XSAN backup

We are working with a 501c3 organization looking into SAN storage for their MAC art department which will have about 50 TB of storage needs in the next 1.5 years. They produce web content and HD Video streaming of weekly services.
With this capacity is there a way to provide synchronous data replication?
What about asynchronous replication?
Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

It ain't cheap, so I hope your 501c3 has deep pockets. (This will definitely help them stay non profitable)
Check this out.
http://www.vicom.com/
Mark

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Best DLT for Xsan backup

I need to back up the 5+ TB of my Xsan. I know the best way of doing this is DLT tape backup. Can anyone recommend a system/brand of DLT backup from personal experience?
Thank you in advance.
DKG

Right now, I am using a Overland Neo2000 with 2 LTO-3 drives for backing up my 5 TB Xsan.
AFAIK, this a good solution, depending on the average size of your data files. We're getting about 120 MB/sec from our 3.4 TB Xsan volume that hosts big data files and about 80 MB/sec from our "office" Xsan volume.
A full backup runs about 17 hrs, which is not the fault of the LTO-3 drives, but is due to the fact that Xsan does not work too well for office data. Maybe Xsan 2 will boost things in this regard.
Cheers,
Budy

Xsan backup recommendations

Hi all,
I've searched the forum and found no definitive posts on the subject, so here goes..
What software are people using to backup their Xsans?
My environment is a pair of RAIDs (1 Xraid, 4.5TB, 1 United Digital RAID, 7.5TB) with three separate volumes. I'm thinking of using a SCSI Quantum Superloader3, but I'm stumped as to what software to use.
BRU from Tolisgroup claims to be able to backup and restore Xsan volumes, but I've had a bad experience with BRU in a different setup. Retrospect seems to have limited support for Xsan. Netvault seems good, but I can't find anywhere to buy it from in the UK. Atempo seems way too expensive and complex for a simple setup.
What are people's experiences?

We have been using BakBone NetVault for several years and are quite happy with its multi-platform support, performance, and reliability. Our academic environment is probably atypical for Xsan use. With Mac, Windows, and Unix clients, multi-platform support was a major factor in choosing NetVault, as well as support of our HP MSL-5026S2 SDLT fiber-channel tape library.
Our SAN consists of a pair of Xserve RAID's, 4 Xserve G5's, and a Qlogic 5200 on the SAN. Two of the Xserve G5's are primary and backup Xsan MDC, with one Xserve RAID rank dedicated to mirrored meta-data storage. Our Xsan volume consists of 2 Xserve ranks (14 x 400GB), with 3.6TB usable storage. Another Xserve RAID rank (7x750GB) is used for a non-Xsan volume dedicated to NetVault VDL's (Virtual Disk Library). (For performance reasons, BakBone strongly recommends against using Xsan as NetVault storage medium.)
NetVault is a complex and powerful program, and even after several years I don't thoroughly understand all its features. But this complexity seems typical of enterprise-wide backup programs, and I found it quite easy to set up an on-site disk-to-disk (VDL) and off-site disk-to-disk-to-tape backup regimen for our licensed 25 Windows, Mac, and Unix servers. The NetVault GUI can seem a bit kludgy at times, but the "NVAdmin" Mac-native application is far more intuitive than the companion X11-based "XGUI" application.
We purchased NetVault from the Apple Store several years ago, but I see limited BakBone offerings there now. If you're interested, you might see if your Apple sales rep can obtain a price quote.

Final Cut Pro "10.1.3" BackUp to XSan filed

FCPX "10.1.3" not saving a library backups. For FCPX "10.1.2" i have this problem, i hope Apple fix it in update but is not happen. Problem is:
I have 4 different Mac are connected to Xsan by fibre channel. For all libraries who placed on xsan not working automatic backups. Backup process in Background Tasks repeats from 0 to 100% non stop, but backup folder still empty. I try create backup fielder on xsan but it didn't help. This situation on all 4 mac computers (two imac 2011, 2013 and two MacPro 3.1 and 4.1). OS X "10.9.4." And, backup work for all local libraries that placed in Movie folder.
Any idea?
Thanks.

What are you selecting? Not the disk image? You mount the disk image and launch the DVD Player. If the disk image is mounted in the Finder sidebar, the DVD Player should find it automatically. If it doesn't, use Open DVD. Select the mounted disk image in the Finder sidebar and select the VIDEO_TS.

