Can the Xserve Raid simply connect to a Cisco mds fiber switch and show on the flogi database as a simple jbod or do you need xsan to manipulate the array?
See subject 🙂
Xserve
I'd tend to doubt it, but it's unlikely that any hardware would be damaged by testing this.
Xserve RAID configuration was managed via an OS X app (RAID Admin — not sure if that's the most "current") that was available on older OS X releases. (That tool doesn't directly work on newer OS X releases.)
Xsan coordinates shared file access, and doesn't manage the configuration of the FC SAN storage controller.
If you've been handed an old Xserve RAID as I might infer, you're probably going to want an OS X 10.6 or earlier configuration — either native or via VM — to manage it.