Tech Shout!

Apple has gone ahead and unveiled Xsan 2, the company’s first major upgrade to the user-friendly, high performance, enterprise class Storage Area Network (SAN) file system for Mac OS X users.

Xsan 2 offers enhanced performance features which allow users on a single workstation to access multiple SANs simultaneously. It is also fully integrated with Mac OS X Leopard and Mac OS X Server Leopard. Further, this system is now fully qualified to work with third-party RAID storage.

In Xsan 2, users will notice that administration tools have been completely redesigned and this makes it even easier to set up and manage a SAN file system. Moreover, it intelligently handles different data types, file sizes and usage scenarios, offering a high level of performance.

For instance, administrators will be able to pre-set volume workload settings for optimal streaming of all file types, ranging from extremely large files such as uncompressed HD videos to small data center files.

Besides, the newly added MultiSAN feature allows users to access multiple Xsan volumes form the same workstation or server. This feature will be very useful in newsrooms which have separate SAN volumes for production and broadcast.

As mentioned earlier, Xsan 2 is fully integrated with Mac OS X Leopard and thus is able to take full advantage of the core features of this operating system such as Spotlight which enables users to earch across multiple SAN volumes. Secondly, Xsan 2 works seamlessly with Server Assistant in Leopard Server, offering easy setup and configuration features. Also, Leopard Server features including iCal Server, Mail Server and Podcast producer, can now integrate with Xsan 2 to support clustered file systems. This improves performance and scalability while reducing the impact of a service outrage from the loss of any one server.

Lastly, along with Apple’s Xserve RAID, Xsan 2 also supports third-party RAID solutions from Promise Technology in configurations tuned and optimized for Xsan, Mac OS X Server and other professional applications from Apple.

Xsan 2 is immediately available via Apple’s online Store and through authorized resellers for a price of $999 per node.