Xsan and the acfs (Apple Clustered File System) volumes that Xsan controls can be utilized by Windows and Linux clients. The Windows setup is fairly straight forward, so here we're going to cover setting up a Linux client to mount an Xsan volume using StorNext. First, buy StorNext. Second, register StorNext. Third, make sure your StorNext client can ping the metadata controller over the metadata network by whatever IP address is . Once these items are all done then you can move on to getting ready.

The Xsan 2.1.1 update is out. See http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3171 for more details.

The update offers:

• Filesystem reliability improvements
• Improved filesystem performance when accessing a large number of files
• Improved search performance for files in deeply-nested directories

Apple has posted a tutorial for configuring MultiSAN (with pictures!).

The tutorial has even solved one of confounding questions of our time, "What is MultiSAN?" To quote from the article:

What is MultiSAN? MultiSAN is a configuration in which any given MDC may host Xsan volumes that are not necessarily hosted by other MDCs.

So Volume 1 is hosted by MDC-A and MDC-B, and Volume 2 is hosted by MDC-C and MDC-D.

For the record, I'll quibble with one detail in the article:

Fibre channel switch: All MDCs, Xsan clients and storage devices should be configured to communicate in the same hard zone or orphan zone or should not reside in zone.

I think that Bulletproof Zoning, will still work, where all the storage is in a single alias. The important detail to note is that you can't zone out some of the storage from some of the clients with MultiSAN, — every client and MDC must see all the storage. But the clients shouldn't need to see each other.

Promise has released a new Apple-specific Quick Start Guide for their VTrak E & J-Class units. This QSG is more tailored to Mac environments -- and should be an improvement over -- the previous QSG which has been shipping with the units.

Be sure to check out our Promise Storage Forum for some excellent community discussion on these units.

I missed the news by a few weeks, but last month Quantum released StorNext FX 2, their Windows, Unix, and Linux client for Xsan-hosted SANs. The update brings bug fixes, Windows Vista compatibility, and support for 64-bit operating systems. It is a free upgrade from previous versions.

Apple's migration guide says that yesterday's Xsan 2.1 update is supported, too.

More information can be found on the SNFX Support Site. Quantum handles requests for software updates online.

Apple has released Xsan 2.1, and Xsan Admin 2.1. According to Apple, changes include:

• Easier methods of changing computers' roles within the SAN
• Able to remove clients from SAN in situations in which the controller may be offline
• Corrected an issue which could cause users and groups to not be shown when primary controller is offline
• Better visual indications for truncated LUN sizes
• Improved Assistant warnings and size indicators when creating or expanding a volume
• Improved SAN health indicators

[Update: I fixed the Admin app link. And here's a link to the Xsan 2.1 Uninstaller.]

Apple has released a new version of the Xsan Migration Guide. The new version includes information relating to Xsan 2.1, which we expect to be released promptly.

It appears that Xsan 2.1 now gives feedback when upgrading Xsan 1 volumes. This should help avoid the confusion that many users have faced.

Apple's been tweaking their support site again. Although I can find what you want pretty well, it's getting harder to browse...to find what I didn't yet know I wanted. (Apple, please give us an RSS feed of recent Xsan articles!)

Here are the newest Xsan 2 articles:

• Xsan: Compatibility of SAN clients with Xsan and StorNext controllers
• Xsan 2: Upgrading Xsan 1.4.2 to Xsan 2
• Xsan 2: Upgrading an Xsan 1.4.2 client to Xsan 2 results in an unusable client
• Xsan 2: Upgrading MDCs from Xsan 1.4.2 may result in unresponsive clients
• Xsan 2: Avoid logging into Xsan MDCs during high-load conditions
• Xsan 2: Progress meter doesn't move when expanding a volume
• Xsan 2: Spotlight may take an unusually long time to index Xsan volumes
• Xsan 2: Clients cannot search volumes mounted before indexing was enabled
• Xsan 2: Volumes unavailable after upgrading from Xsan 1.x

A couple of Promise VTrak articles:

• Promise VTrak: Configuring for optimal performance
• Xsan 2: Integrating Promise VTrak RAIDs into an existing Xsan 2 deployment

And, quite interestingly, config scripts for Promise VTrak. It doesn't say so, but you probably don't want to use these if your VTrak already has data.

• Promise VTrak: RAID Head - Xsan (Metadata and Data) configuration script
• Promise VTrak: RAID Controllers - Xsan (Data Only) configuration script
• Promise VTrak: RAID Controllers and SAS-connected Expansion Chassis: Xsan (Metadata and Data) configuration script
• Promise VTrak: RAID Controllers and SAS-connected Expansion Chassis Xsan (Data Only) configuration script
• Promise VTrak: RAID Controllers - Direct Attached configuration script
• Promise VTrak: RAID Controllers and SAS-connected Expansion Chassis - Direct Attached configuration script
• Promise VTrak: SAS-connected Expansion Chassis Only: Xsan (Data Only) configuration script

Going to Vegas for NAB? MacTEK Training is offering Xsan certification courses. Two sessions before and after NAB.

• Session One - April 11th
• Session Two - April 17th

[Editor's Note:]These courses cost around $2,000. Training will be on Xsan 1.4.

On Feb 29th two Mac OS X Server related training sessions in Tokyo are available for sign-up. Please feel free to login and sign-up while seats are still available. http://applecert.org/ AppleCert group is a non-profit association for engineers focusing on Macintosh and Apple technology integration. Our primary focus is to sustain a peer group of like-minded engineers to build their technical skills at an accelerated pace.