Backup Controller cannot mount XSAN Volume

Hi Guys,
I've really have a big problem regarding the XSAN that I've just setup: There are 3 Xserves connected to the SAN - one for the main controller, one for backup and another one for fileserver. After a fresh install of the Leopard Server 10.5.6 on all servers and fresh install of Xsan 2.0 updated to 2.1.1, I tried creating an SAN from the main controller, I added first the main and backup controllers, authenticated them properly and was successful adding them to the SAN. After this, I created the volume and it mounted properly on the main controller. What I don't understand is that whenever I try to mount the volume to the backup controller, it is saying unable to mount and even I tried forcing it to mount in terminal using the command xsanctl mount VOLNAME, its giving me an error saying
"unable to mount volume, Cannot mount XSAN volume error code: 5"
What is that error message? When I tried typing cvadmin to the main controller, it only gave me this message:
Main Controller:
File System Services (* indicates service is in control of FS)
1>*XSAN[0] located on 10.0.0.101:49930 (pid 317)
Select FSM "XSAN"
When I type the same cvadmin to the backup controller, it gave me this message:
Backup Controller:
File System Service (* indicates service is in control of FS)
1> XSAN[1] located on 10.0.0.102:50384 (pid 331)
No FSSs are active
Select FSM "none"
What is happening? both servers are having a DNS name. Before I created the SAN, from the authenticate window, the server name is just the IP address of the Ethernet 0 (first ethernet port). Now whenever I fire up Xsan Admin, both controllers are now offline and if you authenticate them, the server name info suddenly changed from IP address to a DNS Name (e.g. from 194.170.34.12, changed to hct-mdc.ad.hct.ac.ae) which even if I type my admin username and password cannot authenticate saying "server not found in network"
I really don't know now what to do and they need to fix the issue asap.
I would really appreciate your help guys!
Thanks.
jantoniophi

Hi,
I am accessing this WS via ARD, so public LAN is definitely there. I have not connected the "Xsan" network (but it should be no problems communicating the Xsan traffic over this single LAN connection).
With the firewall, the situation is more strange. When I try to open the Firewall settings on Sharing, there is a dialog "Other firewall software is running on this computer." I googled this and it seems that this was a common problem on 10.3. They suggest to delete com.apple.sharing.firewall.plist file but it is not there on 10.4.
"sudo ipfw list" shows this:
00001 allow udp from any 626 to any dst-port 626
65535 allow ip from any to any
Any ideas on how to make Firewall behave as expected? I will try to reinstall if I don't receive a reply.
Thanks.

Xsan and NetVault Backups?

Hello All,
Current setup:
17 Xserves
5 X RAIDs
1 Promise RAID
ADIC Scalar 100 (using BakBone NetVault)
Nothing Xsan'd yet
I am curious how you, if anyone, are backing up your Xsan to tape, specifically with NetVault or some similar backup solution. I would imagine that you can backup all of your Xsan data via the main Xsan node. I guess I am not totally familiar with Xsan setup at this point but are all of the RAIDs actually mounted on the main Xsan node, so that they can be accessed by NetVault's main server via ethernet? Or would I install Xsan on my NetVault's main server and pipe it into the Xsan fibre switch, backing up via fibre directly?
I will be creating an Xsan in the future and I am looking for any recommendations having to do with NetVault and Xsan.
Thx!

I admin a StorNext Storage Manager setup. We have a Scalar i500 with 120 slots for LTO-3 to cover a 27TB StorNext SAN with Xsan clients. It keeps a copy of all managed files and does not require dedicated nightly activity to keep us backed up. It also allows for nearline storage. It can be tricky though, and you need to be careful about how you implement it. I like the HSM approach better since it backs up everything on the fly in the background as a function of the filesystem instead of requiring long stretches of time to do full and incremental traditional backups. It is more expensive though. You really need to need it to justify the cost.
I used an Atempo Time Navigator backup server in the past with an Xsan. Similar to your BakBone in structure. You just need to have your backup controller as a client of the SAN. At that point the software just thinks the SAN volume is local and can back it up like anything else. The nasty part is bandwidth and time, but only because SAN volumes tend to be so large and nights and weekends are only so long. You can put the Scalar on the FC fabric, but you will need to zone it away from the SAN and have the BakBone box straddle the zones. That does not really offer a bandwidth advantage over directly attaching the Scalar to the BakBone box though (as long as your HBA has the port count to do that).

Xsan expansion...no way to backup.

