Datasheet

7
Technology Overview
Xsan
Product Overview
How Xsan Works
Xsan teams with best-in-class Apple products—Xserve RAID, Xserve G5, Power Mac G5,
Mac OS X, and Mac OS X Server—to provide an affordable, end-to-end SAN solution
for demanding storage environments. Here’s how the Xsan solution works.
Ethernet LAN
Fibre Channel switch
SAN volume
Servers
Metadata controller
Client systems
Xsan Storage Area Network
SAN volume. Xsan allows you to consolidate data into a single
storage volume that’s accessible to all systems on the SAN.
Adding capacity is as easy as attaching more Xserve RAID
systems to your Fibre Channel network.
Fibre Channel network. The SAN volume connects to the
Xsan metadata controller and all Xsan clients through a high-
speed Fibre Channel switch. Apple has qualified many popular
third-party switches for use with Xserve RAID and Xsan.
Xsan metadata controller. Xsan includes software called
the “metadata controller,” which acts as the traffic cop for the
SAN. When an Xsan client attempts to read or write to a file,
it gets permission from the metadata controller, then accesses
the data directly on the SAN over high-speed Fibre Channel.
Any Power Mac or Xserve running Xsan can be the metadata
controller.
Xsan clients. Computers and servers running Xsan have direct
block-level access to files stored on the SAN volume and full
read/write capability. As performance needs grow, Xsan allows
you to add servers and computers to the SAN.
Ethernet network. File system metadata is handled “out of
band” over a private Ethernet network shared by all systems
connected directly to the SAN. This frees up Fibre Channel
bandwidth for high-performance storage throughput.
Network clients. An Xserve with Mac OS X Server and Xsan
can share data from the SAN volume with an unlimited
number of networked computers using network file-sharing
protocols, such as AFP, SMB/CIFS, and NFS.