[CentOS] xServes are dead ;-( / SAN Question

Ross Walker rswwalker at gmail.com
Sat Nov 6 15:27:43 UTC 2010


On Nov 5, 2010, at 7:34 PM, "Nicolas Ross" <rossnick-lists at cybercat.ca> wrote:

> Hi !
> 
> As some of you might know, Apple has discontinued it's xServes server as of 
> january 31st 2011.
> 
> We have a server rack with 12 xserves ranging from dual G5's to dual 
> quand-core xeon lastest generation, 3 xserve-raid and one activeraid 16 TB 
> disk enclosure. We also use xSan to access a shared file system among the 
> servers. Services are run from this shared filesystem, spreaded across the 
> servers. Some LUNs on the fiber channel network are accessed directly and 
> mounted on a case-by-case basis. Those raid volumes are partitioned with a 
> GUID partition map, and apple_label type volumes. So they can be mounted by 
> name with mount_hfs.
> 
> We were on the verge on upgrading at least 6 of our server in a separate 
> location (as a backup-site), with another SAN, same aplication etc. But this 
> announce has come put a little delay. We do have several servers running 
> CentOS (about 10 or so), on intel server platform.
> 
> 
> Now with this said, I am searching for documentation on operating a SAN 
> under linux. We are looking at Quantum StorNext FS2 product for the SAN 
> itselft.
> 
> And I am searching info about accessing volumes on a fiber channel network 
> by label. I know I can label individual ext3 partition, but how to do so on 
> a raid array via fiber channel ?
> 
> Basicly, I search for a linux starter guide to fiber channel storage.
> 
> Thanks for any insight.

You could also look at Nexenta to replace the OS on the SAN head servers, load up their RAM, put in SSD drives and make the storage live for another 5 years until you can find an alternative.

As for the other servers, virtualize, virtualize, virtualize. Then you don't really have to worry about the hardware being discontinued any more.

-Ross




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