6 ms·

RemoteMac.io – Dedicated Mac mini

75 points by rootdevelop 8y ago

thinkingkong 8y ago
What I really need is a setup like this with some automated “restore to snapshot” functionality. We use a remote mac mini to do CI on our development environment for new team members. That would be the best.
- rootdevelop 8y ago
  That’s a good idea, we’ll see if and how we can add such a feature on dedicated machines.
  - thinkingkong 8y ago
    Cool. Ive done a bunch of research on how. Its just really prohibitive as a customer but super reasonable as a provider. Happy to share.
  - lloeki 8y ago
    If I rent a dedicated machine I can certainly do what I described there[0] by hand but would you envision having some kind of turn-key support for GitLab CI runners, supporting both gitlab.com through some partnership and self-hosted instances? That would be brilliant, especially considering Xcode integration with GitLab. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18404893 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18404893 [1]: https://about.gitlab.com/2018/06/06/one-click-clone-to-xcode/ https://about.gitlab.com/2018/06/06/one-click-clone-to-xcode...
    - jl-gitlab 8y ago
      CI/CD product manager from GitLab here. We're actually already looking at adding this - we're starting with some experimentation in our internal item at https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-infra/infrastructure/issues/5294 https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-infra/infrastructure/issues.... Some folks here at GitLab already have this set up and working at a small scale, so it's certainly possible (with a couple caveats.) Check out that issue for more info.
      - lloeki 8y ago
        Haha seems like you ran into the exact same issues as I did! It works brilliantly with a concurrency of 2 on an early 2015 2-core i5 13" MBP with 16GB of RAM, and I'm even using the machine interactively while builds are processed. I'm using Sierra as a base but I've been building Mavericks, El Capitan and High Sierra ones too. VMs are 1 CPU / 4GB. I saw no gain in bumping up VMs to 2 CPUs. https://gitlab.com/archmac/packages/pipelines https://gitlab.com/archmac/packages/pipelines
        jl-gitlab 8y ago
        If you have any advice or learnings for us, feel free to jump into that issue. :)
        lloeki 8y ago
        Not sure I can be more than a data point but hey, whatever. Done ;)
        medicis123 8y ago
        Wanted to share that we developed a GitLab CI Runner/executor for Anka Build and have made it public (It was done for one of our user). It basically enables you to run your iOS/macOS GitLab CI pipelines/jobs on Anka build macOS cloud. You can configure Anka Build macOS cloud on-prem(on macs) or on hosted macs. Happy to share more details.https://github.com/veertuinc/gitlab-runner https://github.com/veertuinc/gitlab-runner
- lloeki 8y ago
  I use GitLab CI runner and VirtualBox for ArchMac. Upon CI job submission, on the first run a linked clone of a base VM is started and a snapshot is made, then the job executes inside of it. On subsequent runs the runner starts from the VM snapshot. Concurrency is supported by doing multiple clones. A blog post is pending bu here's the doc: [0]: https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/install/osx.html https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/install/osx.html [1]: https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/executors/virtualbox.html https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/executors/virtualbox.html
  - dsumenkovic 8y ago
    Hello, Community Advocate from GitLab here. Thank you for sharing this info with the community! We'd love to follow up on your blog post once it's finished. Could you please reach out to us via community@gitlab.com when it's done? Thanks!
willio58 8y ago
Pretty simple and good idea. For people not wanting to drop the money to get a Mac themselves to use Xcode for app development I could see them using this. That’s if the latency isn’t too bad, else it would be hell
- Mistri 8y ago
  It's in the Netherlands, so already off to a bad start for US users in terms of latency
  - efficax 8y ago
    much more useful for automated building and testing in a mac environment remotely. Would be much less useful if it were straightforward to run macOS under virtualization.
- xienze 8y ago
