I attended the Apple Storage Seminar today, it was well attended.

Topics that were covered included: -Methods for storage provisioning -Types of storage solutions for small and medium enterprise -Implementation of zero down time solutions and minimizing single points of failure.

Interesting items of note about the Xserve RAID: -Some configurations of Apple Xserve RAID are pre-configured as RAID-5. Thus for some installations, it can be connected and in use in the amount of time it takes you to pull the equipment of the box, put it into the rack and connect the cables.

-The Xserve RAID is able to internally format its drives faster than 2Gb Fibre Channel can feed the drives with data. Therefore, it is possible to configure the RAID in the manner your installation requires and start using the RAID in about two minutes after sending the build request via your favourite SAN software. As opposed to waiting the 36 hours it will actually take to fully build the RAID.

-The Xserve RAID, when connected via a serial cable to a UPS, will stop using and clear its RAID Controller Cache automatically when its detects that the RAID is being powered off the UPS. This will omit one possible source of data corruption due to power loss.

-If the Xserve RAID isn't connected to a UPS but is configured with a Cache Battery Back-up, the battery backup is rated to provide power to the Controller Cache for up to 72 hours.

Product links: http://www.apple.com/xserve/raid/ http://www.apple.com/xserve/raid/certifications.html

http://www.apple.com/xsan/ http://www.apple.com/xsan/compatibility.html

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Regards, Doug

------------- Doug Hamilton, BA, MA, APP Senior Computer Consultant Computers-on-Campus; Univ. of Manitoba 204-474-6196 (Ph.) 204-474-7556 (Fax) http://www.umanitoba.ca/bookstore/