Robust Digital Solutions has rolled out the L Series, a new RAID system that combines a 2GB per second fibre channel interface with Serial ATA (also known as SATA). Regarding Mac compatibility, the company has approved Power Mac G4, Power Mac G5 and Xserve systems running Mac OS X for use with the L Series.
“Mac OS X 10.3 (‘Panther’) seems to be fine so far,” Robust Digital Solutions spokesperson Diane Christ told MacCentral. “We will approve other Mac models and Mac OS 9 at a later time. We recommend 128 MB of RAM or better. And, of course, you need a Fibre Channel PCI card, 2GB for the best performance.”
L Series RAID solutions are available in three versions: a Standard Performance model using a single RAID controller, a High Performance single RAID controller model and a High Performance dual active/active RAID controller model. Instant Copy, Remote Mirroring and Path Cruise (path failover) are available options for extra functionality.
All L Series disk arrays can be used in a Storage Area Network (SAN) or as Direct Attached Storage (DAS)/Server Attached Storage (SAS) solutions. Each controller has two active ports, creating up to four host/switch connections when using the dual active/active RAID controllers. When using four or less host connections, a switch-less direct attach network can be formed to avoid the cost of a fibre channel switch. Storage capacities of up to 3.75TB per L Series RAID unit are available with prices starting at US$10,999.