• Mac OS X Server,  Xsan

    Keyspan Serial Adapter

    When you’re doing Xsan deployments you often run into situations where a serial adapter comes in handy.  It might be the serial port on an Xserve, a Promise Vtrak, an Xserve RAID, a managed switch, a Fibre Channel switch or a UPS but it seems like it’s just a super useful little thing to have.  Now, since the MacBook and MacBook pro do not have serial ports that leaves you hanging a little.  So, this little guy comes in pretty handy: http://www.keyspan.com/products/usa19hs/

  • Active Directory,  Mac OS X,  Mac OS X Server,  Xsan

    Mac OS X: adplugin and AD DNS

    Let’s say you bind a Mac to AD.  Let’s say you have two NICs in there.  Now let’s say you get entries for both NICs in DNS.  How do you fix that?  Well, go ahead and create an ipfw rule to block traffic on port 54 for the second NIC.  You aren’t using it for that anyway if you’re using Xsan, which seems to be the big place we’re seeing this issue…  File a bug report if you don’t like the ipfw workaround but don’t hold your breath… UPDATE: Apple actually posted a fix for this: To set Mac OS X Server version 10.5 to only register a single network…

  • Xsan

    Xsan: Promise RAID Command Line Arguments

    about        View utility information. array       View or edit array information.  Create, edit or delete a new or existing array.  Create, edit or delete logical drives in an existing array.  To physically locate an array in an enclosure.  Accept an incomplete array condition. battery     View battery information or to recondition a battery. bga         View status of all current background activities.  Enable or disable relevant background activities.  Modify the background task rate for each of the background tasks. buzz        View buzzer status, enable/disable and turn on/off buzzer. chap        View, create, edit or delete a CHAP…

  • Xsan

    Xsan: Tracking Down Latency Problems

    Xsan stores the logs for a volume in /Library/Filesystems/Xsan/data/<Volume Name>/log/cvlog.  When you’re trying to find whether there is too much latency you can look for the following in the logs: PIO HiPriWr SUMMARY <Storage Pool> sysavg This is updated every hour in the cvlog.

  • Xsan

    Xsan: File Locking with Bridgeheads

    AFP locks files by default.  With Xsan you want the cvfs to lock the files if they are in use (like when you’re putting multiple bridgehead servers in front of an Xsan volume for AFP sharing).  Therefore, you can use the AFP settings for the AFP daemon to prevent AFP from locking files.  You would do so using the following command: serveradmin settings afp:lock_manager = no

  • Xsan

    Xsan: Backup

    OK, RAID 5 is not a backup scheme.  Even with Direct Attached Storage you have to back it up.  But even more to the point, if you have a bunch of RAIDs strung together as an Xsan and you’re not backing it up then you are taking life one day at a time.  Stop.  The cost of a backup is probably nothing compared to the cost of loosing all your data.