Apple Introduces XSan 2

[MacRumors]

Alongside the iPod Shuffle price drops today, Apple also introduced Xsan 2, the first major upgrade to its Storage Area Network (SAN) file system for Mac OS X.

Xsan 2 makes it easier for first time users to set up and quickly deploy a SAN; introduces MultiSAN, allowing users on a single workstation to access multiple SANs at the same time; is fully integrated with Mac OS X Leopard and Mac OS X Server Leopard and is now qualified to work with third-party RAID storage.

It is available immediately at the Apple Store at $999 per node. More information to be available at apple.com/xsan

Article Link

 

[amac4me]

The support for 3rd-party RAID storage is a big step forward for XSan. This will make it more viable in the enterprise as well as in data centers. Hopefully Apple continues to make their product more "enterprise friendly" as this would help extend the Apple footprint into the enterprise.

 

[twoodcc]

glad to see updates to this. it shows that they haven't forgotten about the server side of things. maybe one day i'll have one of these in my house! (first i gotta get a house 😛 )

 

[TurboTim]

Upgrade?

Anyone seen anything regarding an upgrade price? Nothing on the Apple Store page. I have three 1.x licenses and don't think I should have to shell out 3 grand to "upgrade" to version 2.

 

[diamond.g]

I was looking at the product page, and a question came to mind. How does this compare to EMC's Celerra?

 

[simag]

I was looking at the product page, and a question came to mind. How does this compare to EMC's Celerra?

Nothing in the world to do with each other as far as I can see. The Celerra is a file server. The Promise box is raid system. EMC's low to mid range storage is the "Clariion" - they are addicted to "C" words. Some Celerras have a standalone Clariion behind them.

 

[diamond.g]

Nothing in the world to do with each other as far as I can see. The Celerra is a file server. The Promise box is raid system. EMC's low to mid range storage is the "Clariion" - they are addicted to "C" words. Some Celerras have a standalone Clariion behind them.

Ah, okay. It was easier when all I had to remember was the Symetrix (and Connectrix).

 

[electronboy]

No More Xserve RAID

The good: XSAN 2.0 🙂
The BAD: Xserve RAID discontinued w/o warning! 😡

We have two fully loaded and I am very upset that I cannot purchase any others. They have been rock solid units with tremendous reliabilty and ease of use. 🙁

 

[WildPalms]

Nothing in the world to do with each other as far as I can see. The Celerra is a file server. The Promise box is raid system. EMC's low to mid range storage is the "Clariion" - they are addicted to "C" words. Some Celerras have a standalone Clariion behind them.

The Celerra is not a file server. It is a raid based storage system that incorporates some SAN design principles, archiving methods based on usage and still requires a presenter (what you would consider a file server). It does, however, possess more features than the Promise system and price tag to match.

 

[i3iz]

xsan 2? what does it even do? sounds like some type of raid management software.

 

[diamond.g]

xsan 2? what does it even do? sounds like some type of raid management software.

From my understanding, yeah that is basically what it is.

 

[Cromulent]

xsan 2? what does it even do? sounds like some type of raid management software.

It allows you to have a centralised disk drive that client computers connect to. It also allows simultanious reading and writing by many clients to the same files on that drive.

 

[simag]

The Celerra is not a file server.

Wrong. The Celerra comes in a variety of flavors. One is the integrated unit which consists of a some raid disks (call it a mini-Clariion if you like) and some "data movers (in EMC speak)." The data movers present the storage as cifs or nfs to the network. That makes if a file-server in my books.

The larger "gateway" models consist of a large number of these "data movers" but with no build in raid storage at all. Storage is mapped via san from a CLariion or a DMX.

And yes, I do have one.
http://images.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/cool.gif

 

[blackbelt]

My understanding is that Page 2 is for unconfirmed rumors! So... i am confused as to why this is a Page 2 article, when it is clearly a new product from Apple (http://www.apple.com/xsan/) Do you need Steve Jobs to personally tell you?

 

[autrefois]

My understanding is that Page 2 is for unconfirmed rumors! So... i am confused as to why this is a Page 2 article, when it is clearly a new product from Apple

Page 2 is for "uncertain rumors and minor news items", as the heading indicates

The average Mac user is not likely to be interested in Xsan 2, so I assume that's why they put it on page 2.