OT – Apple XServe

[Noah Kadner]

Are you asking where to get it repaired or what to replace it with?

Noah

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[Bob Zelin]

Eric –
absolutely everything works today. There is no need for fiber channel, XSAN, or any specialty hardware, especially now that SMB is supported for FCP X 10.3 You can use anything – QNAP, Synology, Lumaforge Jellyfish – they all work.
And so does everything else. Simply say GO> Connect To Server, and write your FCP X libraries to your hearts content.
Are you disappointed that things are no longer complicated and no longer need a Metadata server ?

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Eric Santiago]

Thanks Bob for that reply ☺

I never even thought of it that way.
Still stuck in the past at my day job.
I guess with the Macs on a network, the fiber doesn’t really do much, does it?
The options mentioned all have some sort of filing system that we can manage correct?
I will start researching them.

Thanks Noah for replying.
I think at this point we are ready to let go of the XServe as well as the RAIDs.
We’ve had that combo for over 9 years and got a lot out of the initial cost.

I will look into the options Bob mentioned.

Does anyone have any favorites?

[Scott Thomas]

First thing I would do (if you haven’t yet) would be the parameter RAM reset. At boot, hold down +P+R.

Otherwise, it sounds like the system drive went bye-bye.

Also, take that system drive from the Xserve and see if is readable on another system. I don’t even know what the Xserve has… ATA? SATA?

Like Bob says, it’s old tech. If you have to get it running to keep going, good luck, but the new stuff should be much better.

[Noah Kadner]

Yep- Symply, Lumaforge, Panasas, Isilon, QNAP- you name it. There’s a product that will fit your price point and use case.

Noah

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[Neil Sadwelkar]

You mention that your Xserve is 9 years old. That would mean (from Everymac) that its probably a Quad Core Xeon 2.8 GHz. Unless you got a CTO Dual Quad.
These shipped with 2 GB RAM and a 80 GB SATA drive. Folder icon means the boot drive has failed. 9 years is a long time for a drive to have run so you’re lucky.
If you need to keep it running you could consider swapping the SATA drive out for a 128 or 256 GB SATA SSD. Hopefully an SSD will work in an Xserve.
Installing the OS will be a challenge. It shipped with MacOS 10.5 (feline name I’ve forgotten) and the last OS supported would be 10.7.x. But if the DVD drive is working and you have the disks, you could still load the OS.

But sooner or later something else will fail and you’ll be back to square 1.

To keep your SAN running you could consider swapping out the Xserve for a Mac mini and keep the FC cards in a Thunderbolt-PCIe expansion box.

But this is all complicated and you’ll at most get another 2-3 years before something else breaks.

———————————–
Neil Sadwelkar
neilsadwelkar.blogspot.com
twitter: fcpguru
FCP Editor, Edit systems consultant
Mumbai India

[Eric Santiago]

Thanks, Neil and Scott.

I have tried all the options to get that bugger running.
That old workhorse deserves a decent burial and I would not bother to upgrade it.
It has seen many RAIDs go bye bye and stood on its head till last week.

Thanks everyone for the tips. I am digging these new NAS options.
Last question. I’m in a 12 person Mac environment as well as 6 PCs (Maya host/render).
We hit that XServe daily and wondering which of the above options can match or do better for file serving.

Again thanks, everyone 🙂

[Bob Zelin]

12 workstations and 6 Maya – what can do better than the Xserve –
simple answer –
EVERYTHING – every modern product, can outperform your Xserve. There is no wrong choice.
The ONLY wrong choice is to try to keep your dinosaur alive.

Bob Zelin

Bob Zelin
Rescue 1, Inc.
bobzelin@icloud.com

[Eric Santiago]

Haha thanks, Bob man you just say it like it is ☺

Another question.
My department is sitting on a larger network with corporate IT support.
One option was to use their NAS system which is solely PC based.
We would be hitting that system hard which is shared with the rest of the corporation.
Would we benefit having our own but still on the same network?
Cost isn’t the issue just wondering which direction is best.

[Noah Kadner]

Eric- I would highly recommend a separate system for regular corporate IT use vs. your very important and time-sensitive media use. Performance, security, and data integrity would all be much improved. And shameless plug: if you want a little assistance putting the right system together please drop me (or Bob) a line: noah at fcpworks dot com

Noah

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