Apple xsan book for free#
Apple xsan book archive#

The existence of any defined Xsan volumes depends on the sanity of its SAN metadata controllers. The Xsan controller is typically a Mac Mini but can be any Mac with Server.app (from Apple’s App Store). We’ve discussed all the things that the Xsan is not and now what is it? Xsan is often created from multiple fibre channel RAID storage units but the data is entirely dependent on the Xsan controller that creates the volume.

I’m hoping to test a newer Thunderbolt 3 version soon. I have tested a Thunderbolt 2 version of this hardware with Xsan and it works very well. And while fibre channel is typically what you use for Xsan you can also use shared Thunderbolt based storage like the Accusys A16T3-Share. It is more common to see 8GB or 16Gb fibre channel storage these days (though 32GB is starting to appear). Xsan storage is usually fibre channel based and even old 4GB storage is fast because … fibre channel protocol (FCP) is fast and the data frames are sent in order unlike TCP. Lumaforge’s Jellyfish is another example of network based storage.

Apple xsan book archive#

I will often use Synology NAS with 10GbE for a nearline archive (a second copy of tape archive) but can also use it as a primary storage with enough cache. A NAS or other network based storage is often 10GbE and can be quite fast and capable. Ethernet vs Fibre Channel vs ThunderboltĪ SAN is not the same as a NAS (Network attached storage) or DAS (direct attached storage).

Apple xsan book for free#

Xsan is Apple’s based Storage Area Network (SAN) software licensed from Quantum (see StorNext), and since macOS 10.7 aka Lion it has been included with macOS for free (it was $1,000 per client previously!). With the imminent release of macOS Big Sur (is it 10.16 or macOS 11?) then it’s time to move from 10.14.6 Mojave to 10.15.6 Catalina. Until now that meant macOS 10.14 (Mojave). I always recommend being a revision behind the latest. Our day to day production Xsan systems do not run beta software, not even the latest version of macOS, they only run tested and safe versions of macOS. With all the excitement of Big Sur in the air, it’s time to look at Catalina. A new macOS beta cycle with Big Sur is upon us.