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| Developer(s) | Apple Inc. |
| Initial release | 2005, 3–4 years ago |
| Stable release | 2.2 |
| Operating system | Mac OS X |
| Type | Shared disk file system |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www.apple.com/xsan |
Xsan is Apple Inc.'s SAN or clustered file system for Mac OS X. Xsan enables multiple Mac desktop and Xserve systems to access shared block storage over a FibreChannel network. With the Xsan file system installed, these computers can read and write to the same storage volume at the same time. Xsan is a complete SAN solution which includes the metadata controller software, the file system client software, and integrated setup, management and monitoring tools.
Xsan has all the normal features to be expected in an enterprise shared disk file system, which includes support for large files and file systems, multiple mounted file systems, meta data controller failover for fault tolerance, support for multiple operating systems etc.
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Interoperability
Xsan is based on the StorNext File System. [1]
The Xsan website claims complete interoperability [2] with the Quantum Corporation StorNext File System: And because Xsan is completely interoperable with Quantum’s StorNext File System, you can even provide clients on Windows, Linux, and other UNIX platforms with direct Fibre Channel block-level access to the data in your Xsan-managed storage pool. [3]
Quantum Corporation claims Complete interoperability with Apple’s Xsan and Promise RAID and Allows Xsan and Xserve RAID to support AIX, HP-UX, IRIX, Red Hat Linux, SuSE Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris, and Windows clients, including support for 64 Bit Windows and Windows Vista. [4]
This means that the StorNext File System and the Xsan file system must share the same file system layout and the same protocol when talking to the meta data server. They also seem to share a common code base or very close development based on the new features developed for both file systems.
All the command line tools for Xsan are beginning with the letters cv which stands for CentraVision - the original name for the file system.
History
On 4 January 2005, Apple annouced shipping of Xsan. [5]
In May 2006, Apple released Xsan 1.2 with support for volume sizes of nearly 2 petabytes.
On 7 August 2006, Apple announced Xsan 1.4, which is available for Intel-based Macintosh computers as a Universal binary and supports file system access control lists.
On 5 December 2006, Apple released Xsan 1.4.1.
On 18 October 2007, Apple released Xsan 1.4.2, which resolves several reliability and compatibility issues.
On 19 February 2008, Apple released Xsan 2, the first major update which introduces MultiSAN, and completely redesigned administration tools. [6] 2.1 was introduced in June 10, 2008. 2.1.1 was introduced on October 15, 2008. 2.2 was released September 14, 2009.[7]
References
- ^ "Xsan Introduction". http://www.afp548.com/article.php?story=xsan-intro.
- ^ "Apple Introduces Xsan Storage Area Network File System". Apple Inc.. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2004/apr/18xsan.html.
- ^ "Xsan 2 for traditional IT services". http://www.apple.com/xsan/deployments/storage.html.
- ^ "StorNext FX and FX2". http://www.quantum.com/products/software/stornextfx/index.aspx.
- ^ "Apple Ships Xsan Storage Area Network File System". Apple Inc.. http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/jan/04xsan.html.
- ^ Info-Mac: View Topic - Apple Introduces Xsan 2
- ^ Apple Releases Xsan 2.2 Updates
External links
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