to run by disabling *all* of its video stuff, and basically letting the EFI video driver maintain control. I'm not sure exactly what could be causing it, but perhaps it has something to do with the machine thinking there's multiple displays attached (when there actually isn't), or that the Apple video card is using some completely non-standard video modes... So my guess is that the Windows installer may in fact actually be booting, but that I just can't see it because the display isn't presenting it... My next step would be to try preinstalling the OS onto a SATA Disk as I explained above, however this still wouldn't be a solution, as I would not have any video output in order to install the network card drivers...! I could definitely install Linux + VMware, or even ESX server, but I would lose some of the raw hardware level optimizations available - network card, SAS disk hot swapping, etc. at the OS level. This is why I still would preferably want to run Windows Server natively on the machine...

I get Warning: No xauth data; using fake authentication data for X11 forwarding. when I do ssh to other machines from my OS X machine which has X-server installed. echo $DISPLAY returns something like /tmp/launch-4eEyr6/org.macosforge.xquartz:0 Inside ~/.ssh/config I specified XAuthLocation xauth but I still get the errors. If I replace the line with full path to xauth (/opt/X11/bin/xauth), I stop getting the errors but the problem is that I do share the ssh config file between several machines, so I cannot put a path that is specific to Mac on it. I would prefer a solution that would not require me to create a symlink on Mac from /opt/X11/bin/xauth to /usr/bin/xauth.

I have a GeForce GT 610 that I have been trying to figure out how to get the Xserve to utilize. I have followed various guides and ideas to no luck. The screen on this card is always black and the system does see something on the PCIe bus but just doesn't send video. I have tried various hackintosh kext files but I am at a loss. Is there more options that I just have not found? I have it running Snow Leopard desktop with the .8 update

I have (3) 2009 2.26 Xserves and I am wondering if it is possible to tie them together so it acts as one computer?

I have an Apple Xserve Intel Xserve3,1 with dual quad core cpu and 48gb ram. Today the system fans started going into hyperdrive (i.e. very fast and very high pitched) and was unresponsive to keyboard input and had no display. So I stripped the system down, blew out the dust from the system, including the channel vents beside the drive slots and cleaned it out properly. However, upon restart the same issue occurred with the fans and the machine did not boot, although a huge amount of air is now expelled from the system whilst it is running. Tried various things to get a fix: This is sequence A::: 1. Removed power from the machine. 2. Held down the start button for five seconds+ 3. Held down the system identification button for 5+ seconds. Other help sites suggest that this should toggle the boot sequence by flashing the blue lights on the front of the machine, but none of this eventuated. 4. Added power to the machine, still no change in behaviour. Removed the fan block from the machine, and retried sequence A with no luck. Removed the CMOS battery from the machine, and retried sequence A again with no luck, and rest times between power off and CMOS battery removal, again with no luck. Powered the machine up with the power button depressed. At this stage something appeared to change in behaviour. Reassembled the machine, inserting the battery and fan pack and placing it back in the rack. At this stage the UPS decided not to power up, so using a separate power cord, booted the machine up. All seemed to work as per a normal boot up, although I had no console the drives, cpu lights, etc, all seemed to do a normal boot and hum as per a normal system operation for a number of minutes. After resetting the UPS and getting it to power up, turned off the Xserve using the front off/on switch for 5 seconds and shut it down. Plugged the UPS power into the machine and the original condition returned. Took the machine out of the rack, stripped it down again and went through the above procedures a number of times, with a non-ups power connection and was unsuccessful in achieving the same state I had attained before. There is a switch in the middle of the motherboard (no idea on it's intended purpose but some online information tended to point me in the direction of thinking that it was a power management unit reset (PMU reset)) so I tried that whilst running, whilst unpowered, and whilst powering up for various time durations of holding it down, all to no avail. So, in essence, it appears as if the machine thinks it is in a overheated state and I am unable to get it out that state through various reset mechanisms that I have tried. Another point of interest is the yellow lock light next to the locking switch is half highlighted. Turning the lock increases the illumination level of the lock light, and unlocking it returns it to the low glow level. Can anyone provide a solution to reset this machine so that it can boot again correctly please.

