Re: Anyone familiar with Apple Xserve RAID

Just starting to work with one now, so I'll let people know what I
find. There has been
some talk that the XServe RAID seems more optimized for streaming
applications rather than
heavy random-access type applications, which really wouldn't surprise
me given where they
probably expect to sell most of them (music/film). They gave us a very
good price break, as
we are in an industry they wanted exposure in (financial services). If
you want a pile of
storage at a good price point, its certainly worth considering.

The unit itself is built very well, and the admin tools are very good
(OS X only, though). It and the
cards that come in the XServes use copper SFP cables/connections, which
is good or
bad depending upon you're point of view. The switch Apple sells off of
their web site
is a Vixel (recently bought by Emulex).

I have XServes hooked up at the moment, which work fine. My production
DB machine
is a slackware box, which has tested out fine in initial tests with a
QLogic HBA and the stock in-kernel
drivers. They're also 'certified' to work with Emulex cards, but IIRC
Emulex doesn't do copper.
Emulex did open-source their driver code last year (right after I had
to change an client's install
from my beloved Slack to RHAS because Emulex only had version-specific
drivers....).

More as it happens.

On Aug 25, 2004, at 6:52 PM, Doug McNaught wrote:

> Josh Berkus <josh@agliodbs.com> writes:
>
>> Robert,
>>
>>> Just curious if folks have ever used this for a postgresql server
>>> and if
>>> they used it with OSX/BSD/Linux. Even if you haven't used it, if you
>>> know of something comparable I'd be interested.  TIA
>>
> \> Last I checked Apple was still shipping the XServes with SATA drives
>> and a PROMISE controller, both very consumer-grade (and not
>> server-grade) hardware.  I can't recommend the XServe as a database
>> platform.  SCSI still makes a difference for databases, more because
>> of the controllers than anything else.
>
> The XServe RAID is fibre-channel.
>
> -Doug
> --
> Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.
>    --T. J. Jackson, 1863
>
>
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Andrew Rawnsley
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(740) 587-0114
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