Thunderbolt SAN

[Bob Zelin]

you are talking crazy
1) the Promise or Sonnet Thunderbolt to Fibre adaptors don’t exist yet
2) once they exist, you will need a fibre switch to connect your clients – not ethernet.
3) if you say “but I don’t want fibre – I want ethernet” – then you will need the Sonnet Thunderbolt
to PCIe adaptor to exist, so you can put in a 10Gig ethernet card to connect to a switch, or a Thunderbolt to PCIe adaptor to exist, so you can install a multiport ethernet card –

BECAUSE –

once the Promise Thunderbolt to Fibre exists (and even if it doesn’t exist – and you use a current
Promise Thunderbolt 4 or 6 bay chassis to a Mac Mini server) – you are now left with a single ethernet port on your Mac Mini (or iMAC) and this one single port is NOT FAST ENOUGH to support shared storage.

So you will need to wait for SOMEONE to actually release a Thunderbolt to PCIe expansion chassis, so we can plug these cards in.

Bottom line – these products don’t exist right now.

Bob Zelin

[Josh Wilson]

Hey Bob,

Thanks. I didn’t realize that those adapters hadn’t shipped yet. That aside, I’m not sure I communicated clearly what I was thinking… is it possible to use the fiber uplink port on a gigabit ethernet switch to connect to an iMac using an (as-yet-nonexistant) SANlink? That would leave the single ethernet port out of the equation, negate the need for a four port ethernet card, and leave the other Thunderbolt port open to attach storage (or, in the case of the mac mini, use the second thunderbolt port on the mythical sanlink).

Again, I’m quite alright with being called crazy. Just asking questions that I haven’t seen answered anywhere yet.

Josh Wilson
Video Designer
Vineyard Columbus

[Bob Zelin]

we all want this technology to happen. I am guessing that Apple is holding back from releasing (via Intel) – because there is no reason why Promise (and others) should not have a 16 bay with Thunderbolt RIGHT NOW – this is all politics, and timed release.

I still would love to know what Apple has up their sleve, as far as a Mac Mini being an XSAN server (which I asked about in the XSAN forum, with no reply as of yet).

Bob Zelin

[Walter Soyka]

[Bob Zelin] “I still would love to know what Apple has up their sleve, as far as a Mac Mini being an XSAN server (which I asked about in the XSAN forum, with no reply as of yet).”

Sonnet has another not-yet-released product that might interest you:

https://www.sonnettech.com/product/rackmacminixserver.html

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
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