Apple prepping major Xsan update
Apple Inc. is working on the first major upgrade to its Storage Area Network software in years, AppleInsider has learned.
People familiar with plans for the software say the company is testing a new release that will bring the pro storage management tool up to speed with features of both Mac OS X Leopard and Tiger, as well as its own share of independent enhancements.
Specifically, the Mac maker hopes to allow Spotlight searches within Xsan and guarantee a seamless experience with Leopard when it launches in October. Many of Leopard Server's new server programs such as iCal Server and Podcast Producer will be recognized out of the box by the update, those people say.
No matter which operating system hosts the service, management through the SAN software should see some simplification. A new management platform will reportedly break down functions into tasks rather than settings, while the initial setup will see optimizations aimed at getting services up and running as quickly as possible. IT administrators will also be able to point one Xsan server to other storage run by a different metadata system, those familiar with the software added.
When questioned about how soon professionals could expect the update, those acquainted with the software were doubtful it would be ready near-term. Enhancements to several essential features are still said to be under development. While this news potentially disheartening for administrators looking eagerly looking to move some or all of their SAN to the new software, the update should inevitably revitalize Apple's dormant server-side business.
The $999 Xsan 1 was originally released in early 2005 and has only seen relatively minor improvements since then. The largest enhancement came in June 2005, when Apple added Tiger compatibility and 64-bit file system support.
People familiar with plans for the software say the company is testing a new release that will bring the pro storage management tool up to speed with features of both Mac OS X Leopard and Tiger, as well as its own share of independent enhancements.
Specifically, the Mac maker hopes to allow Spotlight searches within Xsan and guarantee a seamless experience with Leopard when it launches in October. Many of Leopard Server's new server programs such as iCal Server and Podcast Producer will be recognized out of the box by the update, those people say.
No matter which operating system hosts the service, management through the SAN software should see some simplification. A new management platform will reportedly break down functions into tasks rather than settings, while the initial setup will see optimizations aimed at getting services up and running as quickly as possible. IT administrators will also be able to point one Xsan server to other storage run by a different metadata system, those familiar with the software added.
When questioned about how soon professionals could expect the update, those acquainted with the software were doubtful it would be ready near-term. Enhancements to several essential features are still said to be under development. While this news potentially disheartening for administrators looking eagerly looking to move some or all of their SAN to the new software, the update should inevitably revitalize Apple's dormant server-side business.
The $999 Xsan 1 was originally released in early 2005 and has only seen relatively minor improvements since then. The largest enhancement came in June 2005, when Apple added Tiger compatibility and 64-bit file system support.
Comments
I can't see why XSAN would need to support Spotlight itself. I would like to see iSCSI support. Fibre is just too expensive (although a good performer) and many companies want to rip it out and wait for 10G ethernet.
ZFS support would be nice in a future update as well. Since XSAN is based on Quantum's StorNext I think these features may show up.
-- Distributed LAN Client enables applications on the LAN to access a
shared pool of storage faster, and with a higher level of resiliency,
than most traditional network sharing methods can provide. Using
clustered gateways for access and an optimized communication protocol
for performance, LAN Client not only extends data sharing but also
delivers enterprise features such as load balancing and transparent I/O
failover.
-- Data Reduction Storage is a specialized tier of disk that uses data
de-duplication to reduce a customer's data footprint, saving money by
lowering capacity requirements and enabling data to be retained on fast
recovery disk for a much longer period of time. Quantum has pioneering
data de-duplication technology, a fundamental enabler for storage
applications in backup and archive. StorNext is the first product of
its kind to include such intuitive, user-specific data reduction
technology.
-- Dynamic Resource Allocation increases uptime by enabling online service
operations. It allows customers to scale their storage -- adding new
storage capacity or transparently swapping out disk arrays during
hardware upgrades -- while the system is active.
Apple will certainly add in some Apple flavored goodness but the de-dupe features are welcome (Windows Server equivalent is called Single Instance Storage) and I suppose the distributed LAN could be melded with Bonjour since Bonjour now works across subnets.
Fibre is just too expensive (although a good performer) …
This news release from Tandberg Data, the producer of storage solutions (http://www.tandbergdata.com), a couple of days ago may indicate, I believe, that fibre is not totally out of reach:
Intel ICH10 southbridge is expected to be released in 2008. ICH10 is expected to feature an integrated Wi-Fi controller alongside a 10Gb network controller, with reduced CPU overhead and power consumption, and a built in hardware firewall. Note that ICH10 is expected to remove support for legacy PS2 and LPT ports.
I'm glad to see Tandberg support though for OS X and Fibre.
Couldn't resist, sorry
I would like to see iSCSI support. Fibre is just too expensive (although a good performer) and many companies want to rip it out and wait for 10G ethernet.
Xsan should support any block device; did Apple cripple it to only support FC storage?
ZFS support would be nice in a future update as well.
I'm not sure what you're saying here. ZFS is one filesystem and Xsan is a different filesystem.
Xsan should support any block device; did Apple cripple it to only support FC storage?
I'm not sure what you're saying here. ZFS is one filesystem and Xsan is a different filesystem.
Yes FC only as of yet is all that I can find.
I realized the redundancy of what I was asking. I know XSAN is a SAN Filesystem but somehow I thought that piggybacked on good ole HFS+ rather than replacing it with a whole new fs. Thus ...my thoughts were that XSAN over the top of ZFS would result in a SAN system with the attributes of ZFS.
No such luck I presume...sniffle.