Fiber switch xserve raid

Hi I have recently redone my home office.  However the one issue that I did not account for was expandibility of the Xserve Raid in my topology.  I currently have a single fiber link from my Mac Pro to my Array.  I want now to utilize both channels of my Raid Array and the additional 2 channels of a Raid that I recently purchased.  I would presume the answer would be a fiber switch with at least 5 ports, however was hoping someone with more experience could validate my opinion as well as recommend a CHEAP (AKA eBay) solution for me to accomplish this.

I think what i have not made clear is I wired fiber in my walls, and only have a single port where my Mac Pro is located.  So I would like to move my 2 Raids to another room in a xRack, and run a single fiber cable from the matching port to a Fiber switch and then extend it to the 4 fiber ports on the Raids.  
So visually,
                                                  RAID Port2
                                                       |
                                                       |
MACPRO -------Fiber---SWITCH-------RAID Port1
                                                  |    \
                                                  |      \    
                                              Port3     \
                                                           Raid Port 4
Hopefully that comes out properly, but I think explains my issue.  Not sure a 4 port card would help except have 3 additional ports.     

Similar Messages

  • XSERV RAID FIBER CHANNEl

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    Finisar makes a nice SFP to LC transceiver (available on the Apple Store for $99.95 for 2 Gbit and $119.95 for 4 Gbit) that you can use in the Xserve to allow it to accept LC optical cables. You'll need 2 of these, and then you can hook up LC optical cables.
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  • To Xsan or not to Xsan... bunch of Xserve raids + fibre switch

    Hi all,
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    There's nothing in your post that implies XSAN is needed.
    XSAN is needed if you want to connect multiple hosts to the fiber channel network - in effect, giving each host direct access to the XServe RAIDs.
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  • Switching to Xserver/Xserve RAID

    Hi boys and girls...
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    Were a small studio in London, with only 11 people in-house and the majority working externally whether free-lance, from home or from another country etc. Were mostly Mac based, though 4 machines are those little beige pc things all running XP 2002. At the minute its 1 G5 and a collection of G4 tower's and G4 power book's, G4 cube's and so on. Were all connected to a G4 server running Mac OS X Server 10.2.8 with a very small dual 120GB HD raid thing running Retrospect.
    Our problem is, this system was set up some time ago and were starting to outgrow it.
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    First question, is it possible (and a good/bad idea ?) to have 10-15 users working directly from a Mac server, that stores the archived work for users to reference and also current work which is backed up to tape and duplicated (as we currently have) to another HD?
    Secondly, Is the ideal way to be running things? Is there a more efficent way?
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    Marcus

    There are certainly some drawbacks with your current setup that mean you should make some changes.
    In general, there's nothing wrong with working with files directly off the server, however, 10.2.8 has some issues with multiple users accessing the same files at the same time, so you should look to move to 10.4 ASAP to address that issue, regardless of any other changes you make.
    I am assuming that the remote users don't work this way - uploading/download files as appropriate - it would be painful to work off the server remotely.
    The only real disadvantage with working with files directly off the server is that if a file is changed erroneously and saved, there's no easy backup.
    If the file was copied to the local drive and saved, it's easy to roll back to the previous version by re-copying it from the server, but if that change is saved directly to the server the only rollback involves pulling out Retrospect.
    The other change that would make a difference is installing a gigabit switch and connecting the server to it. Even if all the host systems don't have gigabit ethernet, the extra bandwidth to the server will definitely help.
    As for a new server, 10-15 file sharing users are not likely to stress the server, do you don't need a top-of-the-line configuration.
    You should first decide how much disk space you need. With 500GB drives, the XServe can handle up to 1.5TB on its own, without any additional XServe RAID. However, you might want to consider RAID (using RAID you're limited to 1TB of RAID 5 storage, or 500GB of mirrored storage in the box).
    In addition to your current data usage, consider using an online disk backup where multiple copies of the data is stored on the server itself before (or in addition to) backing up to tape.
    While tapes offer several long-term archive advantages, they really don't work so well for quick restores of a file or two. Having a snapshot of the last couple of days data online makes it trivial to step back a day or so without having to resort to tapes. This may mean, though, that your 100GB of data requires 200 or 300GB of disk space.
    If you do decide than an XServe RAID is the right solution, consider getting it right-sized from the get-go rather than buying it small (e.g. 4 drives) and adding later. While it can be done, adding drives to an existing array is a PITA.
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  • Xserve raid brocade switch, do I need xsan for multiple xserve raid with one gbic hba?

