Xserve RAID issues

Here's the situation -
We have an Xserve RAID (left side full) with 2.27TB capacity and one hot spare. The RAID has been "un-mounting" itself. When connected, it does not appear in Disk Utility nor does it register as connected to the FC controller. A reboot of the Xserve RAID resolves the problem - until it happens again. Average 1-2 days between reboot (it's happened twice.)
Any thoughts or suggestions as to what might be happening?

The first question always is - What do the logs say?
I would look for fibre channel messages as well as any drive messages - especially LIP messages. If your fibre is constantly renegotiating it can cause issues like this.
Also how does the fibre card and RAID appear in the System Profiler and what does the Fibre Utility say about your connectivity?
Do you have cables to replace and/or swap them with to eliminate them from the equation?
Just some places to start,
=Tod

Similar Messages

Xserve RAID Admin Tool 1.5.1 not quite working

I have an Xserve RAID that's currently at firmware 1.3.2/1.26a according to Xserve RAID Admin Tool 1.5.1. However, when I try to upgrade the firmware to 1.5.1 via the RAID Admin Tool 1.5.1, it just doesn't do anything--it accepts the .xfb file and then...nothing. Quitting out of the the Admin Tool and restarting still shows the firmware at 1.3.2/1.26a. Same thing if I shut down and restart the Xserve RAID from the RAID Admin tool. Any tips? There's nothing stored on the RAID system yet (the array hasn't even been created--it's a blank system) and nothing is attached to it either (I've just plugged in the ethernet links to format it first before I start attaching an Xserve G5 to it). Also, even though the lower controller is showing green and I have an ethernet cable plugged into it, I can't get any info out of it nor can I configure it with an IP address. Only the top controller seems to allow some configuration such as IP address.

Okay, I've solved the problem.
Basically, the issue was that the lower controller wasn't seated right despite it showing a green light in RAID Admin. When I went to visually inspect it, I noticed that despite what RAID Admin 1.5.1 claimed, its light wasn't even on, let alone green. And since the lower controller handles slots 8-14 of an Xserve RAID and my slots 8-14 are totally unpopulated (empty) at the moment, it was never noticed. Now that I've reseated the lower controller, everything is visually showing green across the board and the firmware upgrade is proceeding as expected and it has upgraded the firmware from 1.3.2/1.26a to 1.5.1/1.5.1c complete with autorestart of both upper and lower controller modules.
Basic lesson learned: RAID Admin lies. If possible, visually inspect the box itself!
Thanks to all who responded.

Switching to Xserver/Xserve RAID

Hi boys and girls...
I was looking for a little assistance in switching over to Xserve. Let me give you some background info first.
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.
What were looking for is a way to backup all of our current work and archive all of our old work. Most users like to work directly off the server as theres so much file sharing between the macs and pc's, directly updating files so there isnt any duplication etc.
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?
Finally, what kind of spec should we be looking at? There's such a huge difference between servers, while were willing to invest, we dont want to go crazy (maybe a little) on costs.
I look forward to your responses and thank you in advance
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.
If you do opt for an XServe RAID, and you don't currently have any rack-mounted equipment, consider using a PowerMac G5 as your server rather than an XServe. While similar in terms of performance, the PowerMac can work out cheaper depending on configuration.

Clarification on how to use Xserve Raid and Fibre Channel without xsan.

