Infrastructure

• One Mac is bought. Currently hosted at Cloph's place but integrated into CI. We'll sound out the hosting in a datacenter soon. (4RU available, 4RU required, so that works)
• The other Mac will be bought when available early March; if we can wait a bit more, we could defer until the new generation is available later that year
• Do we need CI hardware for other platforms or are things ok there?

• How are things going here? Apart from volunteers always welcome, any urgent need?

To flag the questions again:

• Do we need CI hardware for other platforms or are things ok there?

Xisco Fauli Tarazona: Seems things are a bit more urgent here, as two or three more Mac buildbots will not be available anymore after early June. Can you please sort out with Christian Lohmaier what and when best to buy, so I can take care of it?

And:

• How are things going here? Apart from volunteers always welcome, any urgent need?

Would be interested to learn the state of play here.

Florian Effenberger wrote:

Given "early June" will approach soon, we should act now. ;-)

Cloph wanted to wait for WWDC to see if more powerful Mac Pros are around, but that might be too late during the year, as it begins only on June 4, and from announcement to availability, shipment and setup it rather is too long. Xisco wanted not only Mac hardware, but a machine that can build everything.

It's not that I wanted it, it was just an idea to have it virtualized, but I was discarded in favour of real machines, for obvious reason.

How can we solve that actually? Virtualizing macOS on other hardware is not working for a couple of reasons IIRC. Is going with a strong Mac Pro hosting other platforms an option, or are we better of in getting two machines?

We do have ~4-5k € budget left IIRC.

I would prefer if cloph takes this decision as he's more aware of which are the CI needs.

I would prefer if cloph takes this decision as he's more aware of which
are the CI needs.

Cloph, what's your take? :-)

I tend towards buying a iMacPro at the moment and don't host at a datacenter but in someones office. If they have similar characteristics as the old macpros, they should be very silent even under 24/7 load.

If iMacPro is not significantly faster than trashcan macpro, return it and get a beefed up macpro instead. Will even cost a little more that way, but leaves us with option at hosting at a datacenter.

Definitely need a Mac, since that's the platform we can run others on, but not the other way. (so to run others we basically only need diskspace, 1TB should be fine to have mac, a windows vm and even a linux one on the machine. (the already ordered one has 250GB only)

I tend towards buying a iMacPro at the moment and don't host at a
datacenter but in someones office. If they have similar characteristics

Do we know someone who could host it reliably? Having it somewhere
brings up the question of region (shipment) and access
(internet/firewall), so I usually prefer the datacenter - but of course
hard for iMac Pro.

If iMacPro is not significantly faster than trashcan macpro, return it

Do we know a vendor where we can easily return it? We're a non-consumer,
and the invoice should have TDF's name, so it must be with an explicit
return warranty for business consumers. Failing that, is there any other
way to get some numbers, anyone who could run a test, or us temporarily
renting such a machine somewhere (IMHO there is hosted iMac Pro)?

Florian Effenberger wrote:

[…] so I usually prefer the datacenter - but of course
hard for iMac Pro.

Yeah :-/ And having it in a datacenter would be a waste re the display.
So I guess it is best to just forget about few powerful machines, but instead get more mediocre ones that are easier to host.

If iMacPro is not significantly faster than trashcan macpro, return it

Do we know a vendor where we can easily return it? […]

Ah, too bad, didn't think about that, indeed all stores have explicit "unused" or "unopened" clause for business customers, so would only work by special request.

is there any other way to get some numbers,

asking via twitter :-)

anyone who could run a test, or us temporarily
renting such a machine somewhere (IMHO there is hosted iMac Pro)?

The hosted services I looked at only seem to have one month minimum, and are also rather expensive at around 350€/month

I guess We should scratch that then and instead get maxed-out mac minis instead. I'm sure we could host two or three at Café Netzwerk.
https://www.cyberport.de/?DEEP=1005-1A9
3,0GHz i7 dualcore/4 threads, 16GB RAM and 512GB SSD preconfigured for 1449€ currently (was 1600 until a few days ago).

So let's get one of those instead. And for comparison one with 2TB fusion drive (128GB SSD cache): 1559€ currenlty
https://www.cyberport.de/?DEEP=1005-1AF

Much easier to handle hosting wise (and more reasonable in terms of pricing compared to the pro options)

Yeah :-/ And having it in a datacenter would be a waste re the display.

Indeed.

So I guess it is best to just forget about few powerful machines, but
instead get more mediocre ones that are easier to host.

Are Mac Pros still an option? I remember Mac Minis were just not ideal
anymore, even with the biggest configuration.

Ah, too bad, didn't think about that, indeed all stores have explicit
"unused" or "unopened" clause for business customers, so would only work
by special request.

Yep... and for such amounts, I'd rather have TDF being invoiced directly.

The hosted services I looked at only seem to have one month minimum, and
are also rather expensive at around 350€/month

Uff... that's higher than the depreciation likely for one box.

I guess We should scratch that then and instead get maxed-out mac minis

Are these sufficient for our purposes? I recall they had too many
bottlenecks.

instead. I'm sure we could host two or three at Café Netzwerk.

Cafe Netzwerk will be moving in summer, so I would not bet the farm on
this opportunity. Would hosting at manitu be an alternative?