I need to get a large rack mountable, 16 port or larger, cascadable, VGA KVM that works with Macs. I've tried the iogear GCS1716, which claims mac support, but refuses to display video from my xserves or minis. Support says it's because of the mini displayport to VGA adapters. I've tried Apple official ones and third party. Since no modern Macs come with VGA built-in, it seems iogear's attitude is "Sure, Apple devices are supported. Unless you do the thing required to actually use them. Then, they are not supported.". Natch. I have another KVM from another brand that escapes me at the moment that works fine, but it not cascadable, so we have out grown it. Any suggestions would be appreciated. EDIT - I've discovered since posting this that if the Apple machine is the only one plugged into the KVM it works fine. Go Fig. EDIT 2 - I've now also discovered that if nothing is plugged into port 1, then Apple machines work fine, so long as you don't switch to a PC. Then you have to reset the KVM to get the Apple machines working again. EDIT 3 - About a month ago this KVM full on failed, and the replacement works just fine with adapters and everything on all my machines. So it looks like it was marginal hardware all along, despite what support was telling me.

How to prevent gettin lots of .serverauth.$$ files in the HOME directory on OS X 10.8? ($$ is a pid number).

I have a dual Xeon Xserve, and a nagging issue. The Xserves have 2 small 8 LED arrays on the front, which show real-time cpu utilization (one array per CPU). Under Lion, these LED's would not become active until after you installed the Server.app. Currently under Mountain Lion, these LED's do not work at all, regardless if the Server.app is installed or not. I figure that there has to be a way to see, or find out what in the Lion Server app is enabling these (a kext or something perhaps?), but I cannot figure it out. I tried comparing the system installed Kexts (/System/Library/Extension) before and after the server.app install, but did not find any new kexts. Does anyone happen to know, or can provide any assistance in a way to dig down deeper on this? I know its not a show stopper, but its one of those things thats bugging me and I cant stop thinking about it.

One of my Xserves has a amber flashing LED. I've pointed out the LED in question in the below image: What does this indicate and what do I need to do about it?

Simply the question is, what happened to the the Apple made server racks? It is very disappointing to see Apple doesn't support the back-end hardware since 2009. I know there is a Server Mini, and OSX server, but lets face it, we want a professional and fast hardware to backup OSX Server.

I have an Xserve G4, dual 1.33 GHz processors, 2 GB of RAM, 1 CD-ROM drive, 2 internal Hard Drives (read: Nowhere really to back them up to). I also have 1 EXTERNAL Hard Drive, Firewire, but just like the internal drives, I can't reformat with any sort of ease, too much data. Now for the problem: I am trying to install Linux, specifically Gentoo or ArchLinux, for a multitude of reasons spanning from: wanting to get away from dependancy on Mac OS, to not liking the performance of old versions of Mac OS X in a modern (internet) age. I have Live CDs for Ubuntu 8, and the latest Gentoo Minimal Install PPC disk. I can not, however, get the computer to accept the CDs. About 20 seconds after inserting the CD to the body of the Xserve, it comes right back out. These are 700 MB CDs, with 680 MB and 140 MB of data on them, respectively. The burns had no errors, I have the console reports handy if they are requested. Possible solutions/diagnoses I have come up with, but can't act on without advice on how to:

• The CD drive is defective? (How do I test this?)
• Boot to one of my 2 spare (10 GB each) hard drive partitions on my HFS drive, no success on that front so far.
• Would using an external CD Drive work for boot-from-CD? I have one that connects using FireWire

Oh, just a note, my goal is to use mac-fdisk once I get within a Linux environment to see about resizing my hard drive, or I'll just backup the main drive's non-standard data to the external, and restore using the disk-image of 10.4 Server I have. Would mac-fdisk actually be able to resize, or is that just parted? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