First let me apologize for not responding earlier to your response, I tend to get busy and then forget to check back here.
Tod, the answer to your question is No, only one computer is accessing the xserve raid files at any one time and that is via Fibre Channel. However I do have the xserve raids set up as share points via ethernet.
Maybe I should turn that off and only access the files with the one computer that can connect via fibre channel.
I never thought of that. I will try that while I await for your answer, thanks again.
Todd Buhmiller
I have the following setup:
Xserve: 2x2Ghz Dual Core Intel Xeon, 5Gb of Ram, Running 10.5.8 Leopard Server
Xserve Raid with firmware version 1.5.1/1.51c on both controllers, and
Qlogic Sanbox 5600
Apple Fibre Channel Cards in Xserve, and Mac Pro Tower; Apple 2 Port 4Gbs Fibre Channel Card
Mac Pro Tower-Quad Core Intel Xeon 2.8Ghz, 16Gb of Ram, Running Snow Leopard 10.6.4
Here is the problem.
The directory for the xserve raids keep getting corrup, and I use disc warrior to rebuild them. Is there a way to keep the directories from getting corrupt? I am a few pieces of equipment before I can build an Xsan as that is the ultimate goal, but until then, I just need to be able to have the raids funciton as storage without having to rebuild the directories all of the time.
Anybody have any suggestions?
Thanks
Todd Buhmiller
Widescreen Media
Calgary, Alberta Canada
Tod Kuykendall
Posts: 1,237
From: San Diego
Registered: Oct 11, 2000
Re: Xserve Raid Mounts, Corrupt Directory tired of rebuilding directory
Posted: Jun 27, 2010 1:25 PM in response to: Todd Buhmiller
Are multiple computers accessing the same data on the RAID at the same time?
If so then NO. This is the source of your data corruption and I'm surprised if you were able to get all your data back every time if this is how you've been running your system. Each fibre channel assumes it has full and sole control of every volume it has mounted, no data arbitration is practiced and data corruption will occur if this assumption is wrong.
The only way this set-up will work is to use partitions or LUN masks so the volumes are accessed by one computer at any time. As long as one computer relinquishes control before another mounts it you will dodge arbitration issues but this is a dangerous game. If you screw up and mount an already mounted volume - and there is no easy way to tell if a volume is mounted - corruption will then occur. Sharing data simultaneous at fibre speeds is what XSAN does and to do this you need it.
HTH,
=Tod
Intel Xserve, G5 XServes, XRAID, Promise

+The xserve raids will mount automatically to any computer that I connect the qlogic fc switch to+
This is source of the corruption to your data. Any computer that attaches to a drive/partition via fibre channel assumes that it alone is in control of the drive and data corruption is inevitable.
+Is that the issue, should I disconnect the xserve from the fc switch and leave it connected via ethernet?+
Short answer: YES. The ethernet connections are fine because the server is controlling the file arbitration through the sharing protocol. Fibre channel connections assumes complete control over the partition and no arbitration of the file access is performed. It's like two people independently driving trying to drive the same car to different locations.
Depending on your set-up it is possible for the two machines to see and use different parts of the Xserve RAID storage but they cannot access the same areas without SAN doing the arbitration.
Hope that's clear,
=Tod

Can't copy files to Xserve Raid

Hello,
I'm having serious issues copying files to my work's Xserve Raid. When I try to copy files to it, it stalls for several minutes trying to copy, but making no progress, before giving an error saying:
"The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "filename" could not be read or written. (error code -36)"
When I click ok, I get disconnected from the Raid.
Any thoughts as to what could be happening?

What do your logs say? I'd check your afp (or whatever sharing mechanism you're using) and I'd keep an eye out for any fibre channel or LUN messages that might indicate connection/communication problems with RAID itself. (These might show up as LIP messages.)
Sounds to me like an underlying communications issue rather than a file sharing issue but without more information it's hard to say.
Good luck,
=Tod

