One of the benefits of the hypervisor is the ability to install multiple operating systems on one system. If your subscription is a Mac mini with quad core i7 CPU, you can run multiple virtual machines with various operating systems on the server.
In the past we installed the VMware ESXi hypervisor and created a Linux virtual machine by request. Due to the complex nature of installing Linux and the many variations available, we now offer the base VMware ESXi installation with no virtual machines included. Customers may install virtual machines on their own.
We don’t do any initial operating system customization. When you initially order a server with macOS on it, it's macOS on the bare metal Mac just as if you’d bought it at a store.
For every subscription to a hosted Mac running macOS, we provide an adminstrator account and the ability to modify system-level files. Login as administrator to a Mac running macOS and you have complete control over the system.
SSH and VNC access are enabled by default on dedicated servers so you can access them from any device. It's no different than if the server were on your local network.
We do require that you follow the guidelines set in our Terms of Service and Acceptable Use Policy which you must agree to during checkout.
One of the more popular free VNC tools used by our clients, RealVNC, now offers their server product under the name VNC Connect. Customers often ask us whether they need VNC Connect on their Mac running macOS.
Apple’s macOS also includes a built-in default VNC server. We enable this for every hosted Mac running any version of macOS before releasing the server to a customer.
To connect to one of our Mac servers running macOS, you need a VNC client like the one RealVNC offers, VNC Viewer. VNC Connect is not required.
Below are some tools that allow users to exploit the power and reliability of the Apple macOS platform, and still have the familiar *NIX-type experience.
The Mac is a powerful Intel-based hardware platform that can run any OS – not just macOS.
MacStadium offers VMware ESXi as a means to install all variants of Linux as virtual machines on a hosted Mac. This includes generic distributions like Debian, Ubuntu, and CentOS, as well as packaged distributions that include software like cPanel and Plesk.
APFS stands for “Apple File System,” the proprietary file system for macOS High Sierra (10.13) and later, developed and deployed by Apple. It replaces HFS+ (also known as Mac OS Extended). APFS is optimized for flash and solid-state drive storage with a primary focus on encryption. Our friends at TidBITS put together a great article that gives some more background; read it here: https://tidbits.com/2018/07/23/what-apfs-does-for-you-and-what-you-can-do-with-apfs/
Disclaimer: We are an infrastructure provider and can only offer a minimal amount of help for software issues. We can not guarantee this fix works for all users or offer support for it. Please contact the software developer (Apple, in this case) for further help. We can also provide a list of vendors that we work with to support you.
We found a confirmed solution with the help of a customer:
"I figured out what the problem was in case you all are seeing this in other places. The bluetooth daemon had crashed. I'm not sure why that made coreaudiod and launchd go crazy, but the fix is this:
If the daemon crashes you may see a message like this: /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.blued.plist: Could not find specified service. Next, run this:
Once blued is running properly, coreaudiod and launchd both settle down."
