Xsanity

Promise posts a VTrak A-Class FAQ

Thu, 16 May 2013 18:08:57 EDT

By: aaron

Promise has posted a technical FAQ on their new VTrak A-Class SAN appliance. http://kb.promise.com/Goto10346.aspxMore info in our comments thread here: http://www.xsanity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18760

Learn about Archiware P5 at Tekserve this Wednesday

Sat, 20 Apr 2013 08:23:06 EDT

By: aaron

I'm happy to invite you this Wednesday at noon to see Archiware COO and co-developer Ibrahim Tannir introduce P5 at Tekserve in New York City.

Many of us on Xsanity are fans of Archiware's PresSTORE for backup, synchronization and archiving. P5 is the new release of PresSTORE, with improvements to internal data storage, incremental archiving, and cloud-enabled backups. (But my favorite feature is that P5 is so much easier to type than PresSTORE.)

If you can make it to New York City, please join us noon Wednesday. The event is free but please register first.

I hope to see you there!

A Wild NAB Xsanity Meetup

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 16:01:49 EDT

By: aaron

Thanks to everyone who showed up for NAB drinks night on Wednesday! It was a travelling party, so thanks also to our hosts Archiware, Tekserve, and especially to Quantum, who helped us get the word out.

So who came? Well, almost EVERYONE! aaron,matx,aaulich andjordanwoods (all pictured below) andabhayone,dan-o-matic,keithkoby,gm7cadd9,morphenineand ravi, and also Ronald, Sophie and Joshua. I hope I didn't miss anyone!

Let's do this again next year, shall we?

Introducing Promise VTrak A-Class

Fri, 12 Apr 2013 14:39:59 EDT

By: aaron

At this week's NAB Expo in Las Vegas, Promise Technology announced the VTrak A-Class new series of scalable SAN appliances for the media & entertainment market (that's us!).

This is a 4U chassis that integrates one or two MDC+RAID controllers and 24 4TB SAS drives. Each controller has four 8G FC ports, which can be connected directly to up to 4 clients or to more with a fibre switch. The drive array is expandable using standard Promise J-Class JBODs, E-Class RAID units, or a combination of the two. This scales to more than 7 petabytes managed by a single SAN controller.

The filesystem is VTrakFS, which they say is "a field proven, proprietary shared file system, optimized and integrated by Promise."

Setup and management is performed through a web interface. This is much like the way you manage Promise RAID controllers today, but with SAN features too.

I'm looking forward to working more with this product.

Thoughts on this new product? Please post them on this forum thread.

(Disclaimer: I evaluated this product prior to NAB, and I'm featured on their press release. My employer Tekserve is a Promise reseller. That said, I still think this is pretty cool, and it is exciting to have another filesystem for us to learn.)

Find NAB 2013's Coolest Stuff Here

Sun, 07 Apr 2013 11:48:00 EDT

By: aaron

The NAB Show is beginning right now in Las Vegas, and that means loads of new products are coming into our lives.

See something interesting? Post it in this forum thread on NAB Announcements. Please add a photo if possible.

And don't forget our drinks meet-up with Quantum on Wednesday night!

Xsanity @ NAB: Wednesday Eve at Quantum's Booth

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 09:54:07 EDT

By: aaron

Hello fellow Xsanitiers! I'm very happy to announce our first show meetup in years, at the enormous 2013 NAB Show in Las Vegas. Quantum has been generous enough to host us as part of their own "Behind the Scenes" drinks hour.

Wednesday, April 10
5:00-7:00 PM
Quantum Booth #SL9016

We'd love to have an idea how many people will come. So if you can, please drop us a post in our forum.

It's great to see Quantum supporting our community so Active-ly (couldn't resist).

And we will be on our best behavior, we Promise!

