ADIC has announced StorNext FX 1.3, the Xsan client for non-Apple operating systems. The new version offers compatibility with Xsan 1.3. StorNext FX runs on Windows, Red Hat and SUSE Linux, IRIX, Solaris, HP-UX, AIX, and UNICOS/mp.

This release marks a new version numbering scheme for StorNext FX, matching the corresponding version of Xsan. ADIC's contract with Apple requires it to release a feature-compatible version of StorNext FX each time Apple updates Xsan (or maybe it's the other way around :-). The previous version of StorNext FX was 2.6. The new system should make it simpler for us Mac users, until next year when we may end up with a second round of 2.6!

Rarely explained are the different flavors of StorNext:

• StorNext FX -- the Xsan client for non-Apple operating systems. The major limitation is that a computer running StorNext FX can not be a metadata controller. A Mac running Xsan must be the metadata controller. StorNext FX is a bit more expensive than Xsan, but still a lot cheaper than...
• StorNext (sometimes called StorNext FS) -- the full Xsan-compatible cross-platform SAN. A non-Mac will be the metadata controller. You can set up a Mac running Xsan as a client. A StorNext-hosted SAN can also run the cool StorNext Management Suite that automatically migrates files among storage pools and even tape libraries as needed.

We've already noted the release notes for StorNext 2.7, which correspond to StorNext FX 1.3.

Finally, a few useful documents:

• Apple's Xsan/StorNext compatibility chart
• ADIC's instructions to connect StorNext cleints to a Xsan-hosted SAN
• Apple's instructions to connect Xsan clients to a StorNext-hosted SAN