  Are they using the built in VNC server for remote access? Even on my LAN the performance is absolutely terrible. Using a different server doesn’t help either. I’ve seen lots of folks make reference to getting GPU-accelerated VNC that dramatically improves performance if the Mini is hooked up to a monitor, but in my experience it doesn’t work. The only acceptable remote desktop solution I’ve ever found for the Mac is NoMachine.
  - rootdevelop 8y ago
    We use the built-in VNC server our selves at 4K resolution. All Mac Mini’s have a headless GPU enabler, which allow for a smooth, windows rdp like, experience.
    - copperx 8y ago
      Sounds almost unbelievable. I can't VNC into my Mac on my LAN without considerable lag. How are you doing that with 4k?
comex 8y ago
FYI, there are a few issues with the copy on the homepage: - "Mac Mini's" should be "Mac Minis", or "Mac minis" if you want to follow the official capitalization. - "We only offer genuine, dedicated Apple machines running MacOS" is missing a period. - "MacOS" should be "macOS". - "pre installed" should be "pre-installed" or "preinstalled". - "all your developer needs" should probably be "all a developer's needs" or "all your development needs".
- rajeemcariazo 8y ago
  Yeah, correct grammar affects credibility.
- sowbug 8y ago
  While it's true that a product's innovation should not extend to the grammar or spelling of its homepage copy, "all your developer needs" is correct. "developer" is an attributive noun: https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-attributive-noun-1689012 https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-attributive-noun-1689012
- rootdevelop 8y ago
  Thanks for the feedback, we corrected the grammar.
  - antaviana 8y ago
    "Our i5 Mac Minis come with 240 GB and our i5 Mac Minis come with 500GB storage as standard." The second i5 should be i7.
    - rootdevelop 8y ago
      Thanks, it now says i7 :)
- ForHackernews 8y ago
  "Macs mini" https://www.theonion.com/william-safire-orders-two-whoppers-junior-1819565735 https://www.theonion.com/william-safire-orders-two-whoppers-...
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
joshe 8y ago
https://www.macstadium.com/ https://www.macstadium.com/ is another option. US based with data centers in Europe too.
- xienze 8y ago
  At least the other one has somewhat sane prices. $70 per month for the OLD i5 Mini? It really doesn’t take long at all before buying outright makes more sense.
  - chrisper 8y ago
    Do you have the same redundant infrastructure and network connection? Buying isn't always an alternative to data center
    - Nullabillity 8y ago
      Does your client have redundant infrastructure and network connections? I hope nobody is trying to run public services on these things...
- chrisper 8y ago
  Here is a video about them https://youtu.be/0b46E4mp_V8 https://youtu.be/0b46E4mp_V8
phinnaeus 8y ago
What does Apple use for their servers? Do they just have a bunch of Mac Minis in racks? Or do they have Mac servers they're not willing to sell? Or do they not use Macs as servers?
- beamatronic 8y ago
  Custom servers from SuperMicro with absolutely NO custom Chinese military spyware chips.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  For their cloud and services? Linux machines, mostly.
  - ardfie 8y ago
    Apple has also used AWS, Azure, and GCP in addition to their own servers.
    - wulfmann 8y ago
      OS-wise though still likely linux.
      - therein 8y ago
        It is RHEL for a fact.
- therein 8y ago
  They use a mixture of AWS, Azure, GCP and dedicated hardware but they all run RHEL.
- woolvalley 8y ago
  For mac / ios software, some teams literally do use stacks of mac minis or old laptops in a closet.
zubspace 8y ago
Does anyone have experience with MacInCloud [1]? The pricings looks alot more flexible with hourly or weekly rates. [1] https://portal.macincloud.com/select/#/plans https://portal.macincloud.com/select/#/plans
- blensor 8y ago
  Macincloud user here. I tried both their plans managed and dedicated and am more satisfied with the managed plan as it seems more performant at a lower cost (but maybe I was just lucky) I am using it to compile a crossolatform inhouse Qt app for our employees with ios devices. BTW: Whats the best way to create "private" IOS Apps for a very limited number of users. Recompiling the software every time just because we have to add an UDID for every new user to our development profile is an incredibly tedious amount of work.
  - jon-wood 8y ago