I'm hoping you can help me out with a strange issue I've been dealing with the past few days. I recently purchased a 2008 Xserve. I've been trying to get Mountain Lion on it without much luck, however I'm very close. I know mountain lion is not 'supported' on this platform, but there is no reason it won't run. I've replaced my mezzanine video card with a mountain lion (and lion) supported gt 120 from a mac pro. I've installed mountain lion to a 500gb drive via USB off of my macbook pro, and edited the PlatformSupport.plist file to contain the proper board id from my Xserve. Here is where the issue is: If I try to boot to Mountain Lion off this drive via USB on the Xserve, it boots and runs mountain lion buttery smooth. When I place this drive into the first drive bay (internally) in the Xserve, it wont boot. Its as though it cannot find the drive or boot partition. It sits at a white screen and I eventually get a blinking folder with a question mark on it. I feel that I'm so very close to getting this to work, and its driving me crazy. Anyone have any insight? Additional Information: - booting holding option or to the recovery partition while the drive is installed internally does not work either. - Installing Lion internally works fine, so I know its not a hardware issue.

Okay, there's a lot of smart Mac guys here, so lets see if any of you can figure out this stumper. Our Xserve G4 (RackMac1,1) went incommunicado a few years ago was left in this state until I pulled it out yesterday. I started my mission with a triple PRAM zap, and like clockwork it decided to boot perfectly into Mac OS X Tiger Server. I decided to upgrade it to Leopard, this machine only has a CD drive, so I hooked it up to my MBP via FireWire and attempted to burn the install DVD to one of the hard drives (since all it's data is irrelevant / four years old anyhow). It starts copying just as always on the various computers I've done this to, it says "20 minutes remaining", so I leave the server room to go do other things. I come back 20 minutes later to a MBP saying "18 minutes remaining", and a shut down Xserve. Rinse and repeat this process. Perhaps something weird happened. I decide perhaps it doesn't like being in FireWire target disk mode and boot it back up to Tiger to download the disk image and burn it to the hard drive. After about 10 minutes of uptime, it just shuts down. Not even a soft shutdown. Total loss of power. I had some other stuff to do in the server room and after about 15 minutes I look back and there it is, fully booted, sitting at the login screen. I ask you, what sentient force has made a victim of my Xserve?! :(

I'm working on a friend's network and he's currently got a cisco router handling DHCP. Does the Xserve VPN service require that the Xserve also be handling DHCP? Xserve 10.6.8

The answer to an earlier question, Access and control home office network, iMacs, and Xserves , left me with a new problem. To review, I have a computing environment comprised of: - 27" iMac with dual cores running Mac OS X 10.6.8 - 2 Xserves each with 2 quad cores running Mac OS X Server 10.6.8 - All networked over Ethernet to a Time Capsule. As this question has more general application than the earlier one, I thought it merited its own post. --- I need to launch and shut down a service (in my case Wolfram Lightweight Grid Manager but this really applies to any service, program, or application) which needs to run on a server (or more generally, any other machine) attached to my network (or again more generally, any network to which one has authorized access). I need to have that script: - Access and log on to 2 Xserves on my local network and there - Launch a script on the Xserves that will in turn launch Wolfram Lightweight Grid Manager Note: I have this script. It currently runs from launchd when I turn on the Xserves. I just need to control its running and ensure it is not running more frequently than needed so the Xserves can sleep (the grid manager appears to keep the Xserves from sleeping). At some later point, I'll need to do the same thing as above, but **turn off** the service on the remote servers. > Q U E S T I O N S: > > - How do I go about this? > - How do I get to a remote machine, especially as it does not likely have a fixed IP address? I do have machine names and logon credentials. I've very rarely done this sort of thing. References or examples welcome. My OS X server scripting never amounted to much, so any guidance welcome.