Xsan 2.3 qualified RAID Arrays

Question

Xsan 2.3 qualified RAID Arrays

Hi there - I've been searching for documentation on "qualified RAID arrays" to work with the new Xsan 2.3 in lion. As Apple says in their release of lion that "Lion also supports industry-standard multipathing and failover, so Xsan can be used with a variety of Fibre Channel RAID storage arrays." (http://www.apple.com/macosx/server/) at the bottom. I pulled up mr. Manual and searched "qualified RAID Arrays" and I get to the section in chapter 3 "Supported Storage devices", and warned to make sure to use only an apple certified RAID array... For the latest information see www.apple.com/xsan/

So I click there... and it still only has the Promise Vtrak system labeled that was supported in v2.2.... Anybody had any luck finding a list of other supported arrays? Anybody currently running any other fibre arrays?

Would love to know! Thanks Everybody!

Kyle

Posted on Sep 9, 2011 7:46 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Christopher Collins

Level 1

50 points

Sep 13, 2011 11:37 AM in response to Blacknight582

Technically you should be able to use any storage that Stornext on Windows and Linux supports. I always thought that was funny that in an Xsan controlled volume you could only use an Apple qualified array but Apple supported adding Xsan clients to a Stornext SAN that could be using any storage.

To be honest though, the Promise Vtrak boxes are really great. Another alternative that lots of customers started using were Active Storage RAIDs. Technically the rewritten multipathing drivers in Lion should make it workeable with anything that Stornext is ok with using.

Since Apple isn't going to probably go through the trouble of actually qualifying everything out there and you are really that worried I would just go with the Promise.

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Answer 2

Sep 13, 2011 12:02 PM in response to Christopher Collins

Well and it's not to say that the Promise's are bad - that's not what I'm saying at all, I just want the option. I'm just looking for other people that either have done the same research I'm doing - or are personally using a different array. There are many other arrays out there that are just as reliable and fast that have a much nicer price tag than Promise's stuff. Currently we are living off of 3 XserveRAID arrays, which is fast enough for our 3 workstations. But we're looking to add 5 more (1 final cut and 4 animation stations using AE and Maya/nuke). We are running an OLLldddd Xsan version (like 1.4.2 maybe?? don't have it in front of me) but Everything is needing a giant face lift... and with each lion box allowed to use Xsan the only thing holding us back is After Effects being compatible with Lion. Maya and nuke boxes actually can use AFP to get to the SAN and would be fine.

Anyways. I'll give you credit for a helpful answer - but I'm looking for more concrete choices 🙂

Thanks

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