    So I have 3 xserve raids.  I would like to mount all 6 volumes on a single server with a 2 port hba. I have a brocade silkworm 3200, however the raid volumes will not mount.  The only thing I can think of is do i need xsan to accomplish this?  Initially I gathered it would be like additional resources on a normally data switch bu that does not seem to be the case.
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    You may need to look more closely at the switch configuration. Mac OS X doesn't support multipath (at least last time I checked), so you'll need to make sure that you're either using just one link from the server, or that you've setup zoning in the switch so that each link from the server sees a subset of the RAID volumes (e.g. three RAID volumes mapped to each link to the server).
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  • 4Gb Xserve Raid Card to 2Gb Xraid Fiber Channel

    Greetings All,
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    -dave

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  • XServe Raid and QLogic Switch

    First off, I have no idea what any of this stuff does.
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    Camelot,
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    Something I do think is odd...
    We replaced two computers that were connected to the XServe Raid and just took the fibre cable from the old and plugged it into the new. This of course is where the problem came in because the cards in the new computers have different WWPNs than the old. The funny thing is, it worked for a while. The drives showed up on the new computers... until we took a power hit and the XServe powered off and then came back up. So, it's like it doesn't look at the port name while it's on.. just when it first turns on. So it didn't seem to notice that the port names had changed until then.
    Seems kinda odd to me but.. hey, it all seems to work!
    So yeah, thank you so much. I've learned a lot here!
    Kip Gordon
    Memphis, TN

  • 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 RAID hanging because of Bonjour?

    Here we have a Xsan setup with one Xserve RAID and 3 Xserves.  We have a Qlogic Sandbox 5200 fiber channel switch. We also have a dedicated ethernet switch for the metadata network and a other switch for "regular" IP communication between Xserve and our firewall.
    One NIC of the Xserve RAID is connected to the Metadata ethernet swicth and the other is connected in our LAN for managing purpose.
    We use Xsan 1.4.1 and all Macs are running 10.4.10 Server. That setup works great for years.
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    Since both crash occurs just after "creating" two ethernet path between my MacBook Pro and the Xserve RAID... I feel that Bonjour have something to do with the problem. We also know that Bonjour have problem when a Mac is registering two times the same service on a network...
    Dec 19 15:27:03 ip155 fsm[319]: Xsan FSS 'Mail[0]': Invalid inode lookup: 0x7f80000152378f markers 0x0/0x1 gen 0x0 nextiel 0x0
    Dec 19 15:27:03 ip155 fsm[319]: Xsan FSS 'Mail[0]': PANIC: /Library/Filesystems/Xsan/bin/fsm "dinodecreate: inodeget error/2 for inode [0x7f80000152378f]" file inode.c
    , line 2293
    Dec 19 15:27:03 ip155 KernelEventAgent[37]: tid 00000000 received VQ_NOTRESP event (1)
    Dec 19 15:27:03 ip155 KernelEventAgent[37]: tid 00000000 type 'acfs', mounted on '/Volumes/Mail', from '/dev/disk7', not responding
    Trying to reproduce that is not possible for now because it can crash our mail servers... Does anybody already notice problem when both NICs of a Xserve RAID are connected to two NIC on a Mac?
    Thanks

    For the xsan the ethernet to the xraids is not nessesary.
    All communication goes through FC.
    You do want at least one connection to get mails about failing disks and so on.

  • Xserve Raid - use it as standalone storage?

    hi there!
    i have a small network with some pcs (3 running winxp, 1 win2000), 2 os9 macs and 2 g5s. i need big data storage in the size of 7-10TB. can i use the Xserve Raid as standalone storage in the network, or does it need the xserve as server?
    do i need soomething else apart from the Xserve Raid to setup the storage bank?
    is it a good idea to connect the pcs via ethernet and the g5s via fibrelink? (because our files we are working on are very big and need to have fast access on the storage drives)
    thx for ur help
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    The XServe RAID needs a host system. That host system doesn't need to be an XServe, or even a Mac - people are using them quite happily on Solaris servers, Linux servers and even Windows servers.
    However, it does need a system that had Fiber channel.
    ALL disk activity happens over the fiber channel connection. The ethernet ports are not used for file activity, only for administering and monitoring the box.
    If you hook the XServe RAID to a single host via fiber channel, that host can share the volume over the network to other clients so they get indirect access. Alternatively you can use a fiber channel switch to connect multiple systems, but care needs to be taken with regards to multiple clients reading/writing the same file at the same time (which is typically why you need SAN software to manage this kind of setup).

  • Multiple XServe RAIDs to one computer (?)

