Re: [PERFORM] Anyone familiar with Apple Xserve RAID

[Andrew Rawnsley]

Just starting to work with one now, so I'll let people know what I 
find. There has been
some talk that the XServe RAID seems more optimized for streaming 
applications rather than
heavy random-access type applications, which really wouldn't surprise 
me given where they
probably expect to sell most of them (music/film). They gave us a very 
good price break, as
we are in an industry they wanted exposure in (financial services). If 
you want a pile of
storage at a good price point, its certainly worth considering.

The unit itself is built very well, and the admin tools are very good 
(OS X only, though). It and the
cards that come in the XServes use copper SFP cables/connections, which 
is good or
bad depending upon you're point of view. The switch Apple sells off of 
their web site
is a Vixel (recently bought by Emulex).

I have XServes hooked up at the moment, which work fine. My production 
DB machine
is a slackware box, which has tested out fine in initial tests with a 
QLogic HBA and the stock in-kernel
drivers. They're also 'certified' to work with Emulex cards, but IIRC 
Emulex doesn't do copper.
Emulex did open-source their driver code last year (right after I had 
to change an client's install
from my beloved Slack to RHAS because Emulex only had version-specific 
drivers....).

More as it happens.
On Aug 25, 2004, at 6:52 PM, Doug McNaught wrote:
Josh Berkus <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
Robert,
Just curious if folks have ever used this for a postgresql server 
and if
they used it with OSX/BSD/Linux. Even if you haven't used it, if you
know of something comparable I'd be interested.  TIA

\> Last I checked Apple was still shipping the XServes with SATA drives
and a PROMISE controller, both very consumer-grade (and not
server-grade) hardware.  I can't recommend the XServe as a database
platform.  SCSI still makes a difference for databases, more because
of the controllers than anything else.
The XServe RAID is fibre-channel.
-Doug
--
Let us cross over the river, and rest under the shade of the trees.
   --T. J. Jackson, 1863
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Andrew Rawnsley
President
The Ravensfield Digital Resource Group, Ltd.
(740) 587-0114
www.ravensfield.com
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