Hi all,
I have an xsan 1.3 setup that free space is now below 25%. I have purchased a new xraid that I want to add. I don't have any way of backing up my 4TB of data. I'm trying to find out if I'm taking to big of a risk adding the space without a proper backup. Are there any precations I can take to help ensure my data or MD doesn't get screwed somehow? Any insight would be appreciated.

Check out page 145 of the Xsan Admin Guide and see if that helps you any.
Of course if something happens to the actual data on the disk during the expansion then you are up the creek without a paddle.
Drew
http://images.apple.com/server/pdfs/XsanAdmin_Guidev1.4.pdf

XServe crashes repeatedly when trying to backup certain portion of XSAN wit

Hello everybody,
I have noticed a very strange behaviour the reason of which I could not figure out yet.
Basic Setup:
XSAN2, 2 MD controllers running 10.5.6 server, 3 clients running 10.5.6 server
XSAN1, 2 MD controllers running 10.4.11 server. 2 clients running 10.4.11 and 10.5.6 server, one of which is our backup machine.
Backup is done regularly using Bakbone Netvault 7.45 onto an Overland Tape Library.
The Netvault Server is not (yet) part of the XSAN2, as we are migrating from XSAN1.4 to XSAN2 and the backup machine has to handle clients in both.
Now, backup of the 10.4.11 clients and 10.5.6 clients runs smooth except for one.
When I try to backup certain data from one specific machine in XSAN2, this repeatedly crashes with the following kernel panic:
=================8<---------------------
Mon Apr 13 17:54:21 2009
panic(cpu 2 caller 0x0014355E): "zalloc: \"kalloc.8192\" (72 elements) retry fail 3"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.9.59/osfmk/kern/zalloc.c:769
Backtrace (CPU 2), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x21e7bc88 : 0x12b4f3 (0x45b13c 0x21e7bcbc 0x1335e4 0x0)
0x21e7bcd8 : 0x14355e (0x45cd34 0x45b97c 0x48 0x3)
0x21e7bd38 : 0x12fddb (0x124c2d8 0x1 0x9c 0x0)
0x21e7bd68 : 0x12fdfa (0x1690 0x1 0xb0000000 0x0)
0x21e7bd88 : 0x11dd51 (0x1690 0x7fffffff 0x21e7bdd8 0x6)
0x21e7bdb8 : 0x12d47e (0x10f0 0x0 0x0 0x0)
0x21e7bdf8 : 0x126609 (0x28cd400 0x0 0x9c 0x21e7bee4)
0x21e7bf08 : 0x198153 (0x21e7bf44 0x0 0x0 0x0)
0x21e7bfc8 : 0x1a0977 (0x29c9480 0x1 0x1a30b5 0x340dea0)
No mapping exists for frame pointer
Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0xb0183c58
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: hwmond
Mac OS version:
9G71
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.6.0: Mon Nov 24 17:37:00 PST 2008; root:xnu-1228.9.59~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: Xserve1,1 (Mac-F4208AC8)
----------->8=======================
The funny thing, though, is that when I backup a DIFFERENT portion of data from the SAME machine, nothing happens.
Nay ideas where to look at ??
Best regards,
Olaf

never mind. XServe is dead anyhow, isn't it ?

I am running Xsan 2 with primary/backup meta controllers and both of my servers showing no link on the Fiber channel cards....have 2 G5 dual 2.3 GHz systems, 6 gig ram, 10.5OS. and PCI-X FC cards. QLogic 5600 switches. Looking for the non-obvious

They have been up and running for over a about a year on XSAN 2 and all of a sudden started having problems with data transter and then won's connect anymore
Thanks

Quote
amd 64=12a @12V
ati 9800=7.5~10.5a @12V (assuming 90~125 watts) a max load,
a 9600 ir nvida 5200 used far less power
so your already at 18a with no fan,s no hd, no cd,no dvd ,no mobo chipset , no mem, no sound..etc
If you exclude the motherboard, memory, etc like you did there, the amd 64 draws 7.2A @ 12V.
90~125W for an ATI 9800?! [irony]Are you working for a PSU manufacturer or what?[/irony] That's just absurd.
Go read this post to get a feel for the actual power consumption: https://forum-en.msi.com/index.php?postid=297061&sid=#post297061