Xserve RAID lost RAID 5 array on right/bottom controller

I cleanly shut down an Xserve G5 with an Xserve RAID attached and then powered off the Xserve RAID this morning. I replaced a failing memory module in the Xserve and moved the rack 6". I then powered on the Xserve RAID, waited for a couple minutes until it was fully booted, and then booted the Xserve. When it came up, my RAID 50 volume failed to mount. Upon further investigation, it appears that the RAID 5 array on the right hand disks is "gone". In RAID Admin (Disks and Drives tab), the left side array is visible, but all disks on the right side list status as "OK" and Type: as "Spare".
Configuration: Xserve RAID with 14 250 GB disks. Each side was configured with 6 disks in a RAID 5 array and one spare. These were striped using Software RAID on the Xserve into RAID 50 and mounted as a single volume. The RAID firmware is currently 1.5 and the Xserve is running OS X Server 10.4.3.
To summarize today's activities: under Apple's guidance (as this entire system is covered under a Premium Support contract), I swapped the (bottom) controller for the right side, updated firmware (from v1.3/1.20a to 1.5/1.50), multiple resets of both controllers, repeated forced firmware updates, etc.
Also, I swapped the left set of disks for the right set, and the array from the left set now shows up on the right side, and the missing array from the right is still missing with the disks on the left side. I replaced the disks to their original positions with the same results.
RAID Admin's Utility "Recognize Array" will not perform any operations on the rigth side disks and Apple tells me that there's nothing further that I can do with it.
None of this has solved the problem or substantially changed the issue, and the disks on the right side are still missing their associated array. Apple is unable/unwilling to offer any further help except to refer me to 3rd party data recovery services.
Does anyone have any suggestion at all that might possibly recover the missing array? Is anyone aware of any tools that I might use to recreate the RAID 5 array on the right controller? I was hoping that there might exist some low-level tools with which the disks could be recreated into an array by hand? Are there any commercial products that would work on this? Any other ideas?
Many thanks for any suggestions.
- Martin
Xserve RAID (14 250GB disks) on Xserve G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Not sure why you swapped the controllers back and forth
William, I don't think I was clear on this. I swapped the controller with a new controller that I had in a spare parts kit. This was at Apple's request.
really, RAID is not a backup...
I'm well aware, but despite my incessant warnings, users will become lulled in to a false sense of security when something "just works" for a very long time. This array wasn't intended to store valuable data that couldn't be lost, but...
It may be possible for Apple to re-create the RAID set, did you ask AppleCare about the possibility?
Apple has told me more than once that there's nothing else that they can do for me...and yet I keep calling back.
I was surprised that this array was lost when there were absolutely no prior signs of a problem and the system was merely shutdown and restarted cleanly. I'm more surprised and quite disappointed to learn that Apple will do nothing else for me (under a Premium Support contract) to attempt to repair a damaged array. When I asked questions about where the RAID information is stored, I received the answers: "I can't tell you that" and "Apple doesn't release that information". I did not get the feeling that they were working with me, but rather holding my hand while they walked me through published documentation.
I expected that there would be utilities (analagous to filesystem repair utilities) such as RAID Admin's "Recognize Array" that could help repair and recover damaged array data. I think that the lesson that I've leanred today is that I was naive to have expected such a thing without actually having investigated it ahead of time.
Anyway, thanks for your input, William.

How can I fix slow AFP writes to our Xserve RAID?

Hi,
This problem has been posted before but I couldn't find a solution. We have a Intel Xserve connected via fibre channel to a 14 disk 10.5 TB Xserve RAID. It's setup as two RAID5 volumes soft raided into one volumes (RAID 50).
There are multiple AFP shares on the RAID being served by the Xserve. The problem is that writes over AFP randomly go really slowly. Sampling using fs_usage shows a load of RdMeta operations from the AppleFilerServer process. I think it's the same issue that was posted here:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=8153758#8153758
We've tried everything mentioned in that post - with no success. Has anyone managed to solve this problem? Many thanks,
Jamie

It might be an HFS+ filesystem but because I'm seeing this on a simple striped RAID in a PowerMac. I was writing a script to look for system files starting with 32 zero bytes:
find /System/Library/ -type f -exec echo -n "{}:" \; -exec xxd -l 32 -c 64 -p {} \; | grep ':0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000' | cut -f 1 -d':'
Sometimes it appeared to halt for a long time and fs_usage showed RdMeta or WrMeta blasting along at ~100MB/s. After a few more runs it no longer has this problem. I wonder if there's a tuning bug in HFS hot file management or defragmentation.

Xserve raid midplane(?) troubleshooting help

Hi,
I just inherited an XServe RAID with 12 180GB drives. My question is thus:
If I put the single RAID controller in the top slot, It recognizes all drives on the left side of the RAID, which is expected
If I put the single RAID controller in the bottom slot, it does not recognize any drives in any slots even if I swap those drives from the left side to the right (to rule out 5 bad drives.
I have two empty sleds that are on the right side of the RAID as well.
I am guessing, having never owned one before, that this is likely a problem with the midplane. Is there a way to troubleshoot the midplane? I very quick inspection, didn't reveal anything that was obvious. I plan on doing a more thorough inspection over the weekend.
I am also making the assumption that I do not have to have a controller in the top slot for the bottom controller to work since the top controller works without having a controller in the bottom slot.
Any help/insight would be appreciated

