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

Digital Rebellion's FCS Remover app, available here, is a great way to remove either Final Cut Studio or Final Cut Server in order to avoid reimaging a machine. It grabs all related libraries, frameworks and other barnacles.

Apple has issued Pro Applications Update 2008-003, which updates both Compressor and Qmaster to 3.0.4.

However, some of our clients were reporting more qmaster unresponsiveness than before the update, sometimes rendering qmaster irreparably unresponsive (say that three times fast).

Below then is a script that can completely wipe your install of Qmaster/Compressor. You can then reinstall from scratch the AppleQmasterNode.mpkg from the Final Cut Server installation disk, and then use Software Update to get it back to 3.0.4. All this without disturbing a running Final Cut Server. (Obviously, qmaster processes will fail during the reinstall, but if you're at this juncture, your qmaster is probably not working anyway.)

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.