    There's support for enterprise distribution based on devices having a corporate provisioning profile installed: https://medium.com/wso2-iot/how-to-export-in-house-developed-ios-app-as-an-enterprise-application-dc087bdd64c3 https://medium.com/wso2-iot/how-to-export-in-house-developed...
    - blensor 8y ago
      That was what I was afraid of. It's another $299/year down the drain just to support a few devices. I was hoping for a way (or a hack) to at least retroactively add a UDID without going through the Archive process again (that is really slow). But I guess I have to force everyone that brings his own IOS device to take a company Android tablet instead :(
xhruso00 8y ago
How bad is running macOS + XCode in virtual machine? Is it that bad?
- ubersoldat2k7 8y ago
  I tried with a React Native project, so I only used the VM for the builds; yes it's shit. I mean, the whole iOS build process is painful enough. And I never got the VM to work on more than 1024x768.
  - brad0 8y ago
    What hypervisor did you use?
    - stevewodil 8y ago
      Not OP but in VirtualBox you are limited to 7mb of VRAM in newer versions of macOS, and I haven't found any workarounds for this. VMware Workstation apparently has better support for macOS so it may be the way to go, but you have to buy it
      - brad0 8y ago
        I’ve heard of VMware fusion, is that different from workstation?
        stevewodil 8y ago
        Fusion is for Mac specifically (to run Windows, or Linux VM's), whereas virtualization of macOS on a Windows machine requires Workstation
- poloniculmov 8y ago
  I've tried it with Vmware while learning a bit of iOS development. It's not horrible but it is a bit laggy in some places, i had issues with sound dying at random intervals and some animations don't play correctly.
timcederman 8y ago
One of the longest running services I'm aware of - https://macminicolo.net/ https://macminicolo.net/ edit: just noticed they merged with MacStadium
- tluyben2 8y ago
  More expensive than any of the competition I am aware off including OP.
  - angersock 8y ago
    Apple users should feel right at home then!
oeuviz 8y ago
Is this supposed to be profitable longterm assuming a ROI of >40months? €1249.-[0] divided by €29.95/mo plus other infrastructure [0] https://www.apple.com/nl/shop/buy-mac/mac-mini https://www.apple.com/nl/shop/buy-mac/mac-mini
- Zealotux 8y ago
  The €29.95/mo offer is for an older i5, the pricing for the 2018 version isn't announced yet: https://www.remotemac.io/pricing https://www.remotemac.io/pricing
- orhanhenrik 8y ago
  1249 is for the expensive 2018 base model. The 29.95 price is for the cheaper old (not 2018) model. It will definitely be paid back much faster than that.
defied 8y ago
Placing an order does not work, due to a Javascript error I think: `TypeError: handler.open is not a function`
- rootdevelop 8y ago
  Can you send us an email at support@remotemac.io, we’re not able to reproduce it here.
teekert 8y ago
When all devs need is your software (xcode), but you are so popular they they buy your hardware anyway instead of looking at alternative platforms. Although I see the why, the how and the need, it is entirely synthetic. In a way Apple forces this incredible waste of hardware that is never seen and could easily be virtualized and time-shared (there are no technical limitations). It's really an opposite-of-green initiative. Although, perhaps the only real alternative would be everyone buying a mac mini and use it even less (in total), which would be even less green...
- yardie 8y ago
  At its heart Apple is a hardware company and everything they do is to drive sales of hardware. An iOS developer is forced to have Apple hardware. They could charge for MacOS and they could charge for XCode. But they don’t because the cost of continued development of those applications is subsidized by hardware sales.
  - egil 8y ago
    Not to mention that the "it just works" experience is much easier to provide when you control both software and hardware. No driver mess for the end user.
Jemm 8y ago
How do you test on actual devices (iPhone, iPad) when developing on a remote system? Obviously you cannot plug your device into the remote mac Mini's usb port.
- rootdevelop 8y ago
  There are several USB over IP solutions, we use Eltima’s USB Network Gate. Otter options include NoMachine.
wpdev_63 8y ago
You can run macos in a vmware vm if you really need it for ios development[0]. It's less than legal though. [0]:https://github.com/DrDonk/unlocker https://github.com/DrDonk/unlocker