LIttle Update in case it would help someone with more knowledge of this than I:
When the Controller is in the lower position:
or
which I find interesting since I don't have an upper controller installed and the cooling modules both show as missing even though they exist (though 1 is failed).
If I look at the other tabs:
Info: Shows only Name: XServe RAID and Power State: On
Arrays & Drives: Shows Not Installed for all drives on that side of the XServe RAID
Fibre Channel is blank as I don't currently have it connected to my XServe
Events shows nothing of significance to me other than all disks online
When the controller is in the upper position however:
I am curious as to why the RAID controller shows as present in both slots when it clearly is not however.
Hoping it was just a cable from the midplane to the unit, I swapped cables this morning hoping for a failure, but did not get such failure, so I have ruled out the cable. The Controller seems to work when it is in the top slot, so I think that the controller is likely good as well. So I guess I can sum it up as:
Power supplies: Good x2, shows a green light in either slot, swapped in testing
Batteries: Good x2; Swapped in testing, Swapped in testing, works in upper slot, does not in lower slot
Cooling Unit: Good x2; Swapped in testing, works in upper slot, does not in lower slot
Controller: Good x1; works in upper slot, does not work in lower slot
Which leads me back to the midplane as there isn't much else inside this unit that I can see that could go wrong. Does this sound like an accurate assessment? I ask because I want to be confident I have found the issue prior to ordering a new backplane.
Once again, thanks in advance for any information.

What's the best place to start troubleshooting my Xserve RAID problem

Hello all,
I have an older 2.5tb (ide drives) Xserve RAID connected to an HP workstation, which is a video editing sytem. The fiber card connecting the raid is an LSI 7202XP PCI-x card.
I'm using Windows XP Pro. Nothing on the hardware or software side has been updated or changed in years.
Recently, I'll be editing video and the Xserve RAID will just "disappear". A computer restart will usually restore it.
Where's a good place to start troubleshooting? I was going to replace the fiber cables, then the fiber card...then I don't know what.
I'm just an end user/video editor, so any maintenance help is appreciated!
Thanks,
Jason Kalinoski
Tallahassee, FL

Normally, it should take less than an hour @ $90 USD for labor to replace one. The HD cost is additional. Why do you think the HD needs replacing? Too small?.Then I suggest an ext FWHD, w/FW800 connector, rather than replacing the int one. If there are issues with the HD, check out the iMac HD replacement program. You should really know when you bought the machine and, IMO, it should have the AppleCare Protection Plan, which is the cheapest insurance policy for desktop machines.

FC-5 & Xserve Raid

Has anyone heard of any issues regarding the new 500gb drives affecting performance in the Xserve Raid? I was recently advised not to purchase a Raid that was populated with 7x500gb drives -- It was claimed that you can experience dropped frames In Final Cut once the raid reaches 80% capacity or higher.
is there any truth to this?
I've already got a Xserve Raid that is populated with 7x250 gig drives -- would they not be affected in the same way if this were true?
--sbf
Dual 2.7 gig G5
4gb RAM
1.35 TB Xserve RAID
Final Cut 5 Studio
Logic Pro 7
Shake 4

I'd suggest you ask your source for more information about his/her claim. That's an element of truth to it, but there are so many variables that it isn't factually correct, IMO.
Hard drives produce lower data throughput as the read/write heads get closer to the inner portions of the platters. Some hard drives will benchmark (test) significantly lower numbers on the inner, and even on the middle tracks.
If one of the drives in a RAID set has this type of throughput pattern, it will bring the entire RAID set down to lower throughput.
Xserve RAID isn't any more open to this problem than any other array. A low performing drive can be isolated outside the RAID set and replaced.
But there are many other factors to consider.
Quad-core G5 5GB RAM, Aja Io-LA, FCP 5.0.3 Mac OS X (10.4.2) Lots of toys, over 5,500 posts served

Dropped frames on Xserve RAID upgraded w/750GB drives.

I'm capturing in 10-bit uncompressed standard definition 720x480. I just upgraded one side of my Apple XRAID, (connected directly via fibre channel) with seven, 750GB hard drives from Apple, drives designed for the XRAID, (came with there own sleds.)
Current Xserve RAID firmware version is at version 1.5.1/1.51c
Before the upgraded drives, no issues with dropped frames, (drives 1-7) the other side of the same RAID has no problems, (currently running 250GB drives, drives 8-14.) All sleds are populated with drives of the same capacity, (respective to each side.)
The drives were formated using the Xserve RAID Admin software and mounted using Apples Disk Utilities, Journaling turned off. The final formated capacity of the RAID on drives 1-7 is 4.1TB.
When I capture to the drives on the upgrade side, I get dropped frames. When capturing to the other side, no issues, works great. I checked the settings for performance and they are the same for both sides, as follows:
Use Controller Write Cashe - ON
Allow Host Cashe Flushing - OFF
Use Drive Write Cashe - ON
Use Steady Streaming Mode - OFF
Read Prefetch: 128 stripes (8 MB/disk)
My capture box is an AJA I/o and has never given me dropped frames till now, but only on the side of the RAID that has the new 750GB drives. I also have another RAID that uses 500GB drives on both sides and it work just fine as well, (no dropped frames) using the same performance settings in XRAID utilities.
Any suggestion on why these new Apple drives modules are dropping frame would be very much appreciate. Again 7 new 750GB drives from Apple w/sleds having dropped frame issues.

