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Setup Vtrak as NAS through Mac Mini? Possible?

First off I think I need to explain something, because when I ask this question most of you will wonder why I'm not just making a normal XSAN.


Where I work we've had two different XSAN and they both failed miserably.

First setup, a XSAN 2 point something.

First, one metadata controller server died. Fair enough that happens. But before we could replace it, the remaining MDC lost connection to the XSAN admin tool. So we couldn't manage or add new MDC's and had literally zero control after that. When the mount was lost, we rebooted the remaining MDC and crossed our fingers. Surprisingly it worked long enough for us to update to Lion Server.


Second setup, Lion Server.

It started with some random failovers and the dreaded "something happened" notification (pointless).

Then it got worse by randomly disconnecting the volume and at times turning off the volume.

Now **** has hit the fan and the two MDC’s no longer talk together. There is like 10 different errors, where any one of them would be cause for panic. Our XSAN is quite literally dying.


We’ve had several certified and none-certified people looking at it with no success.

We don’t have the money to keeping dealing with this. So we are moving away from the XSAN setup and to something simpler.


I need the simplest setup you can think off. We have an extra Promise Vtrak and I’m thinking I would setup it up as a NAS.


Can I use the Mac Mini to set up the Vtrak, but with no necessary data on the Mac Mini. So if the Mac Mini died, the Vtrak would remain visible on the network via an assigned IP. Like a shared drive/SMB.

Posted on Jun 3, 2013 6:47 AM

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2 replies

Jun 5, 2013 5:08 AM in response to Nerdfield

I am sorry to hear about your Xsan troubles. When set up properly, it is a very elegant and effective solution. Now that 10.8.4 is out, the upgrade floodgates open for me!


So the answer to your question is yes. You can simply connect the Vtrak to a mini Server using a SanLink adaptor. Note, depending on the Vtrak you have, you may not get full performance as the SanLink will limit you to 2 4 GB connections. However, since you are now allowing clients to connect over a single 1000Base connection, this should be more than enough.


Now, the real question is, what is your workflow. You clearly went to Xsan for a reason. If that reason was for collaborative workflow in a video environment, then doing direct attached storage that relies on a single Ethernet connection may not be the best solution for your workflow needs.


However, if your workflow no longer required shared file system access provided by Xsan, then throwing a big array at your storage needs can work just as well.

Jun 5, 2013 5:44 AM in response to Nerdfield

As Strontium90 says, the simplest configuration will be a single Mac directly connected to the VTrak. The Mac would then share the storage over Ethernet to other Macs, either via AFP, or SMB, or in theory also NFS.


With this configuraiton no XSAN is needed, nor is a SAN switched. However with this configuration only a single Mac can be connected to the VTrack (directly). Furthermore a clarification that Stronium90 did not cover, with this configuration if the Mac crashes or dies, the VTrack will not be visible or accessible to the other Macs.


It would be easy enough to have a second Mac pre-configured and swap it over.


If you want two or more servers to be directly connected to the VTrack then you have to have a SAN switch and you have to use XSAN, that is why those products exist.


There are alternatives to using a Mac for an XSAN MDC (Meta Data Controller). See the following


http://activestorage.com/activesan.php

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1517

http://www.andre-aulich.de/en/perm/replace-xsan-mdc-with-stornext-mdc

http://krypted.com/xsan/adding-xsan-clients-to-stornext-environments/

http://www.quantum.com/Solutions/Apple/index.aspx

Setup Vtrak as NAS through Mac Mini? Possible?

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