75 points by rootdevelop 8y ago

What I really need is a setup like this with some automated “restore to snapshot” functionality. We use a remote mac mini to do CI on our development environment for new team members. That would be the best.

rootdevelop 8y ago
That’s a good idea, we’ll see if and how we can add such a feature on dedicated machines.
- thinkingkong 8y ago
  Cool. Ive done a bunch of research on how. Its just really prohibitive as a customer but super reasonable as a provider. Happy to share.
- lloeki 8y ago
  If I rent a dedicated machine I can certainly do what I described there[0] by hand but would you envision having some kind of turn-key support for GitLab CI runners, supporting both gitlab.com through some partnership and self-hosted instances? That would be brilliant, especially considering Xcode integration with GitLab. [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18404893 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18404893 [1]: https://about.gitlab.com/2018/06/06/one-click-clone-to-xcode/ https://about.gitlab.com/2018/06/06/one-click-clone-to-xcode...
  - jl-gitlab 8y ago
    CI/CD product manager from GitLab here. We're actually already looking at adding this - we're starting with some experimentation in our internal item at https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-infra/infrastructure/issues/5294 https://gitlab.com/gitlab-com/gl-infra/infrastructure/issues.... Some folks here at GitLab already have this set up and working at a small scale, so it's certainly possible (with a couple caveats.) Check out that issue for more info.
    - lloeki 8y ago
      Haha seems like you ran into the exact same issues as I did! It works brilliantly with a concurrency of 2 on an early 2015 2-core i5 13" MBP with 16GB of RAM, and I'm even using the machine interactively while builds are processed. I'm using Sierra as a base but I've been building Mavericks, El Capitan and High Sierra ones too. VMs are 1 CPU / 4GB. I saw no gain in bumping up VMs to 2 CPUs. https://gitlab.com/archmac/packages/pipelines https://gitlab.com/archmac/packages/pipelines
      - jl-gitlab 8y ago
        If you have any advice or learnings for us, feel free to jump into that issue. :)
        lloeki 8y ago
        Not sure I can be more than a data point but hey, whatever. Done ;)
        medicis123 8y ago
        Wanted to share that we developed a GitLab CI Runner/executor for Anka Build and have made it public (It was done for one of our user). It basically enables you to run your iOS/macOS GitLab CI pipelines/jobs on Anka build macOS cloud. You can configure Anka Build macOS cloud on-prem(on macs) or on hosted macs. Happy to share more details.https://github.com/veertuinc/gitlab-runner https://github.com/veertuinc/gitlab-runner
lloeki 8y ago
I use GitLab CI runner and VirtualBox for ArchMac. Upon CI job submission, on the first run a linked clone of a base VM is started and a snapshot is made, then the job executes inside of it. On subsequent runs the runner starts from the VM snapshot. Concurrency is supported by doing multiple clones. A blog post is pending bu here's the doc: [0]: https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/install/osx.html https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/install/osx.html [1]: https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/executors/virtualbox.html https://docs.gitlab.com/runner/executors/virtualbox.html
- dsumenkovic 8y ago
  Hello, Community Advocate from GitLab here. Thank you for sharing this info with the community! We'd love to follow up on your blog post once it's finished. Could you please reach out to us via community@gitlab.com when it's done? Thanks!

willio58 8y ago

Pretty simple and good idea. For people not wanting to drop the money to get a Mac themselves to use Xcode for app development I could see them using this. That’s if the latency isn’t too bad, else it would be hell

Mistri 8y ago
It's in the Netherlands, so already off to a bad start for US users in terms of latency
- efficax 8y ago
  much more useful for automated building and testing in a mac environment remotely. Would be much less useful if it were straightforward to run macOS under virtualization.
xienze 8y ago
Are they using the built in VNC server for remote access? Even on my LAN the performance is absolutely terrible. Using a different server doesn’t help either. I’ve seen lots of folks make reference to getting GPU-accelerated VNC that dramatically improves performance if the Mini is hooked up to a monitor, but in my experience it doesn’t work. The only acceptable remote desktop solution I’ve ever found for the Mac is NoMachine.
- rootdevelop 8y ago
  We use the built-in VNC server our selves at 4K resolution. All Mac Mini’s have a headless GPU enabler, which allow for a smooth, windows rdp like, experience.
  - copperx 8y ago
    Sounds almost unbelievable. I can't VNC into my Mac on my LAN without considerable lag. How are you doing that with 4k?

