Let's start with a simple one. Sometimes an Xsan Volume won't mount after an unexpected shutdown.

Background
The Mac OS X operating system (as well as all other unices OS) mounts filesystems in a folder. That mean that every time we plug a USB thumb drive, external hard drive or Xsan volume, it creates a folder in /Volumes using the name of the volume. This folder will serve as a pointer to the actual content of the drive.
If a drive with the same name is already plugged-in (that is, a folder with this name already exists), Mac OS X creates a new folder, appending 1.

What happens
Sometimes, the created folder isn't removed because of an unexpected shutdown. This means that either the Volume doesn't mount (this is usually the case with Xsan), or file paths are different, causing file offline issues.

How to solve this

1. Go to /Volumes (in Finder, Go > Go to folder… or CMD-SHIFT-G)
2. Check the contents of the ghost folder (be careful as some processes might have written some data in it)
3. Delete it
4. Reboot, replug device or remount

I usually do it in command-line, to ensure that I'm deleting an empty folder :

Last login: Mon Jan 25 07:54:49 on ttys000
Bosco$ cd /Volumes/
Bosco$ ls
Macintosh HD  SANVolume 1
Bosco$ rmdir SANVolume 1/
Bosco$ sudo xsanctl mount SANVolume
Bosco$

References

• http://boscovideo.wordpress.com/2010/01/25/xsan-troubleshooting-tips-1-duplicate-entry-in-volumes/ (Original post)
• http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2474

Active Storage has released their long-awaited iPhone app. The app allows you to monitor (not change) the status of their line of RAID systems. Features include:

• Multiple systems can be monitored at once
• Various levels of detail, from at-a-glance summaries to controller utilization to individual drive status

Too bad you can't make the lights blink. The free app is available from the App Store, of course. Be the first to review it!

Quantum has released StorNext 4.0, highlighting the following new features:

• Replication; protecting business critical data off site, as well as furthering data distribution globally for improved workflows
• File System Deduplication; improving storage optimization, significantly reducing costs and management overhead
• High Availability (HA) enhancements; deliver the highest level of availability for increased uptime and business continuity
• Distributed Data Movers (DDM); eliminate I/O bottlenecks by acting as a conduit for passing data to and from storage tiers and archives
• Partial File Retrieval (PFR); streamline workflow in media asset management applications with timecode-based file retrieval

While Xsan shares much of its DNA with StorNext and can be used to make Macs into StorNext clients, many of the existing features in StorNext like the ability to manage tiered storage with Xsan metadata controllers or the Distributed LAN Client (which essentially delivers the SAN via ethernet alone) are absent from and unsupported for Xsan clients. However, the features that are particular to a StorNext metadata controller or Storage Manager environment can often be leveraged in StorNext environments that include Xsan clients. Apple tends to lag Quantum in issuing compatibility guidelines for Xsan and StorNext, so stay tuned and respect your version dependencies.

Apple has released Xsan 2.2.1, fixing several bugs in Xsan 2.2. The update is available through Software Update, or as separate installers for Mac OS X 10.6 and Mac OS X 10.5. An updated uninstaller is also available.

This update works only on existing installs of Xsan 2.2. As always, make sure your metadata controllers have OS and Xsan versions at least as great as all your clients. (This is sometimes difficult to control when updates arrive over Software Update. Be sure to manage your clients!) In addition, Apple warns that no Xsan settings should be changed during installation.

The update:

• Improves filesystem reliability
• Improves the cvfsck filesystem repair utility
• Resolves an issue that could cause QuickTime media to report "invalid public movie atom found" on playback
• Eliminates "An unknown disk has been inserted" message when mounting Xsan volumes (occurs in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard only)

Final Cut Server 1.5.1 was released today, with updates including the following:

• Fixes possible slowdown in the check-in and check-out process
• Fixes status display in Downloads & Uploads window
• Locked assets are now skipped in the archive process
• Fixes archiving and restore for bundle assets
• Improves reliability of adding and removing archive devices

Overall it's a nice mid-release patch that overall improves stability and performance and trivial to run.

The ConSol* Rough Cut Editor (RCE) is a server/client solution which adds rough cut editing features to Apple’s Final Cut Server workflow automation and asset management system. The RCE server will be installed on the Final Cut Server (FCSvr) system and can be accessed from Windows and Mac OS X clients.

The RCE comes with some unique features:

• Simplicity. The RCE comes with an intelligent interface which hides most overhead from the users. The tool is easy to learn and is ideal for time-critical environments.
• Works with proxy material. If there’s no proxy available, it automatically falls back to high res.
• Sends rough cuts to Final Cut Pro for final editing.
• Works with multiple Libraries without any configuration needed.

More information is available on the product website.

Installing the Final Cut Server client application is probably the easiest part of a deployment. Unfortunately, it's also very time-consuming, especially when you have alot of clients. What would be nice would be to wrap up that client in a package and push it out via ARD. There are some things to keep in mind, though. Final Cut Server doesn't behave the same as many other applications.

Step 1, of course, is to download the client from your Final Cut Server. You point a web browser at your Final Cut Server, click the Download button, and you're rewarded with a file called "Final Cut Server.jnlp". Of course, this isn't the actual client app. It's a JNLP file, which means it's simply an XML file that gets handed to your Java Runtime Environment, which then downloads the actual Java app from the Final Cut Server. If you look at this in a text editor, you'll notice one important thing - the address of your Final Cut Server is specified right up at the top of that XML: