Airflow of and xserve and xraid

Hi all,
A question.
I am trying to put together an air conditioning system for a rack that will have 3 xserves and 2 xraids.
I am trying to find out what the airflow to the rack will need to be.
Is there anyone out there that could tell me the cfm of an intel xserve and the xraid fan systems at FULL tilt?
Kind regards,
Neil Watson

CFM isn't your issue.
The fans are variable speed - they adjust based on demand and environmental conditions - and I've only ever seen them running full tilt (about 14K rpm) when there's something seriously amiss. Even under the highest loads I rarely see more than about 8K or 9K rpm.
For active cooling what is more important is either BTU (the thermal output of the server) or kW (the power draw).
Apple provide sample data for various XServe configurations in this tech note, and the XServe RAID in this one.
Your AC technician should be able to translate those figures into a suitable system for cooling your servers.

Similar Messages

Need advice for XRaid and Xserve configuration

Hi,
sorry for my perhaps dumb question but I am new to XServe RAID and did not find an answer to my problem by searching the forum.
In my (university) department we will change our complete server infrastructure this year and I could persuade my colleagues to consider to switch to apple hardware.
Now the point is that the server installation should be redundant. Thus I would purchase two XServes and set them up as described in the "High Availability Admin" guide on the support pages of OS X Server. As data storage there would be a XServe RAID but the problem is that as I read in this forum you can attach it to only one server without additional equipment. That would mean that in a failure case it would be necessary that someone disconnects the fibre channel cables and plugs them into the second server acting as fail back -> no good.
Then I read about XSan but noticed that you need one (or better two!) additional servers for metadata. As the solution must not cost too much and there is no real need to access data from more than one server at the same time the XSan solution would be real overkill.
So next is a comment I found that it would be possible to use the fibre net switch to make this switching from the failed server to the backup one. Do all fibre switches support this option? How much do those cost? The only machines that would be connected are one XRaid with two cables and two XServes resulting in 4 needed ports.
Of course all different suggestions are welcome!

Thanks for the answers!
The first tip is interesting (and somewhat pricely more affordable). Unfortunately in a failure case by using the synced RAID there would be some data inconsistencies as the sync process would be made only in certain time intervals, e.g. every hour. When the primary server and its copy of the RAID comes back online there would be the problem to determine which copy of a file is to be kept.
To avoid this problem the time interval of the rsync could be shortened but how much process load does a nearly constant (lets say every minute rsync produce? The network load is not the problem as data could be transferred through the dedicated firewire connection between the two Xserves that is used for IP failover.
The second tip is what I had in mind. As right now I have to fiddle around with several linux servers I am not new to CLI so I will find out how to realize that. If not I will give the consulting team a try.
Are there certain FC switches that can be recommended or a certain brand? Primarily it should be low cost.
iMac G5 (iSight) 20" Mac OS X (10.4.5)

How to install 1 xserve and 2 xserve RAID ??

Hi i'm new at fiber world. Could anyone tell me how can i install 2 xserve raid on 1 xserve? In this moment i have 1 Xserve and 1 Xserve RAID conected directly with 2 fiber cables. I need to buy other xserve RAID but how can i conect it? i have to use a fiber switch? and if this is correct wich switch u recomend?
A link with schematics will be apreciated.
Thx in advance.

In the sense that you can plug everything in and it will auto-negotiate and things will just "show up" then yes it is like an ethernet hub.
You will probably have to do some simple configuration of the Sanbox via their admin tool but as long as you're only using the Xserve/RAID it should be easy because you just have one zone and all full speed ports. The QLogic docs are good, if basic, and the admin tool is pretty straightforward - especially for an easy set-up like this.
The way that fibre is not like ethernet (just so you're aware) is cannot have two Xserves plugged in sharing the same drives. This will work if you try it but horrible data corruption will eventually occur. Fibre is like ATA or SCSI and you can't share it between host computers in it's raw form. Just to be clear.
Good Luck,
=Tod
G5/2.0x2, Dual XServes x2, XRAID, beige G3 501Mhz

Intel Xserve and Final Cut Pro - Is this possible????

I want to purchase a new Intel-based Xserve to help render Compressor projects for us. I plan to create watch folder on it and such and hook it up to an XRaid. However, I would like to rely on this machine for backup encoding from DV sources. Question: Is it possible to install (and run) the new Final Cut Pro Studio on these servers? I know FCP is picky about the graphics card. I read that the Xserve comes stock with an ATI Radeon X1300 w/ 64 MB ram. Also I see that a 256 MB upgrade is available. The X1300 is a PCI Express-based graphics card, which FCP states as it's minimum requirment, however the X1300 is not listed on Apple's FCP site as a supported card. Does anyone know if this is just an over-sight or is the X1300 just not enough muscle for FCP?

I just know that FCP Studio runs a script to determine if you can install the package before the install begins. If the FCP Studio installer does not like the graphics card, you won't be able to continue the install. This is what I ran into with older Xserves (with cheap PCI graphics cards). It seems Apple *may have* corrected this issue by making the PCI express card stock. Or am I assuming too much????

Two Xserve and Xserve RAID configuration advice

I'm configuring a brand new set-up and I'm looking for input in RAID configuration.
Basically I have two essentially identical Xserves: 2.3x2, 80x2, 500 and a fully loaded XRAID running 6 drive RAID 5 with a hot spare on each side all running through a fibre channel switch. One Xserve is slated to be a pure fileserver and the primary XRAID access box and the other will handle web/email/database serving etc.
I'm going to use the first 80 as a system drive (mirrored to the other 80 for redundancy) and I wanted to carve out about a 500gig partition of one of the RAIDs for the webmail server to use as its data drive so it would have the RAID 5 protection. Unfortunately to properly get this configuration I think I'd need to heavily slice one of the RAIDs and then use LUN masking to hide the drives from the respective machines. I guess I could then use Disk Utility to to concatenate the remaining slices back into a single volume - but this seems like adding layers of complexity to what seems like it should be a simple task.
Another thought I had was to re-create the RAID of one side as a 5 disk array, use the extra 500 gig drive as a mirroring drive for the internal Xserve 500 and while I couldn't swap them out directly I could replace a 500 (if it went bad) and use the mirror to bring it back to an immediate pre-failure state relatively quickly.
At this point I'd settle for mirroring one Xserve 500 to the other Xserve 500 which would give me a direct swap-out replacement - but I don't know if that's even technically possible. It has gotten complicated enough that I'm considering simply using the internal 500 as the data drive and depending on heavy back-ups for protection.
I'm looking for any advice, thoughts or technical tips eveyone might have to offer.
TIA,
=Tod

I must not have explained what I want to do clearly enough. The complication is that I want Xserve 1 to see Array 1 and 80% of Array 2 and Xserve 2 to see the remaining 20% of Array 2, but neither must be able to see the same section at the same time or very bad things can happen.
The only way I'm aware of to do this is to slice all of Array 2 into 20% slices and use LUN masking to make 4 slices visible to Xserve 1 and the 5th slice visible only to Xserve 2. I could partition Array 2 into 80% and 20% partitions and then unmount the 80 partition from the Xserve 2 and unmount the 20 from the Xserve 1 using disk utility. But the potential for something bad happening down the road exists unless I can find a way to suppress volumes from mounting. (I saw this hack: http://www.macgeekery.com/gspot/2005-12/hiding_partitions but need to investigate much further before actually trying it.)
Also the back-up unit is tied into the switch and therefore everything needs to run through the switch.
Thanks,
=Tod

Looking for some ideas for setting up and xServe RAID

Everyone,
Here is what I would to do. I have a new xServe and 7TB RAID. I would like to set all of my end users up with Portable Home Directories. They all have laptops and I would like to use their PHD as my backup source. I would set them to sync in the background a couple of times per day and then write to tape at night.I have about 60 end users. I would also like to use the same xServe and RAID as my Kerio mail server and mail store. What I am looking for is some ideas of how to go about setting up the RAID. I was orginially thinking of setting up as one big RAID 5 using all 14 drives. What I would like to know is what is the number of drives that would need to fail that would render the RAID unrebuildable? I am now thinking about splitting the RAID into two 7 drives in RAID set up as RAID 1+0.
I am not sure if I phrased a lot of this currently, but here is quick recap of what I would like to know. What would be the best way to set up a 7TB RAID to store PHD and my Kerio mail store that provides me the most redudant and fastest acccess.
Thanks in advance.
Sincerely,
Daniel Krajc

Daniel,
I'd suggest a 6 disk RAID 5 plus a hot spare for each side. It will give you about 2.4 TB capacity per side (4.8 total), and it can tolerate 2 drive failures per side without losing data, provided there is sufficient time between failures for the RAID set to automatically rebuild on the hot spare. This window is 8-12 hours.
Note with Xserve RAID the two sides are totally independent in the data path -- it will look like 2 separate LUNs. If you want to combine these at the host level, as RAID 0 or RAID 1 to look like a single volume, you can. But the Xserve RAID will not combine them itself... the RAID controllers are independent... it might as well be two separate RAID volumes in the same chassis.
I assume you'll plug this into an Xserve that is serving as an Open Directory server and a file server?

Are there any problems with Snow Leopard Server (Xserve) and PPC Clients

Hi,
are there any problems identified yet with Snow Leopard Server, installed on a Xserve and PPC Clients running Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard?
Currently I have a Xserve Intel running Leopard Server and about 12 Mac Minis PPC running Mac OS X Tiger and Mac OS X Leopard. The Xserve serves services like DNS, OpenDirectory, Software Update Server, NetBoot, etc. All users have Home Directories stored on the Xserve.
Now I want to install Snow Leoaprd Server on the Xserve, but I wonder if there are any problems using the PPC Clients? I have read something like this on a german website.
Thanks!

We've actually found that the Server 10.6.3 DVD does an amazingly smooth job of upgrading 10.5.8. We've been upgrading our production servers and nothing has gone wrong yet. Snow Leopard employs an archive and install method of upgrading which results in an install which is very close to a clean install. So it's been very convenient for us because our servers are used as Windows PDCs and it's a pain in the *** to have to re-join all PCs to the domain if we start from scratch.

Xserve and HP StorageWorks Ultrium 1840 SCSI

Hi everyone,
I'm planning on buying a new Xserve (and an Xserve RAID) and using the relatively new HP StorageWorks Ultrium 1840 SCSI (external tape drive) to do backups. The specs are over here:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&task Id=120&prodSeriesId=3454484&prodTypeId=12169&objectID=c01121300
I just called EMC Insignia (was Dantz) and they say it's compatible with Retrospect for Macintosh Workgroup Edition. Now I'm a little confused at which Xserve BTO options to choose.
Is it correct that I will need to select these options?
Slot 1: Dual-Channel U320 SCSI-Card with PCI-X-Riser
Slot 2: Dual-Channel 4 GBit Fibre Channel-PCI-Express-Card
If I understand correctly I need the U320 card to connect the Ultrium and the Dual Fibre Channel to connect ONE Xserve RAID, am I correct?
Thanks a lot!
Björn

Yes, you have the right combination of cards there.
However, please rethink your choice of software.
There are numerous horror stories on these boards and others related to Retrospect in a Server environment. For some reason it just does not work, causing instability, hangs, poor performance and system crashes.
There are better alternatives including NetVault, BRU and Time Navigator, amongst others.