comex 8y ago

FYI, there are a few issues with the copy on the homepage: - "Mac Mini's" should be "Mac Minis", or "Mac minis" if you want to follow the official capitalization. - "We only offer genuine, dedicated Apple machines running MacOS" is missing a period. - "MacOS" should be "macOS". - "pre installed" should be "pre-installed" or "preinstalled". - "all your developer needs" should probably be "all a developer's needs" or "all your development needs".

rajeemcariazo 8y ago
Yeah, correct grammar affects credibility.
sowbug 8y ago
While it's true that a product's innovation should not extend to the grammar or spelling of its homepage copy, "all your developer needs" is correct. "developer" is an attributive noun: https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-attributive-noun-1689012 https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-attributive-noun-1689012
rootdevelop 8y ago
Thanks for the feedback, we corrected the grammar.
- antaviana 8y ago
  "Our i5 Mac Minis come with 240 GB and our i5 Mac Minis come with 500GB storage as standard." The second i5 should be i7.
  - rootdevelop 8y ago
    Thanks, it now says i7 :)
ForHackernews 8y ago
"Macs mini" https://www.theonion.com/william-safire-orders-two-whoppers-junior-1819565735 https://www.theonion.com/william-safire-orders-two-whoppers-...

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

joshe 8y ago

https://www.macstadium.com/ https://www.macstadium.com/ is another option. US based with data centers in Europe too.

xienze 8y ago
At least the other one has somewhat sane prices. $70 per month for the OLD i5 Mini? It really doesn’t take long at all before buying outright makes more sense.
- chrisper 8y ago
  Do you have the same redundant infrastructure and network connection? Buying isn't always an alternative to data center
  - Nullabillity 8y ago
    Does your client have redundant infrastructure and network connections? I hope nobody is trying to run public services on these things...
chrisper 8y ago
Here is a video about them https://youtu.be/0b46E4mp_V8 https://youtu.be/0b46E4mp_V8

phinnaeus 8y ago

What does Apple use for their servers? Do they just have a bunch of Mac Minis in racks? Or do they have Mac servers they're not willing to sell? Or do they not use Macs as servers?

beamatronic 8y ago
Custom servers from SuperMicro with absolutely NO custom Chinese military spyware chips.
saagarjha 8y ago
For their cloud and services? Linux machines, mostly.
- ardfie 8y ago
  Apple has also used AWS, Azure, and GCP in addition to their own servers.
  - wulfmann 8y ago
    OS-wise though still likely linux.
    - therein 8y ago
      It is RHEL for a fact.
therein 8y ago
They use a mixture of AWS, Azure, GCP and dedicated hardware but they all run RHEL.
woolvalley 8y ago
For mac / ios software, some teams literally do use stacks of mac minis or old laptops in a closet.

zubspace 8y ago

Does anyone have experience with MacInCloud [1]? The pricings looks alot more flexible with hourly or weekly rates. [1] https://portal.macincloud.com/select/#/plans https://portal.macincloud.com/select/#/plans

blensor 8y ago
Macincloud user here. I tried both their plans managed and dedicated and am more satisfied with the managed plan as it seems more performant at a lower cost (but maybe I was just lucky) I am using it to compile a crossolatform inhouse Qt app for our employees with ios devices. BTW: Whats the best way to create "private" IOS Apps for a very limited number of users. Recompiling the software every time just because we have to add an UDID for every new user to our development profile is an incredibly tedious amount of work.
- jon-wood 8y ago
  There's support for enterprise distribution based on devices having a corporate provisioning profile installed: https://medium.com/wso2-iot/how-to-export-in-house-developed-ios-app-as-an-enterprise-application-dc087bdd64c3 https://medium.com/wso2-iot/how-to-export-in-house-developed...
  - blensor 8y ago
    That was what I was afraid of. It's another $299/year down the drain just to support a few devices. I was hoping for a way (or a hack) to at least retroactively add a UDID without going through the Archive process again (that is really slow). But I guess I have to force everyone that brings his own IOS device to take a company Android tablet instead :(

xhruso00 8y ago

How bad is running macOS + XCode in virtual machine? Is it that bad?