Service, Replacement Parts and Support for Active Storage Installations

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 17:47:22 EST

By: dietmark

[Editor's Note: I'm posting this without edits.] As you know, by all indications, Active Storage has ceased its operations. Unfortunately, with formal announcement yet to be made by Active, both end users and resellers have been left to their own devices for service and support. My purpose in writing is to inform you that Vicom Systems, a former solution partner of Active Storage, is now offering onsite services, compatible repair parts, backend support, and storage expansion options for Active installations. Please note that while we are providing these services independent of affiliation with Active Storage, we are doing so with the formal endorsement of Accusys Inc., OEM RAID supplier to both Active Storage and Vicom Systems. (At Vicom, we offer a RAID system called Vxr, which uses the same RAID system hardware as Active Storage.) Active Storage Product, Market, and Customer Knowledge If you are looking for a service and support replacement for Active Storage, Vicom warrants your strong consideration for the following reasons: � Shared Customers. As a solution partner of Active Storage, we share a number of common customers in high-availability applications. By design, our appliances work in close concert with ActiveRAID and mRAID to protect and ensure continuous access to streaming content. With four years of installing and supporting Active/Vicom solutions under our belts, we have developed a strong technical understanding of ActiveRAID and mRAID systems and how they behave in Apple video environments. � Shared OEM Supplier. Both Vicom and Active Storage have shared the same OEM supplier, Accusys Corporation of Taiwan. As a result, short of microcode enhancement and FRU-level replacement, we can provide identical replacement parts for your customers. We can also provide onsite troubleshooting and backend, Level 3 and Level 4 support equivalent to or better than you received from Active Storage; we maintain close and active engineering and business ties with Accusys Corporation, enabling us to resolve, if needed, even the most difficult technical problems. � Video Storage System Knowledge. Our experience in the Apple market extends well beyond the Active Storage customer base. We also have our own set of major Apple video system customers including Turner Broadcasting, Korea Broadcasting System, NHK, and CCTV (China Central Television). Supporting these customers has given us not only strong knowledge of business-critical storage and Xsan, but also the system requirements needed to keep video operations running 24x7. At Korea Broadcasting, for example, Vicom systems are used to provide continuous access to over one PETABYTE of post-production and broadcast video, the heart of the company�s television and Internet operations. Vicom: the Recommended Choice of Accusys Corporation To protect its reputation and brand, Accusys has approached Vicom and solicited our interest in providing an after-market service alternative to Active Storage while it resolves its status as a going concern. Until such time as this status is settled, Accusys is limited in the formal actions it can undertake. However, among emerging third-party alternatives, Accusys has voiced its clear recommendation for Vicom. In this regard, Susyan Huang, CEO of Accusys, has said, �Vicom is a proven provider of Apple video storage solutions as well as a long-time Accusys partner, and we believe Vicom is uniquely qualified to provide after-market support services for Active Storage customers. In the absence of services from Active Storage, Vicom is our recommended choice for service and support of Active�s RAID sites.� For the detailed list of services and pricing, contact: Dietmar Kurpanek at dietmar.kurpanek@vicom.com

Future Directions for Xsanity

Sat, 02 Feb 2013 18:10:00 EST

By: aaron

At the end of March, Xsanity will be eight years old. I don't know about you, but I find that hard to believe. In software-years, that's like Methuselah or something. We've outlived both the Xserve RAID and the Xserve. (Boy, that was a wild day.) We witnessed OS X Server transition from a $1,000 operating system into a $20 "app". Pretty big companies have come and gone. Who knew we'd still be around? There is no doubt who is to thank for this. There is a core group of community members who generously contiribute their experience and wisdom to each question. These are the posters with a fully-redundant Xserve RAID next to their names. (The icon originally represented the state of the art. Perhaps now it says "old timer"?) You guys are the people who keep the site on track, and make it such a great community. Other forums are filled with orphaned questions. But on Xsanity every real question gets a thoughtful and helpful response. You guys are awesome. Still, there is no denying that our world is changing. And if we are to keep relevant, Xsanity is going to change too. So I ask you, where should we go? We aren't going to abandon Xsan. But we can expand to include other enterprise storage for Macs. Or perhaps all enterprise storage. Or virtualization. I invite you to help start this conversation and see where we go. Please comment here: http://www.xsanity.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=18113

Quantum Responds to Active Storage Shutdown

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 12:00:00 EST

By: aaron

[Editor Nore: Quantum began sending an email to Active Storage partners today, including Tekserve. Quantum's channel manager Brandon Cass asked me to post it to Xsanity. I encourage your continued comments in the Active Storage forum thread. --Thanks.]

Dear Active Storage Partner,

We wanted to make sure you were aware that this past Friday Active Storage effectively ceased continuing operations. We are very sensitive to the fact that many of your customers are planning or recently purchased an Active SAN. As you may already be aware, Active Storage had been an OEM partner of the StorNext file system. For Quantum this represents an opportunity as Active Storage had a strong market position, an experienced sales / SE team, and a customer base familiar with StorNext. Quantum also has a very strong position in the market serving thousands of customers worldwide in the M&E market with our StorNext file system, Storage Manager, Metadata Controllers, Disk, Tape Archive and now our Lattus Wide Area Storage solutions.

In addition, many on the Active Storage team recognized this as a fit and approached us about joining the Quantum team. Quantum decided to add a substantial portion of the Active Storage field team to join our efforts effective immediately. The team will be focused on providing their partners and customers a Quantum based solution going forward. Although you may not have been a Quantum reseller previously, we would like to continue to support you and your sales activity in conjunction with the Active members that have joined the Quantum team. We would also like to discuss the opportunity for you to join the Quantum Alliance reseller program to help you continue to bring world class tiered storage solutions to your customers. Below is a FAQ that may also help answer additional questions.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Did Quantum acquire Active Storage?

No, Quantum has not acquired Active Storage, their products, or their technology.