    I have an XServe RAID connected to my Quad via the Fibre Channel card. If I want to add another XServe RAID do I need to get a Fibre Channel switch? Is setting that up simple? Does it work like an ethernet switch? Is putting a second FC card in the Quad an option?

    You can go either way.
    Fiber channel switches are similar in concept to ethernet switches - connect everything to the switch and the Mac will be able to see all the arrays. If you're only using a single host it's pretty much that simple - if you have multiple hosts connected, though, it gets more complex since you have to use some kind of LUN masking to make sure each host sees the array(s) it's supposed to, and not the others.
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    A fiber channel switch has the better long-term growth potential. You'll need to decide whether you think you'll add any more arrays in the future.

  • 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    

  • We have 2 Mac Pros and 4 Xserve Raids-

    I have 2 Mac Pros and 4 Xserve Raids and want to do a quick fix. I want to hook them all to gather so we can share assets for Final Cut Pro. We have a Fiber Switch and tons of cable. I know that I can’t work on the same project file as the other machine. but can we use the same assets? And will the drives just mount to both of our machines if I just connect them all to the Fiber Switch?
    We are planning on an Xsan later this year just not any time to do it.
    Oh and a little off subject but can an Xserve Raid mount through the Gigabit connection? I want to connect a couple of laptops to edit some XDCAM video at 35Mbs a sec. Or will I have to wait till we put the Xsan in? Or do all the machines hooked though the Xsan have to be Fiber Channel?
    thanx for any help,
    Dan.

    +I have 2 Mac Pros and 4 Xserve Raids and want to do a quick fix. I want to hook them all to gather so we can share assets for Final Cut Pro.+
    You can do this but you're begging for trouble. Really. It could be possible to mount shares as read-only on one machine and writable on the other and at least make resources available but if you really want to do this then a SAN is what you want/need. If you're in too much of a rush to implement a proper SAN system you're also in too much of a rush to reproduce a project file or replace a source file that has been corrupted and lost because someone clicked on the wrong thing. Think about it.
    +Oh and a little off subject but can an Xserve Raid mount through the Gigabit connection?+
    If you're running server you can share out over ether as remote mount via afp or smb but I don't think this is what you're asking. Fibre is the only way to directly mount a drive directly to the desktop and edit video from it if that's what you mean.
    +Or do all the machines hooked though the Xsan have to be Fiber Channel?+
    XSAN is also *fibre only*. Ether is packeted and out of order and has latency and a bunch of other problems as a streamed data delivery system. You need fibre.
    HTH,
    =Tod

  • Xserve, G5, Xserve RAID and fibre channel question

    hi guys,
    I have a Xserve conneted to Xserve RAID right now. Is it possible connect G5 to Xserve RAID thru fibre channel ? thanks

    >is it possible to do ?
    Not in the way you describe, no.
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    If your XServe is currently connected to the upper controller it's talking to drives 1-7.
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    At the very, very least you need a fiber channel switch so that both the XServe and the G5 can connect to the same controller. However, as Tod has already mentioned, it is tricky to get multiple machines talking to the same RAID drives while avoiding corruption (there's no concept of arbitration, or ways of preventing one machine from editing a file that's in use by the other machine).
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    In all honesty, a better solution would either to get a SCSI card that works with the XServe and do it all there, or use file sharing between the XServe and the G5 and backup over the network - it'll be slower, but a lot more reliable.

  • Drives just stop with new Xserve raid

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    Thanks
    Matt

    Hello, Diego Arana and welcome to the AppleBoards,
    +I don´t know what OS the Xserve RAID has, I just know that it is the first one.+
    The Xserve RAID has no operating system on it. It is essentially a very fancy external hard drive that attaches over fibre channel. It does a firmware version that can be updated but that is the closest thing to an OS that it has. (Unless you're adding drives you can probably leave that alone.) The XRAID is controlled over either of the ethernet ports using the RAID Admin program - if you don't have a copy download it from Apple's support site.
    +Is it possible to connect a New MacPro (Early 2009) to a Xserve RAID (RAID 720G/4DRIVE/2X2GB FC) via fiber channel?+
    Yes, I have done this and it is straightforward. The fibre will negotiate down to 2GB, of course, but it does just work. If you're talking about the Apple shipped fibre card it is (at least in the states) shipped with SFP connectors that match the SFP connectors that are on the Xserve RAID and you just use the copper cabling (not the optical fibre) to connect them unless you are going a very long distance. If you order the card (again in the states) with Xserve the copper cables are included when they ship it.
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    HTH,
    =Tod

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