ubersoldat2k7 8y ago
I tried with a React Native project, so I only used the VM for the builds; yes it's shit. I mean, the whole iOS build process is painful enough. And I never got the VM to work on more than 1024x768.
- brad0 8y ago
  What hypervisor did you use?
  - stevewodil 8y ago
    Not OP but in VirtualBox you are limited to 7mb of VRAM in newer versions of macOS, and I haven't found any workarounds for this. VMware Workstation apparently has better support for macOS so it may be the way to go, but you have to buy it
    - brad0 8y ago
      I’ve heard of VMware fusion, is that different from workstation?
      - stevewodil 8y ago
        Fusion is for Mac specifically (to run Windows, or Linux VM's), whereas virtualization of macOS on a Windows machine requires Workstation
poloniculmov 8y ago
I've tried it with Vmware while learning a bit of iOS development. It's not horrible but it is a bit laggy in some places, i had issues with sound dying at random intervals and some animations don't play correctly.

timcederman 8y ago

One of the longest running services I'm aware of - https://macminicolo.net/ https://macminicolo.net/ edit: just noticed they merged with MacStadium

tluyben2 8y ago
More expensive than any of the competition I am aware off including OP.
- angersock 8y ago
  Apple users should feel right at home then!

oeuviz 8y ago

Is this supposed to be profitable longterm assuming a ROI of >40months? €1249.-[0] divided by €29.95/mo plus other infrastructure [0] https://www.apple.com/nl/shop/buy-mac/mac-mini https://www.apple.com/nl/shop/buy-mac/mac-mini

Zealotux 8y ago
The €29.95/mo offer is for an older i5, the pricing for the 2018 version isn't announced yet: https://www.remotemac.io/pricing https://www.remotemac.io/pricing
orhanhenrik 8y ago
1249 is for the expensive 2018 base model. The 29.95 price is for the cheaper old (not 2018) model. It will definitely be paid back much faster than that.

defied 8y ago

Placing an order does not work, due to a Javascript error I think: `TypeError: handler.open is not a function`

rootdevelop 8y ago
Can you send us an email at support@remotemac.io, we’re not able to reproduce it here.

teekert 8y ago

When all devs need is your software (xcode), but you are so popular they they buy your hardware anyway instead of looking at alternative platforms. Although I see the why, the how and the need, it is entirely synthetic. In a way Apple forces this incredible waste of hardware that is never seen and could easily be virtualized and time-shared (there are no technical limitations). It's really an opposite-of-green initiative. Although, perhaps the only real alternative would be everyone buying a mac mini and use it even less (in total), which would be even less green...

yardie 8y ago
At its heart Apple is a hardware company and everything they do is to drive sales of hardware. An iOS developer is forced to have Apple hardware. They could charge for MacOS and they could charge for XCode. But they don’t because the cost of continued development of those applications is subsidized by hardware sales.
- egil 8y ago
  Not to mention that the "it just works" experience is much easier to provide when you control both software and hardware. No driver mess for the end user.

Jemm 8y ago

How do you test on actual devices (iPhone, iPad) when developing on a remote system? Obviously you cannot plug your device into the remote mac Mini's usb port.

rootdevelop 8y ago
There are several USB over IP solutions, we use Eltima’s USB Network Gate. Otter options include NoMachine.

wpdev_63 8y ago

You can run macos in a vmware vm if you really need it for ios development[0]. It's less than legal though. [0]:https://github.com/DrDonk/unlocker https://github.com/DrDonk/unlocker