10.4.11 XServe and IP POrts locked

Ciao to all.
Let me share this strange thing.
On my XServe I have4 eth interfaces; one dedicated to internet ( only for mail and www) and the orthers for internal use. Also I have few services activated: AFP, print service, dns (secondary),windows services and few other running extrnally like COmmuniGate Pro, FMaker server, 4D Server.
The XServe has 4 eth interfaces; one dedicated to internet ( only for mail and www) and the orthers for internal use.
CGpro is also used for VoIP use.
When my customer sends mailing lists, the server (CGPro...) starts to work well but after a short time (often) the smtp out stops to work.
The problem seems to be localized into the OS and the way it manage the lan interfaces.
First of all, the Firewall of Mac Os X Server (10.4.11) is off (it was on but I started to have dubt ...).
Happens that after a big send of email messages ( made with CGPro) the IP start to have bad behavior.
The port 25 for smtp is open from outside ( I can telnet it ) BUT from inside to outside is not working!
I tried to telnet a mail server and I cannot reach it; from home, at the same moment, I can.
I must reboot the server to solve immediately the problem and, as you can imagine, is not a good solution.
Any suggestion?
Regards
Roberto Ballabeni
Reggio Emilia

This is a known issue - two library files were accidentally omitted from the bootable portion of the NetInstall disk.
If you're comfortable with Terminal.app you can manually fix this. The source thread is at:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1241454&tstart=0
Hope this helps,
--Robert

Is there a way to hear audio from an XServe and RDA??

We have a training CD that runs on our XServe and we need others to be able to log in an run the video's.
I don't see anything listed under Audio "No Built in Audio" in Get Info.
Seems simple but it's got me stymied...

ARD does not support the transmitting of audio.

XServe and 10.5 won't boot..."syncing disks killing all processes"

Hey Everybody,
Have an Xserve Intel Quad-Core Xenon 2.8 GHz, 80gb, 2 Gb RAM. 10.5 Server.
2 Gb of RAM has been anemic. The server runs a few Cold Fusion Web Sites, DNS, OD, FTP, AFP, and Mail Services. Our mail is not light duty as we send out almost daily 70,000 e-mails to our customers.
Last week I added 2 x 4gb DIMM to bring up the RAM to 10 Gb. I added the RAM to slots 3 & 4. Saw great improvement right away. The night after, I noticed the server rebooted during the night. (Didn't look into why )
Well, I came in this morning and was checking up on the server (via ARD) and couldn't connect. Went to the server room and saw the machine was off. Not good. I restarted it and went back to my office. Checked again on ARD, and still wasn't available. Went back to server, rebooted in verbose mode (after booting with a monitor and seeing the screen show the apple with the spinning gear) and It's hanging then shutting down within three minutes of boot.
Attached is a pic of what is shown, at around 3 minutes from boot the screen will then say "syncing disks killing all processes" and the server shuts down.
I've googled all morning and have tried various methods to boot to no avail.
I removed the RAM that I added and the problem persists. I also removed the drive sled and reinserted it into the xserve and also tried bay 2.
Other things...
Yesterday added two more web sites and the DNS for it in Server Admin.
Any suggestions? Bad drive?
Shaun

OK, having exactly same issue - but on a much older and much less duty machine. Dual G4 1Ghz running 10.5 Server. Noticed that I could not connect via ARD and did hard shutdown, notice identifier light was on as well. The system did reboot as I could get my mail, but when I connected a monitor to it all I had was gray screen.
Did another hard shutdown after pressing IL and not just gets to logo and spinning wheel for a short while and shuts down.
It has been up and running flawlessly for long time prior to this.
My name is Sean too, maybe that is the issue...

We have 2 XServe Raid 14x750GB Ultra ATA and rack cabinet, xserve and fiber to donate to anyone who can pick it up (chicago)

Our Studio is holding onto a full rack cabinet, 2 XSERVE Raid 14x750GB Ultra ATA units, Exabyte Tape Back up system (with 750GB tapes) and Xserve all purchased directly from Apple and only used as our video backup system. It's a bit dusty from being out of use, but in excellent condition.
Studio is in Chicago. If you can come and get it, it's yours.
We also have some hot spare parts that came with the purchase.

I'd love to but need whoever wants it to come and pick up (Third Floor Studio ) The Rack, can of course be emptied, but those muther's are heavy Not sure it would be worth you paying moving guys to deal with?