2. Did Active Storage go out of business?

We have been informed that Active Storage has closed its facility and is in the process of winding down its operations. We can also confirm that many of their employees have reached out to inquire about job opportunities at Quantum. They recognize that Quantum is investing in the Media market and continuing to deliver innovative solutions for their customers.

3. Is Quantum taking responsibility for the Active Storage Installed Base?

Active Storage�s commitment to their customer base is a question that they must answer. Quantum has not assumed Active Storage�s commitments to their customers, including service contracts and support agreements. Quantum and Active Storage share end-user customers and Quantum will continue to deliver service and support to customers that purchased Quantum-branded solutions. If your customer has questions about the Active Storage installed base, please engage Lance Hukill and Seth Cohen.

4. But wasn�t Quantum StorNext a key component of Active Storage SAN solutions?

Active Storage was an OEM partner of Quantum StorNext software. They integrated it with their hardware and offered it under the Active brand with their own service offerings and support agreements. Quantum is not assuming responsibility/liability for supporting Active Storage�s customer base.

5. What is the best way for me to find out more information about the Quantum Alliance Reseller Program?

For general information please go to http://alliance.quantum.com/na/overview.aspx. For specific questions please feel free to contact Seth Cohen at seth.cohen@quantum.com or Andy Brinck at andy.brinck@quantum.com.

We have included two links in case you�re not aware of Quantum�s StorNext solutions. The first link summarizes Quantum�s appliance family and the second link is a recent IDC report that highlights the business results customers have achieved with StorNext technology.

StorNext Family of Appliances for Big Data Management
IDC Report on the ROI of Quantum StorNext Solutions

Breaking: Active Storage Shuts Down

Tue, 22 Jan 2013 18:46:59 EST

By: aaron

We were shocked to hear to hear this weekend that Active Storage has closed its doors. While the all details are still coming to light, it's clear that the Mac-focused storage manufacturer has or will soon go out of business.

Here's what we know:

Founder and former Apple Xserve and Xserve RAID head Alex Grossman departed Active one month ago.
The shutdown appears to have happened very quickly. Only two weeks ago, Active trumpeted about their new mPath acceleration technology.
At this time there is no mention of the shutdown on their web site.
A member of the Active Field Engineering team has posted here "Most of us are actually okay and employed elsewhere already."

We also know that without manufacturer support, it's going to be rough for Active's thousands of customers. They will face tough decisions to continue to rely on installed units or to forklift a replacement.

At my company Tekserve, we've already begun contacting our customers to assure them of our commitment, no matter what happens to the manufacturer. We been supporting Active since the beginning, but we also support Avid, Isilon, Promise, and Quantum, among others. The Enterprise Mac universe is much more robust and healthier than any single manufacturer. One door closes and others open.

I'm also committed to keeping Xsanity alive and well. Please post your comments in our forum thread on Active. And if you're out at MacIT/MacWorld next week, come find me so we can gossip! I'm speaking on Thursday and we'll have a table at the Expo.

Xsanity is Back!

Fri, 02 Nov 2012 18:41:00 EDT

By: aaron

As you guessed, the hurricane knocked out our multiply-redundant data center. (OK, it's really an Xserve G4. But it used to be awesome.)

The power is back on 23rd Street. Thanks to Con Edison for working so hard, and to all the Tekserve employees for working by candlelight for these last few days. The energy poured into perseverance has been very impressive, but it's good to have light!

Xsan to StorNext WebEx

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 15:58:00 EDT

By: cass5064

Quantum StorNext is hosting its first Xsan to StorNext Conversion WebEx on October 31 at 11am Pacific. The link is pasted below. There will be valuable information on the benefits of converting to StorNext as well as new special conversion offers.

http://quantum.mv.treehousei.com/Surveys/57/E79541B28D51D0BE/25725_OFT.aspx

Xsan makes the pages of the New York Times

Wed, 25 Jul 2012 11:30:00 EDT

By: wrstuden

It has taken seven years, but Xsan has made the pages of the New York Times.In tech columnist David Pogue's post on Mountain Lion, Xsan got mentioned!

Quantum Stornext 4.3 Released. Supports Named Streams.

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 12:21:00 EDT

By: abstractrude

The most relevant section of the press release

"For Mac OS X only-based StorNext File System environments, StorNext 4.3 now supports Named Streams. StorNext 4.3 enables simpler hardware upgrades and disaster recovery. With the ability to migrate file system metadata stored on the metadata controller to a different disk geometry, the software allows customers to take advantage of new drive capacities and technologies."

More after the break....

Apple Releases Thunderbolt Gig-E Adapter

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:08:59 EDT

By: ogminlo

Since the new Retina MacBook Pro doesn't have room in its chassis for chunky ports like RJ-45, Apple has released a Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter to compensate. There is also a software update to make it compatible with existing Thunderbolt Macs. Thankfully the Promise SANlink has a Thunderbolt loop-through port, so this allows the Mac mini Server to have more than one Gigabit NIC for MDC service without resorting to an external PCI chassis.