New XSan setup requirements questions

Hello All,
We're in the process of installing XSan in our facility, swapping out our current SanMP configuration. I had three questions about metadata controllers.
1) How CPU intensive is the XSan MDC function? I wanted to repurpose one of our MacPro 1,1 as an XSan metadata backup controller, but I'm a bit worried that the cpu won't be Zippy enough, it's a 2.8ghz dual-core x2 xeon. This would be the back up controller and exclusively dedicated to the task.
2) I understand that running XSan requires an OS X Server to manage permissions etc. But if I recall from our experience with XSan 1, the MDC could run on OS X client version just fine. The current Apple lit says otherwise. Would I be able to run our backup MDC on OS X client? We already have another xserve functioning as our OD master/file serve. So the Primary MDC running on OS X Server would already be the redundant OD.
3) How fast does the MDC FC connection need to be? If my clients are all on 4/8gb x2 connections, can I run my MDCs on 2gb? or single 4gb? My understanding is they are generally just accessing the metadata LUN, in which case, that LUN itself is the bottle neck to performance.
Thanks in advanced for all your help.

Speaking metadata, I suggest you look into this: http://www.getactivestorage.com/pr041210-1.php
Active is onto something here and this answers a huge problem when scaling a SAN. Now your storage arrays can all use the max number of drives per box.
As for your other questions:
1: CPU is not a huge deal but do things right. Get an MDC and an MDB and let them do just SAN control. Scale your RAM needs to allow for 4 GB of RAM per SAN volume if you are doing AD permissions and (gasp) Spotlight. Thus, if you have one ingest volume and one work volume, have 8 GB of RAM + another 4 for the OS. More is better. Don't expect to use the devices as cluster nodes either. Leave the processing elsewhere.
2: Using server is recommended and the official way to do it. If you already have an OD Master, then just connect the MDC and MDB to the domain. They do not need to be replicas.
Just my two cents. Enjoy Xsan.

General xSan questions for a new setup

So I'm looking to setup xSan. Had mainly one question. I know it's recommended that you have a secondary metadata controller server incase one goes down, but is this absolutely needed? We will have very few (like 3) people using the system so it won't be in use very often. If the controller goes down, does the system go down entirely, or can clients still access data with the potential of messing things up because the metadata server isn't functioning?
Thanks.

If you have one controller and the controller goes down, the SAN goes down and you run a higher risk of volume damage. The reason for a dedicated backup controller is so that when the primary goes south, there is another system to take of the SAN control, allowing you to complete writes and shut the volume down cleanly.
If the system is not going to be used that often, are you sure Xsan is the right solution for you? Even if you try and scrimp to save money and make a workstation a backup controller, you are still going to spend about $40K for the solution ($20K for a single RAID array, $7k for a dedicated controller, $4k for the FC switch (you should get two), wiring costs, redundant power, cooling, etc). That is a lot to spend for something that is not going to get much use.
Oh, and don't go easy on RAM. For your controllers get 2 Gigs per SAN volume and at try to leave 4 Gigs as overhead for the OS and other services. Don't run anything else on the main controller other than DNS and Dir Services (unless you are doing AD integration).
Hope this helps

How to backup TO a network drive

I have a network (drive) that shows up under my shared area in a finder window.the Mac says it is a pc server. It mounts to the desktop as shared. In the network area of the Mac it says ddntnh71 and when I click that there are three separate choices and one is SharedDocs then into the docs. This folder can be acceded by the the iMac desktop pc and laptop pc both pcs are running xp and the Mac is running snow leopard. I think that the storage is shared with the desktop pc hard drive. I think??? So my question is is there a way to have timemachine backup to that network drive? It is not a shared external drive. It is just the pcs hard drive being shared but it isn't the whole hard drive it is just a section of it?? I don't fully understand that whole thing. I don't really want to use a third party tool or script. I just want the shareddocs to be removable so that timemachine will find it and I will not backup the whole thing. Just selected folders and files. Because there is only about 50gb on it. Any help would be very much appreciated.

Here's what TM will backup to:
Requirements to use Time Machine
Time Machine is only available with Leopard (10.5.x)
1. External FireWire or USB 2.0 drive
2. Time Capsule
3. Drive shared by a Mac running 10.5 or later using File Sharing
4. Drive shared by a Mac running 10.5 Server
5. SAN volume managed by Apple's Xsan file system
A TM drive must be partitioned with either APM (PPC) or GUID (Intel) and formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled.)

