On 6/2/11 9:35 AM, Austin Leeds wrote:
All things considered, I would go with the Mac mini if it wasn't as
expensive. I've seen some really inexpensive working Xserves ($200-
$300) on eBay and thought that might be the better route.
I've seen the XRAID units (empty) for $99. Do they need any additional
parts (other than HDDs and caddies) to get them going?
The XServe RAIDs themselves do - they need 2 managers (7 drives per
card), power supplies (at least one), fan trays (two). Alot of the ones
I've seen on ebay and the likes are missing pieces. Plus, you can't do
larger drives (500GB) in the earlier models.
To actually hook them up to a computer, you need a fibre channel card
for the desktop - either an Apple branded 2G one, or one with drivers
under 10.4 or 10.5 (qlogic, atto, lsi). Note that 10.6 does not support
the qlogics from what I've read. You'll need a PCI-X or PCIe slot
regardless.
You'll also need SFP 2G optics for the XServe RAID if the desktop card
has integrated optics, or you'll have to use SFP to SFP cables like what
the NetApps use. Each manager needs its own fibre/SFP connection to the
host system as well.
For a fibre channel device, its awesome, easy to setup and looks really
nice in the dark. But, it is by far not what you'd call a consumer
level device given its not just plug into the ethernet and it magically
works. Oh, its not quiet either, and 14 drive spindles tend to generate
alot of heat. :)
--
Brielle Bruns
The Summit Open Source Development Group
http://www.sosdg.org / http://www.ahbl.org
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