How to Replace an XServe Raid Battery

[MacRumors]

In anticipation of the release of Apple's Xserve RAID, Apple has kindly posted a guide with instructions on how to replace the battery in your Xserve RAID.

Apple provides step-by-step instructions for the yet-released product.

Xserve RAID was originally announced at the same time as the release announcement of the Xserve in May 2002. The Xserve RAID sports a 3U enclosure, 14 drive bays, and Fibre Channel. Due "by the end of calender year 2002".

 

[peterh]

What are the Batteried for?

I have a question. What exactly are the Batteries for?

 

[primalman]

Re: What are the Batteried for?

Originally posted by peterh
I have a question. What exactly are the Batteries for?

My guess would be power outages or power supply failures. The batts would give the RAID time to warn the server and admin, spin down the disks and turn off the RAID safely, so you can keep your data.

 

[woodsey]

how much is this beast going to cost?

will anyone be able to aford one?

i know i wont!

 

[OSeXy!]

I posted this same link over a month ago in another thread on "strange things on Apple's website".

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?threadid=12480

Don't worry, we can all get a little behind the times ;-] .

Keep up the good work, Macrumors!

 

[Mudbug]

So do we know whether this RAID can be used by things other than xServes?
I need a new RAID for video work, and wouldn't mind having this, assuming the price is competitive...

 

[MacHack]

Updated XServe too?

Announcing an updated Xserve along with a new xServe RAID announcement seems like a sure thing.
Anyone know when the updated Xserve is due???
Anyone know the specs for the updated Xserve???

 

[Macmaniac]

Looks very cool ABout 1.5 Terabytes of storage space Of course it looks awsome like the XServe.

"I'm Dead Sexy!" XServe's new motto

 

[EarlMacT]

Batteries on Raid systems are typicaly used to provide power to the cache during a power failue. The uncompleted write to the cache would be protected from the power failure with the battery. If your system is on a UPS then the battery protected cache is not required. But who knows, this is Apple and they may have a whole new use for it.

 

[Nipsy]

Originally posted by Mudbug
So do we know whether this RAID can be used by things other than xServes?
I need a new RAID for video work, and wouldn't mind having this, assuming the price is competitive...

The XRaid communicates with the machine via Fibre Channel, so if you have a Fibre Channel host card (~$700 from ATTO) you should be able to use it.

Whether there is admin software, and whether that software requires OSX server to run remains to be seen.

As for price point, I don't think it will be cheap. This is a hardware RAID 5, which offers speed & long term reliability. For video, with alot of scratch usage, you may want to stick with RAID 0, which offers speed, without the parity drive(s).

 

[Mudbug]

thanks - I'm thinking more along the lines of long term video storage for offline editing. We've already got a RAID 0 array set up and running for the scratch space - a SANcube - works great right out of the box.

 

[szark]

Originally posted by Nipsy
The XRaid communicates with the machine via Fibre Channel

Can anyone verify this by looking at the picture of the connectors on the back of the unit?

 

[Mudbug]

is there any way to tell it's fibre channel just by looking at the RJ port? I thought the connectors for T10, T100, & T1000 were the same - RJ45. Just the cable itself has to be fiber or cat 6 for gigabit? Plus if this comes right out of one of the Gigabit connections on the Xserve, would it have to use a crossover cable instead of an inline patch, or could you just connect directly? What about locating on a different rack than your servers, and having your raid connected through a gigabit switch? Any takers?

 

[Nipsy]

Originally posted by szark


Can anyone verify this by looking at the picture of the connectors on the back of the unit?

Not visually, but it was announced as a Fibre Channel device at WWDC. I can't imagine the connection protocol having changed without a hint of a rumor.

 

[Chisholm]

hhhmmm. 4:30 p.m. central time and its not there anymore. Even tried searching their FTP server and the file looks to be pulled. Anyone have a download of the .pdf I can snag?

cheers!
-John

 

[jg3]

Fibrechannel /only/?

I honestly don't remember the details of the announcement, but it would seem kind of silly to me to make the only interface be fibrechannel. I mean, on one hand, who would buy an XRaid if they weren't dropping a whole bunch of money on high-end stuff already, so fibrechannel only might be reasonable, but on the other hand, you've got to be locking out some customers by requiring that kind of connectivity. I don't even see the option to put a fibrechannel card in your XServe, although I thought that was supposed to be available. *shrug*

 

[Mudbug]

Re: Fibrechannel /only/?

Originally posted by jg3
I don't even see the option to put a fibrechannel card in your XServe, although I thought that was supposed to be available. *shrug*

I bet that's our next rumor - The first Xserve upgrade will contain a fiberchannel card to interface with then new Xserve RAID.

how 'bout them apples?

 

[Mudbug]

Re: Fibrechannel /only/?

Originally posted by jg3
I don't even see the option to put a fibrechannel card in your XServe, although I thought that was supposed to be available. *shrug*

I've attached an image from the Xserve store page, saying you can choose between SCSI and Gigabit fiber...

 

[EarlMacT]

Re: Re: Fibrechannel /only/?

Originally posted by Mudbug


I've attached an image from the Xserve store page, saying you can choose between SCSI and Gigabit fiber...

I believe the Apple Ad is refering to the XServe abillity to use a PCI SCSI or a PCI Gigabit Ethernet card. They are not talking about the Gigabit Fibre Channel card.