Xserve and Airport Network

Currently I have an Xserve G5 running through a switch hardwired computers. All of the ethernet ports connected to the switch provide my MBP with a DHCP and I can access both the server and the internet. The ABSs however will not recognize the server. They are all set up in Bridge mode and originally had them all set up under the same network name but changed them to separate names to trouble shoot. I have checked the ABS and purchased a new one to make sure that they are not the problem but they seem to be working otherwise.
I have assigned also manually assigned static IP addresses in sequential order and have no known conflicts with these addresses.
I currently only have one of these base stations working could it be as simple as resetting the server and the switch?
10.0.1.50
10.0.1.51
10.0.1.52
10.0.1.53
Router addresses are the same and the
DNS server is 10.0.1.1
Subnet 255.255.255.255
any help would be greatly appreciated

Hi Matthew and Welcome to Apple Discussions!
Your description of your network configuration is a little sparse and hard to understand, but I'll give this a try.
Typical ISP connections are made through a modem/router. Usually, the modem/router will run a DHCP server to distribute IP addresses to devices on your internal network (LAN). Your MBP, Xserve and ABS's (when the ABS's are operating in Bridge mode) would receive a LAN IP address from the DHCP server in the modem/router, provided that they are configured to use DHCP in their Network settings in System Preferences.
Where things can get sticky - and get horribly confusing - is when there are two DHCP servers running on your LAN, effectively creating two different LANs within your network. Even worse is when the DHCP servers are running the same IP/Subnet groups.
You can, for example, configure the ABS to distribute IP addresses to wireless clients using it's DHCP server. In this scenario, wireless clients would not be able to see other devices upstream from the ABS since they are outside the DHCP network range the ABS is providing - even if the IP range and subnets match to what the DHCP server in the modem/router is using. (The ABS will use NAT to translate the IP address traffic in its DHCP server, treating them as separate network entities.)
Likewise, you could use the two network interfaces on the Xserve in a similar manner, connecting one to the modem/router and the other to a separate network switch, then enabling DHCP in OS X Server tied to the second network interface. Devices on the downlink side from the Xserve and switch would get their IP addresses from the Xserve DHCP server. This is perfectly fine, as long as the two network interfaces never cross paths on your network other than at the Xserve itself.
Manually assigning IP addresses on DHCP networks is also fine, as long as there are no replicated IP addresses, and that the Router IP Address and Subnet Mask match what is being distributed by the DHCP server. For example, you could have a setting such as:
IP Address: 10.0.1.50
Router IP: 10.0.1.1
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.255
Most modem/routers have a Web interface that you can access to manually reserve DHCP IP addresses to particular devices as well. Most will also let you restrict DHCP to a range of IP addresses, letting you run static IP addresses for devices on your LAN while still providing DHCP service to other devices without pre-assigned static IP addresses.
Now, compare all of that information with how your network is configured. If you follow the chain of network devices, determine which are providing DHCP services and where they are in the chain of your network flow, you can usually find the problem.
HTH,
-Doug

