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Has anyone tried something like this but with OS X running in a VM? As a distributed team we would prefer not to rely on one of us physically hosting a Mac Mini

Has anyone tried something like this but with OS X running in a VM? As a distributed team we would prefer not to rely on one of us physically hosting a Mac Mini. Thanks for writing this.

masklinn 11y ago
IIRC even virtualised the OSX license requires that OSX ultimately run on apple hardware and nowhere else. You could use a colocated host rather than having a member of the team physically owning a mini though.
- josteink 11y ago
  Why should anyone care what hardware a VM runs on?
  - masklinn 11y ago
    Because their business is the hardware?
    - josteink 11y ago
      I'm talking about why anyone not Apple should care. It's not like I care if my VM runs on a Dell or HP server.
      - codingvelocity 11y ago
        If you violate the license agreement from apple there's potential for legal repercussions, and when you are trying to make money from their distribution channel (app store) it's generally better to not violate any of their rules. Especially since they don't have to give you much of a reason when rejecting or retracting your app from their store.
      - masklinn 11y ago
        > I'm talking about why anyone not Apple should care. Because otherwise they're violating the terms of the license agreement which means at best they get no support and are 100% on the hook for anything breaking and at worst they're at risk of legal action? Building a hackintosh in your bedroom is one thing, violating the license agreement of the tools you're using to do your job is another.
roderikvdv 11y ago
You can replace Jenkins easily with https://www.bitrise.io https://www.bitrise.io, but i'm not sure imagemagick and ghostscript are installed there.
- thebloodrabbit 11y ago
  [Bitrise co-founder here] We have a fastlane integration step ;) That said imagemagick & ghostscript are not pre-installed, but you can install both with a simple script step. All of the integrations (https://www.bitrise.io/integrations https://www.bitrise.io/integrations) are open source and you can add your own with a Pull Request to our Step Library anytime. You can check out what's preinstalled on our VMs here: http://devcenter.bitrise.io/docs/virtual-machines-updates http://devcenter.bitrise.io/docs/virtual-machines-updates
stepanhruda 11y ago
Yes, you're allowed to run 2 VMs per OS X license. Our entire infrastructure is set up like this using Parallels. We have the machines hosted by MacStadium, so they're available to everyone. You could also run the VMs locally, but you'll need to keep the VM image up to date.
tvon 11y ago
Yes, licensing issues aside. You can setup an OSX VM on Linux that is kicked off by a Jenkins job running on the Linux host. If you have Hackintosh[1] experience it won't be too difficult to manage, but if you're unfamiliar with that kind of fiddling it might be a bit of a time-suck. All things considered, unless you're willing or interested in managing something like that and confident you won't "get caught" by Apple (e.g., if they start detecting apps built on Hackintosh systems and banning related ADC accounts) you're better off finding some other solution (maybe https://macminicolo.net? https://macminicolo.net?). [1] http://www.tonymacx86.com http://www.tonymacx86.com
bgaid 11y ago
Why not try out a hosted mac mini solution like https://macstadium.com https://macstadium.com or http://macminivault.com http://macminivault.com? Travis-CI does all of their OS X testing at MacStadium - http://www.macstadium.com/blog/how-travis-ci-halved-boot-times-for-os-x-and-ios-testing-at-macstadium/ http://www.macstadium.com/blog/how-travis-ci-halved-boot-tim... [I work at MacStadium, fyi.] We can help you setup firewalls and have your hosted/rented Mac mini appear as part of your network for your team to access from anywhere.
Maarten88 11y ago
Visual Studio Online can do hosted builds of iOS apps (XCode and Xamarin). That must be running on OSX. The good thing is you don't have to mess with OSX VM's or Hackintoshes as it's fully managed. There's also sample deployment scripts in github for HockeyApp that can be used in your build processes.

Has anyone tried something like this but with OS X running in a VM? As a distributed team we would prefer not to rely on one of us physically hosting a Mac Mini. Thanks for writing this.

masklinn 11y ago

IIRC even virtualised the OSX license requires that OSX ultimately run on apple hardware and nowhere else. You could use a colocated host rather than having a member of the team physically owning a mini though.

josteink 11y ago
Why should anyone care what hardware a VM runs on?
- masklinn 11y ago
  Because their business is the hardware?
  - josteink 11y ago
    I'm talking about why anyone not Apple should care. It's not like I care if my VM runs on a Dell or HP server.
    - codingvelocity 11y ago
      If you violate the license agreement from apple there's potential for legal repercussions, and when you are trying to make money from their distribution channel (app store) it's generally better to not violate any of their rules. Especially since they don't have to give you much of a reason when rejecting or retracting your app from their store.
    - masklinn 11y ago
      > I'm talking about why anyone not Apple should care. Because otherwise they're violating the terms of the license agreement which means at best they get no support and are 100% on the hook for anything breaking and at worst they're at risk of legal action? Building a hackintosh in your bedroom is one thing, violating the license agreement of the tools you're using to do your job is another.

roderikvdv 11y ago

You can replace Jenkins easily with https://www.bitrise.io https://www.bitrise.io, but i'm not sure imagemagick and ghostscript are installed there.

thebloodrabbit 11y ago
[Bitrise co-founder here] We have a fastlane integration step ;) That said imagemagick & ghostscript are not pre-installed, but you can install both with a simple script step. All of the integrations (https://www.bitrise.io/integrations https://www.bitrise.io/integrations) are open source and you can add your own with a Pull Request to our Step Library anytime. You can check out what's preinstalled on our VMs here: http://devcenter.bitrise.io/docs/virtual-machines-updates http://devcenter.bitrise.io/docs/virtual-machines-updates

stepanhruda 11y ago

Yes, you're allowed to run 2 VMs per OS X license. Our entire infrastructure is set up like this using Parallels. We have the machines hosted by MacStadium, so they're available to everyone. You could also run the VMs locally, but you'll need to keep the VM image up to date.

tvon 11y ago

Yes, licensing issues aside. You can setup an OSX VM on Linux that is kicked off by a Jenkins job running on the Linux host. If you have Hackintosh[1] experience it won't be too difficult to manage, but if you're unfamiliar with that kind of fiddling it might be a bit of a time-suck. All things considered, unless you're willing or interested in managing something like that and confident you won't "get caught" by Apple (e.g., if they start detecting apps built on Hackintosh systems and banning related ADC accounts) you're better off finding some other solution (maybe https://macminicolo.net? https://macminicolo.net?). [1] http://www.tonymacx86.com http://www.tonymacx86.com

bgaid 11y ago

Why not try out a hosted mac mini solution like https://macstadium.com https://macstadium.com or http://macminivault.com http://macminivault.com? Travis-CI does all of their OS X testing at MacStadium - http://www.macstadium.com/blog/how-travis-ci-halved-boot-times-for-os-x-and-ios-testing-at-macstadium/ http://www.macstadium.com/blog/how-travis-ci-halved-boot-tim... [I work at MacStadium, fyi.] We can help you setup firewalls and have your hosted/rented Mac mini appear as part of your network for your team to access from anywhere.

Maarten88 11y ago

Visual Studio Online can do hosted builds of iOS apps (XCode and Xamarin). That must be running on OSX. The good thing is you don't have to mess with OSX VM's or Hackintoshes as it's fully managed. There's also sample deployment scripts in github for HockeyApp that can be used in your build processes.