Apple Servers

Expand your network horizons with Xsan, an enterprise-class storage area network (SAN) solution that’s surprisingly affordable. Xsan lets multiple computers concurrently access terabytes — even petabytes — of storage on Xserve RAID over high-speed Fibre Channel. Order Xsan today for $999 per node.

High-performance storage networking

Xsan takes advantage of the 64-bit file system in Mac OS X v10.4 “Tiger” — so users in your organization can share files and volumes up to two petabytes (2PB) in size. Dozens of systems on the SAN can read and write to shared storage simultaneously, unlike other solutions which gate access at the volume level. Even better, using a SAN lets you pool data across multiple RAID devices for better performance, while each client can access this centralized data as if connected directly to it. And by connecting users directly to a high-speed Fibre Channel network, Xsan eliminates the need to transfer files over slower Ethernet-based networks. Using Fibre Channel multipathing, in which two Fibre Channel cables connect a computer to the SAN, an Xsan client can theoretically achieve throughput of up to 1.6GBps, perfect for multiple editors working on a video project or a compute cluster that needs fast access to data to ensure each node crunches at full capacity.

Consolidate data storage

Provisioning is History. Xsan lets you pool storage devices such as Xserve RAID together and give direct access to this pool to each client computer. Such elegant data consolidation eliminates unused space and means you’ll never have to assign storage to each machine separately again, because they all access the same volume.

Mission-Critical Redundancy

Xsan includes high-availability features to eliminate potential single points of failure, so you can use high-performance storage networking for enterprise consolidation and network-attached storage (NAS) replacement projects. Xsan uses one system connected to the SAN, called a metadata controller, to manage access to shared storage. If this machine fails for any reason, Xsan picks another computer on the SAN to take over this role. Cascading metadata controller failover ensures that you can access your data as long as any one system on your SAN is active. In the event of a loose cable, Xsan uses multipathing to automatically route traffic to the system through a second cable on dual-port Apple Fibre Channel HBA. And during critical operations, you can clear a path on your SAN for any system using Xsan bandwidth reservation.

Easy to Set Up, Easy to Manage

As you’d expect from Apple server and storage products, Xsan includes accessible tools to administer your SAN anywhere on the network. Xsan Admin helps you get the most from your storage resources with user and group quotas, as well as affinities to associate files and folders with specific classes of storage. As with Xserve RAID, you can monitor performance remotely or let Xsan notify you of events via email or pager.

Keep Your Network in Tune

Use the new Xsan Tuner application to test the data and video transfer capabilities of your storage area network and its Xsan volumes. Xsan Tuner can simulate both standard UNIX reads and writes, as well as Final Cut Pro video reads and writes for a variety of common video formats. You can also use the Xsan Tuner to see if your SAN can handle planned workloads — before you put it into production use. Download the Xsan Tuning Guide to help you understand the Xsan Tuner results, as well as for suggestions for optimizing your SAN performance.

Plays Well With Others

Xsan delivers incredible performance on Mac Pro, Xserve and Xserve RAID. You can use most Mac OS X and Mac OS X server software, including Apple’s Final Cut Studio. To deploy Xsan, you will need a qualified third-party Fibre Channel switch. You may also use Xsan in a cross-platform environment alongside Windows-, UNIX- and Linux-based systems, using the Quantum StorNext File System, which is 100% interoperable with Xsan. Xsan also works well with Quantum’s Scalar line of tape libraries and policy-based data management tools to reduce your information lifecycle management costs.

No Hidden Costs

Best of all, Xsan delivers this incredible performance, flexibility and ease of use without a confusing pricing structure. Simply install Xsan on a supported machine to add it to your SAN as metadata controller or file system client. Unlike some vendors, Apple doesn’t charge more when you add additional storage to your SAN. Just plug in another Xserve RAID or Apple Drive Module to add more SAN capacity. Xsan offers advanced storage networking at a fraction of the price of competitors.