I like OS X Lion Server – A LOT (XSAN)

[Andrew Richards]

[Bob Zelin] “I am boring you with this, because Apple obviously is interested in EASY (for dopes like me), and FCP X defines this, as well as OS X Lion, and OS X Lion server (and iOS in general). SO, won’t a future XSAN configuration meet with this Apple mindset – or will it remain as complex as it is today ? There is a Mac Mini Server (with only one ethernet port, but Thunderbolt) – so won’t there be a “future” for XSAN on a Mac Mini ? Or will it remain the current nightmare configuration ? “

Somebody will need to make fibre channel switches easy for that to happen. It is technically possible that someone could build an “Xsan Hub” that uses Thunderbolt to carry both the FC and metadata LAN links that Xsan requires to run and requires minimal configuration to be used in an Xsan deployment, but I’d be STUNNED if one came from Apple. Maybe they will coax a partner to build one. But for now, the only way to build an Xsan still involves zoning an off-the-shelf fibre channel switch, setting up a discrete metadata LAN alongside the public LAN, and setting up the right cocktail of RAID LUNs to be made into an Xsan filesystem.

But yeah, it sure seems like they are up to something, doesn’t it?

Best,
Andy

[Roald Hemel]

You could use somtehing like this:

https://sonnettech.com/product/rackmacminixserver.html
or:
https://sonnettech.com/product/thunderbolt/index.html
or:
https://www.promise.com/storage/raid_series.aspx?region=en-global&m=192&rsn1=40&rsn3=49

If you combine a Sonnet Rackmac Mini Xserver (with decent 4x1Gb/s Ethernet card in PCIe slot) and the Promise SANLink to connect to your fiber swith, the Mac mini server could replace a Xserve.

[Allan White]

Looking hard at that option. At the least, looking at using a Mac Mini as a redundant MDC.

– Allan White, Video Producer, Luis Palau Assoc.

Quad 3Ghz Mac Pro, 10GB RAM, X1900 GPU, XSAN, CatDV Server