Following a minor bug report, the XsanDebugged tool has received a .1 update and is still available on the Apps page.
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Xsan Log Generator
XsanDebugged is a small, quick little tool that copies the Xsan logs to the desktop of the user running it. It’s designed so that an Xsan administrator can leave it in the Dock of a computer and then tell an editor or someone onsite to click on it and not have to step anyone through typing commands to copy logs, compress them and then email them. Another tool that is fairly quick and easy from the command line, but meant to save a bunch of time on the phone when troubleshooting issues remotely. Click here to Download XsanDebugged XsanDebugged can be found on the Apps page of this site.
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Xsan + serialnumberd Troubleshooting
With Mac OS X 10.5.8 and 10.6.x, Mac OS X Server, Xsan, Final Cut Server and a number of other serialized products were switched to a whole new solution for managing serial numbers: a newly redone serialnumberd. If you run otool against serialnumberd in 10.5.7 and below you’ll notice no dependencies; it stood alone so to speak. If you run otool against the latest and greatest then you’ll notice that it has a number of dependencies that run the gambit of otherwise unthinkable services. This caused minor growing pains during the summer with multihomed network connections, maximum number of clients and other aspects of servers with certain solutions, but that…
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Xsan: Ghost SymLink Killah
An Xsan issue that had disappeared for awhile but that I’ve seen a few times recently. Symptom is that you have one client that won’t mount your Xsan volume. Other clients can mount but not that one. In the logs you see errors similar to the following: (Error) Store: {channel:0x202b18fa0 localPath:’/Volumes/36Chambers’} bring up failed — will retry If all of these things are true then you likely, even without having the volume mounted will have a file in the /Volumes/ folder with the name of the SAN. If that’s the case then you have a pretty quick and easy resolution. Rename the file and see if fsm mounts the volume.…
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Deploy Final Cut Pro Fast
One of the challenges that we face when building a large Xsan for video environments where we also need to deploy Final Cut is to install Final Cut Pro or Final Cut Studio on all the clients. It can mean a lot of switching out of optical media and kill productivity if you aren’t careful. This is why we started looking to the Xsan to provide some of the speed to the installation process that it will later provide to the clients. First off, extract the installers or create an image of the disk(s). If you extract the disk then you will need to mount it and then start the…
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Mac OS X Server Groups on LinkedIn
In case you haven’t seen them there are a number of groups for Mac OS X Systems Administrators on LinkedIn: Mac OS X Server: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?&gid=138085 Final Cut Server: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=138082 Xsan: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=138084 MacEnterprise: http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1774398
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Xsan Addendum
Some time ago, I did a little article for Xsanity on using Xsan with removable media. The other day, while helping a friend prepare to give a talk on Xsan I learned a nice little tidbit. It’s just a little addendum to that that brings a smile to my face and makes me a little thankful: If you tell Xsan Admin to flash the LUN so that you can identify which LUN you are labeling the USB drive lights up. Sometimes it’s the little things, man…
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xsanctl
The xsanctl command allows you to manage basic events on an Xsan. The following options are available to xsanctl: disksChanged – Causes the FSS to scan the available LUNs mount – Mounts a volume ping – Verifies FSS (File System Server) responsiveness sanConfigChanged – Causes the FSS to reload the volume configuration file unmount – Unmounts a volume These options are used following the xsanctl command and are then followed with any options they themselves may have. For example, if you want to mount a volume you would run the xsanctl command followed by the mount option/verb and then the name of a volume, like so (assuming volume name of…
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Enabling Spotlight for Xsan
Spotlight has had a pretty checkered past with Xsan. But things are looking a little better and if you want to try enabling it again, once you’ve fully updated to 2.2 you can do so without too much fanfare. Simply locate the config file for the name of the volume you wish to enable spotlight for, which is in /Library/FileSystems/Xsan/config and is named with the name of the volume followed by a .cfg file extension. Once located, open the file in your favorite text editor (ie – pico, vi, etc). Then, locate the entry for EnableSpotlight, which should be set to No. Change the No to a Yes. You can…
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dotclean and Extended Attributes on Xsan
If you’ve been upgrading Xsan from version to version without doing a nuke + pave of your volume then you might still not be using extended attributes. Instead you might still be using ._ files, or AppleDouble files. Apple has a script included with Xsan, dotclean, which will go ahead and perform the conversion, although it does take awhile to run according to how many files you have. In order to kick it off, first unmount the volume for all except the controller that will do the conversion. Next, simply open Xsan Admin, click on Volumes and then the volume you wish to enable it for. From here, click on the…