Time Machine questions: Handling backups for multiple Macs to one FW drive

I am reviewing the Time Machine thread and seeing a lot of helpful information, but I would like to ask something I haven't quite found yet.
We have 2 Leopard Macs, a MacBook Pro and an intel iMac... with plans to upgrade another MBP from Tiger to Leopard at some point.
In planning for Time Machine, we set up a 1 TB drive, attached it via FW 800 to the iMac, partitioned it GUID for Intel, and made 3 partitions, one for each planned Mac we want to back up to it.
I started Time Machine on the iMac first and the first backup of about 100 gb took maybe 4 hours.
Then we tried to start the Time Machine backup for the MBP over the network (wireless). It was understandably much slower and quit with some error last evening, so I took advantage of the pause to move the notebook to a wired ethernet connection. It got even slower so this morning I directly connected it FW 800, erased what had been backed up, and started over. So far, so good. 6GB out of 100 in 10 minutes or so. The idea being, if we can get the first backup completed faster over wired connection, maybe doing the incrementals over wireless network will be okay. Sounds like some folks are doing that successfully. I am hoping that works out.
Questions: Was it necessary to partition my 1TB drive into a partition for each Mac's Time Machine backup? I did make each partition bigger than the hard drive it is designated for.
To get the MBP to mount the external FW drive on its desktop, I had to disconnect the drive from the iMac. Is there any way I can connect the FW drive to both the MBP and the iMac (the drive has two FW 800 out connections, so it is physically possible)? I'm thinking (from reading posts of others with notebooks) that one strategy is to connect your notebook to your Time Machine drive at night and let it back up, but it'd be great if I could leave the iMac connected while doing so. Is there a way the volumes on the drive can mount on both desktops?
When I try wireless again, I'm seeing mixed posts regarding whether the MBP will need a password to log in to the remote volume each time, or only the first time when the Time Machine backup is established... if I could get clarification on that, it would be helpful.
Thanks!
thanks

What do you see on your notebook when you click on your TimeMachine icon in the Dock?
My notebook is mounting the backup drive on an hourly basis, running a backup, and looking like it is doing something... but when I then look at TimeMachine, I can't see the backups. (On my iMac with the drive directly attached, I see a progression of windows showing all the hourly backups the last 24 hours, etc.) I just called Apple to ask why this is so, and they told me they couldn't help me because wireless Time Machine backups aren't supported.
I know backups to a hard drive attached to an Airport Express Base Station are not supported. But when they say "You can designate just about any HFS+ formatted FireWire or USB drive connected to a Mac as a Time Machine backup drive. +Time Machine can also back up to another Mac running Leopard with Personal File Sharing, Leopard Server, or Xsan storage devices+"... well, how can you DO that?

Can Time Machine backup USB Drive connected to Airport Extreme Base Station

I need a new N based wireless router. I would prefer to get just the $179 Base Station and not the $299 Time Capsule. I already have a nice external USB 500GB drive that I would connect to the AEBS. So, once I have this new wireless router/base station installed at home and I have the external USB drive connected to it, can my new Macbook Air with a USB connected 400GB drive be used to backup what is on the Macbook Air and also backup the 500GB USB drive info that is connected to the extreme base station?
Thanks
tj

I found this when searching Apple's web site but it is old, October 2007, and said it could not be done. Has this changed since then?
Here is what I found.
Mac OS X 10.5: Time Machine doesn't back up to AirPort Disks
* Last Modified on: October 26, 2007
* Article: 306833
Time Machine in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard can be used to back up to many kinds of Mac OS Extended-formatted drives, but it does not support AirPort Extreme's AirPort Disk feature.
Time Machine can back up to another Mac running Leopard with Personal File Sharing, or to a Leopard Server volume, or an Xsan storage device.

I have one folder on an XSAN that one machine can not make changes to. Whenever I try to duplicate or copy a file in this folder I get 'The operation can't be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -50).'?

I have one folder on an XSAN that one machine can not make changes to. Whenever I try to duplicate or copy a file in this folder I get 'The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -50).'
The permissions are fine, and I have trashed the finder plist and reset the NVRAM.
Anyone have a answer?
Thanks

Tips I received so far (thanks to A-Mac via Twitter http://www.a-mac.nl and Remco Kalf http://www.remcokalf.nl/)
- make sure you have at least 10% of your harddisk in free space (I had only 5%).
- do a PRAM-reset (http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379)
- perform a hardware test (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1509)
- make a complete backup (with for example Carbone Clone Copier, see http://www.bombich.com/)
- after complete backup: use diskwarrior (boot from Diskwarrior DVD, first perform diagnostics, then perform "Rebuild" which rebuilds your file directory).
So far I only cleared up some space on my HD, and already the problem occurs less.
Still, I will go through the other tips too.
(will post progress)

XSAN backup

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