XServe and Focusrite Saffire issues

I'm posting this here because the problem appears to be with the XServe, but idf anyone thinks I'd better off in one of the other forums can you suggest which one?
I have a Focusrite Saffire 24 which is part of the mobile recording setup, and had the idea that when It's not being used it for that, it could be used as an audio interface to allow me the run iTunes on the studio XServe to the hifi.
However I can't get a consistent connection to the Saffire hardware from the XServe without the audio cutting out.
The longest continuous connection I've had has been less than 10 minutes, normally I get around 5 minutes of audio before it cuts out. If I do nothing eventually the audio comes back on although sometimes when this happens it sounds as though it's no longer clocked correctly. While the output is silent iTunes is still playing according to the progress bar and the HD activity lights, and when the audio does return it is at the point where iTunes has got to.
If I have the Saffire Mix Control app open, when the audio stops the meters drop to zero.
I can force the audio back on by toggling the clock/sync setting between internal and any other value and then back again in either the Saffire Mix Control app or Apple's Audio MIDI setup. Setting the clock to anything other than internal will restart the Mix Control meters but I can only hear audio from the hifi when the clock is set to internal.
The Saffire works properly with my MacBook Pro (OSX 10.5.8 + Apple updates) using all the same cables (FW800-400 and S/PDIF) either streaming audio direct from the MacBook Pro's HD or using iTunes sharing to access the library on the XServe.
The MacBook Pro is running a slightly older version of the Saffire software (1.7 rather than 1.8) but Focusrite don't think it's an issue. 1.7 is no longer available for download and I'm reluctant to update the software on the MacBook Pro without access to the older version and full instructions for uninstalling the newer software in case it breaks.
However I have had issues getting the MacBook Pro to actually accept that the Saffire was connected. All the status lights on the Saffire were lit correctly. It was set as audio input and output device in both the Sound prefs pane and the Audio MIDI setup app, but sound was still coming out of the MacBook Pro's speakers/headphone socket rather than the Saffire. More fiddling around with the settings eventually gets the audio routed to the Saffire but there doesn't seem to be any logic to what I do to make it work.
Certainly neither of the other audio interfaces I use (MotU 2408 and M-Audio 2496 PCI based) have this much trouble. I simply select them in the Audio MIDI setup app and that's it. Audio gets routed to the interface and not the Mac's internal systems.
I can't help but think that the XServe problems are a more severe form of this in that while the MacBook Pro seems to be OK once the routing has been established (I've not tested it for more than 3 hours continuous use though) the XServe keeps loosing the routing that is sending the audio signal to the Saffire rather than the built-in speakers. Since the XServe doesn't have any built-in audio system I can't actually tell if this is the case.
The XServe is a 2.8GHz single Quad-core model fitted with 2GB RAM and 3SAS Hard drives, one for the OS and apps and the other two for data. I'm running OSX Server 10.5.8 with all the updates, which is a brand new install less than a week old. The Saffire software is the only non-Apple install on the Mac. I have an Apple keyboard and Mouse connected via one of the USB ports and a Sony monitor to the DVI port. The Saffire Pro 24 is the only device connected to the FireWire ports (both FW800, it doesn't make a difference which one is used).
Anyone have any experience of this or have any other ideas I can try?

I´m happy to read this thread.....Phantom never worked on my unit.
I was feeding the Saffire with a Rode NTK mic. It has a transformer, so I never noticed, until I connected another mic.....It´s going back to shop now!
All in all the Saffire has been a disappointment....From Audiomedia lll, to Digi 001, to Tascam 428, this one has turned out to be the most unstable and unpredictable.
"Please disconnnect firewire and AC (if you´re using it) for a few seconds"
I mean, with OSX I never do any restarts, but the Saffire has made me do quite a few.
If I shut down my computer....The next day I´ll have to set up a very special procedure to make my Saffire work, that´s a fact.
On board effects. Great, to take some heat off your cpu. But they are crap! Cheap reverb, cheap amp simulation....No!
And still, I have never seen a GUI as poor as this.......And something is wrong,
when you engage the UI, you hear a blob....The Saffire is in command!
The Saffire should be discreet. As any good soundcard.
It says 4 in, 8 out, Ha!
If you use digital in you have no monitor options through the Saffire.
If you use more than 2 out, you´ll have to deal with that fiddly GUI.
The pre amps are decent, but the output to headphones is a laugh.
I´ve done a vocal session and we had to set up an extra amp to make
the signal loud enough.
So, I guess, I wasted some money again.
Peace!
JanD

Xserve and IBM DS3400 Storage

Hi,
I try to connect Xserve (OS 10.6.2) to IBM DS3400 storage (FC interface). Once I assigned logical drive to Xserve and restart the server, after logging in, it show error dialog with message "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." and it cannot be initialize or format. I don't know what to do next and hope some guys in this discussion may help.
Thank you,
Teeravee Sirinapasawasdee

Hi,
Unfortunately the IBM DS3400 does not support Mac OSX. You can check the interoprability matrix here:
IBM System Storage DS3000 series Interoperability Matrix
http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/storage/product/interop.html
I have also spent a fair bit of time trying different host types but have found that even when you can mount and write data to the disks, it is very unreliable.
According to the matrices, OSX support starts at the DS6000 level of storage arrays.
HTH.
Dobs.

Airflow of and xserve and xraid

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