Apple on Thursday released Xsan Filesystem 1.4 for Mac OS X v10.4. The company also posted Xsan Admin 1.4 Update and Xsan 1.4 Uninstaller to accompany the update, though they are all discrete downloads.
Xsan is Apple’s Storage Area Network (SAN) file system for Mac OS X. Designed to work in accompaniment with Apple’s Xserve RAID, the software enables users to read and write up to two petabytes (thousands of terabytes) of shared storage simultaneously. Xsan lets you pool data across multiple RAID-based devices for better performance, and can operate by connecting users directly to the storage systems using Fibre Channel connectivity — ideal for video producers, for example, or clustered computing workstations.
The Xsan Filesystem 1.4 for Mac OS X improves reliability, according to Apple, which recommends it for all systems running Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server v10.4 Among the improvements in this release are fixes for using file system access control lists (ACLs); labeling and initializing Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs) larger than 2 terabytes; AFP and NFS performance when re-sharing Xsan volumes; handling file system quotas and notifications; and compatibility with Apple and third party applications.
Likewise, the Xsan Admin 1.4 Update improves overall reliability for remotely administering, configuring and maintaining Xsan deployments. Improvements to it include fixes for labeling and initializing Fibre Channel LUNs larger than two terabytes; expanding storage pools and volumes; working with multiple Xsan metadata controllers in a heterogeneous environment; displaying progress messages while performing lengthy operations; preventing custom configuration changes from being overwritten during a save; and accurately reporting Fibre Channel multipathing errors.