Apple Servers

Xsan is a high-performance 64-bit cluster file system designed for mission-critical environments that require the highest level of availability.

Enterprise-class features such as metadata controller failover, Fibre Channel multipathing and built-in volume management make Xsan an ideal choice for storage consolidation and NAS replacement. Xsan can support very complex high-bandwidth workflows, allowing scores of users concurrent read and write access to shared volumes. And with breakthough pricing, Xsan hits the price-performance curve required in high-performance computing environments.

System requirements

• Macintosh computers with an Intel or PowerPC G5 processor
• 512MB of RAM
• Mac OS X v10.4.7 or later

Storage network requirements

Xsan requires the following storage area network components:

• Switched Ethernet LAN — For optimal performance, use Xsan with the following network configurations:
  • Switched Gigabit Ethernet
  • Dedicated Ethernet interface with static non-routed IP address for file system metadata communications

• Xserve RAID — In demanding environments, use at least one Xserve RAID configured with:

  • 14 Apple Drive Modules
  • 512MB of cache per RAID controller (1GB total)
• Apple Fibre Channel PCI, PCI-X or PCI Express Card
• Qualified Fibre Channel switches:
  • Brocade Silkworm 3250, 3850, and 12000 series
  • QLogic SANbox 2-64, SANbox 5200, SANbox 5202, and SANbox Express 1400
  • Emulex SAN Switch 355, 375 and 9200
  • Cisco MDS 9000 family