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[devils_advisor]

Just got a FC3300 with os9 drivers. There are old solutions out there but hard to get. I'm curious if I get os9 to see my xraid (San).

[Knezzen]

I would love to see how it goes for you. I have XServe RAID that I want to use with the MDD.

[devils_advisor]

alright i guess we need to talk and get into the basics. i have the card here (finally) and now i need a switch, but from what i gather those have to be licensed and i dont get it, why ?
then i need to choose the right tranceivers too. so there is a little bit work. as soon as i get the right transceiver i directly connect the xraid with the my machine and see how it works. the only card i found that works under os9 is the atto fc3300/05

[Knezzen]

Wait... Does the card have SFP slots? You should be able to use the stock Xserve RAID cables (with built in SFP's). You don't need a switch if you only want to use as many fiber channel devices as you have slots on your card.

Just looked it up. Seems like you only have one SFP slot, so you will only be able to use half the Xserve RAID (one controller, 7 disks) without a switch. Why would you need to license the switch? Or is it a software license issue?

If you do use a switch you will create a bottleneck there. The Xserve RAID has two 2gbps SFP slots, and the card one 2gbps slot. You will be cutting bandwidth in half, so sticking to one controller might be the best after all.

[devils_advisor]

All the big enterprise switches I looked at need some kind of license for unknown reason. I spend hours checking manuals. The atto fc3300 has a hookup for the real cable no copper. The 3305 I think is the 1 with the sfp. I looked at old avid medianet stuff wich gives you client and server equipment for a fiber network and maybe a little easy to get than the fibrejet or accelware solution. So I'm stuck with a switch to get it connected. I can't find a 3305.

[Knezzen]

So theres a SFP soldered to the card then, you can't take it out at all? Im not talking about copper .

You can probably buy a SFP from eBay or such, it just has to support multi mode fibre cables.
Put the SFP in the Xserve and plug in the fibre cable, it should work after that.

You might need a Mac running OS X to configure the RAID arrays of the Xserve RAID though.

Still, no need for a FC switch.

So, something like this to put in the SAN:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Infineon-V23848-M305-C56W-2Gb-850nm-Shortwave-Tri-Rate-Multimode-SFP-Transceiver-/331274862261?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4d21853eb5

And a cable:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1M-LC-LC-DUPLEX-50-125-MULTIMODE-FIBER-OPTIC-CABLE-PATCH-CORD-JUMPER-CABLE-BLUE-/131376765737?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item1e96aa5b29

EDIT:

Found a list of Apple supported SFP's:

*Finisar FTRJ-8519-P1BNL
*Pico Light PL-XPL-VE-S24-11
*Pico Light PL-XPL-VC-S23-11
*JDS Uniphase JSM-21S0AA1
*JDS Uniphase JSP-21S0AA1
*JDS Uniphase JDS-42S4AA1

A simple picture to illustrate what I mean:

[devils_advisor]

The transceiver on this card is fixed you can't swap it or take it off. Only option is fibre cable. But if I want to connect more than 1 machine to the raid I need a way.

[Knezzen]

You connect a SAN using fibre channel. The SAN manages the RAID, the computer on the other side of the fibre cable only sees one "hard drive".

So you need to buy more SAN's (like the Xserve RAID) if you want to do that.

[devils_advisor]

Looks like it. I need a transceiver for the xraid to check it out. Btw I'm absolute new to fiber. Is there a way to get rid of the Ethernet part and use only fiber for data transfer?

[Knezzen]

The Ethernet part is only for management (setting up the RAID arrays etc). All the actual data will be transferred over fibre, so you don't have to worry about that.

I work with enterprise servers and storage all day long (at a hosting company), so this is right up my ally. Just fire away any questions you might have

[devils_advisor]

So xsan will not work since it is a format that can't be read by os9 right? If so I might as well kick that loud xserve to the curb and build a Novell server. I found the drivers for the lsi (supposedly apple fiber card) online. I just like to learn and toy with tech that nobody could afford 10 years ago.

[devils_advisor]

i have an array coming in. i know i can run it as a stand alone array. what i dont know is if i have the same limitations with the partition size in os9.
when i hook it up via fibre do you know if the partition limit is higher or do i need to cap it at 200 gig or so ?

[devils_advisor]

ok i tested my fibre raid with 2 different cards. osx no problem. os9 needs a initiator or a 3rd party application
avid, atto or fibrejet .... if you get a hold of either 1 for os9 get it. i need to isolate their way to access the fibre card and maybe make a driver

[IIO]

yes - partition limit of 192 for OS9 bootable remains true with usb/firewire/fibre/whatever.

[devils_advisor]

that raid is for fast storage only. mainly video

[IIO]

oh, so in case you were thinking about the cap limit of some G4s when you mentioned that – this is releated to the IDE controller, and for all other connection types not the case.

you can use drives up to 2 TB using firewire, sata & co.

[devils_advisor]

i have a drobo via fw hooked up to it
works pretty good