I'm capturing in 10-bit to avoid loss of quality from analog sources like BetaCam SP as well as line 21 must be part of the captured file, because it contains line 21 for captioning. Eight bit has a banding issue that I can't have in the final product and 10-bit doesn't have this issue.
Source quality is maintained completely when working in 10-bit uncompressed, as well as the captioning data that I need, which is stripped out of the captured video latter. Captioning software can read line 21 of the raster area, of the captured file.
Source video is from BetaCam SP, DVC Pro and DVCam.
The RAID is an Apple Xserve RAID, connected via Fibre channel directly, (no xsan.)
I also create high quality QuickTime Streaming files from these source files, the higher the quality of the source video the the better the streaming files look when created.
I have never had any problem capturing till I installed these new drives from Apple.
The RAID is as stated above, is an Apple Xserve RAID, connect via a fibre channel card in a Mac Pro 3.0GHz tower, (no xsan is used, due to connecting directly to the XRAID.)

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.
Thanks in advance for any assistance.

No, you don't need XSAN for this. XSAN is for connecting one or more RAID units to more than one host. Since you only have one host, XSAN isn't an issue.
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).
You may also need to check the RAID configurations to make sure you're not using LUN masking (a feature of earlier firmware versions).
One test here would be to connect the server directly to each RAID controller in turn and see if you see the appropriate volumes. The chances are you do, which points back to the switch configuration being the issue.

Mac Pro compatibility with Xserve Raid

Are the two compatible? In other words, can I connect an Xserve Raid to my Mac Pro (asuming that I have a Fiber Chanel card)?
If above answer is yes, asume that the Mac Pro is connected to a WLAN at home via Ethernet or airport. This WLAN also hosts one more computer (PC). Will this PC have access to the Xserve raid data?
Finally (and asuming that cost is not a big issue-I know how much the Raid solution costs, even at minimum config), Do you think that the Xserve Raid solution (with the minimum configuration) is better/more reliable/faster/ than the Mac Pro internal solution? Take into consideration that I am a photographer (shooting digital and raw format ONLY) and I consume about 50-60Gb of disk space per month
Mac Pro 2.66 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

You might want to look at what some other photographers use, Port Multiplier controller and drive enclosures. Up to 5 drives per channel for a total of 20 drives.
XRAID would offer FC and more levels of RAID support, and concurrent access, especially with Xsan.
Take a look at the AMUG reviews:
Mac Pro 2GHz 2GB WD Raptor/ RE 320/160 Mac OS X (10.4.8) APC RS1500

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.
The XServe RAID's 14 drives are connected to two separate controllers. Drives 1-7 are connected to the upper controller. Drives 8-14 are connected to the lower one.
If your XServe is currently connected to the upper controller it's talking to drives 1-7.
If you connect the G5 to the lower controller it will be talking to drives 8-14.
Therefore you cannot use this setup to backup the data via the G5.
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).
You have two basic options - one is to implement XSAN, which will handle the arbitration issue, the other is to configure the G5 to mount the RAID read-only. This should prevent the G5 from modifying a file while it's in use by the XServe (which may be sufficient for backup purposes), but you may still run into issues when the G5 tries to backup a file that's actively in use by the XServe.
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.

To Xsan or not to Xsan... bunch of Xserve raids + fibre switch

Hi all,
I have 4 Xserve Raids and a fully licensed Qlogic switch plus an Intel Xserve to share it all.
I went ahead and loaded Lion Server on my Xserve for the "free" Xsan which is shweet but was pondering wether I need the overhead of the Xsan?
My need is just a simple NFS share, nothing fancy.
I was thinking to share 1 Xserve Raid as a volume (striping 2 sides together) and serve the other 3 as another volume (striping 6 sides together).
Any nuggets of wisdom are very much appreciated.
Thanks in advance,
- Brian

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.
Since you stated you want '... a simple NFS share', that implies that the host XServe is sharing the XServe RAID volumes over the network, therefore XSAN isn't required.
You might get better performance by connecting the clients to the fiber channel SAN, but it doesn't sound like an issue for you.

Xserve RAID issues

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