Xserve RAID was a mass-storage device that was offered by Apple Inc. Xserve RAID held up to 14 hot-swappable Ultra-ATA hard drives, and had a capacity of 10.5 TB

Terabyte

The terabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix tera means 1012 in the International System of Units , and therefore 1 terabyte is , or 1 trillion bytes, or 1000 gigabytes. 1 terabyte in binary prefixes is 0.9095 tebibytes, or 931.32 gibibytes...

 when filled with 750 GB

Gigabyte

The gigabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information storage. The prefix giga means 109 in the International System of Units , therefore 1 gigabyte is...

 modules. Xserve RAID supported RAID levels of 0, 0+1, 1, 3 and 5 in hardware, hybrid RAID levels such as 10 and 50 could be created in software. It was rack-mountable

19-inch rack

A 19-inch rack is a standardized frame or enclosure for mounting multiple equipment modules. Each module has a front panel that is wide, including edges or ears that protrude on each side which allow the module to be fastened to the rack frame with screws.-Overview and history:Equipment designed...

 and was 3U

Rack unit

A rack unit or U is a unit of measure used to describe the height of equipment intended for mounting in a 19-inch rack or a 23-inch rack...

 high.

Although the Xserve RAID contained 14 drives, they were split into two independent groups of 7 drives each managed by an identical RAID controller. Importantly, the controllers were independent, but not redundant; each managed seven of the storage array's fourteen drives, given a failure of one of the controllers those 7 drives were not accessible: the other could not take over its duties. Xserve RAID did, however, have redundant cooling units and power supplies. Xserve RAID's ports were two Fibre Channel

Fibre Channel

Fibre Channel, or FC, is a gigabit-speed network technology primarily used for storage networking. Fibre Channel is standardized in the T11 Technical Committee of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards , an American National Standards Institute –accredited standards...

 ports for regular data transfer, a 10

10BASE-T

Ethernet over twisted pair technologies use twisted-pair cables for the physical layer of an Ethernet computer network. Other Ethernet cable standards employ coaxial cable or optical fiber. Early versions developed in the 1980s included StarLAN followed by 10BASE-T. By the 1990s, fast, inexpensive...

/100 Ethernet

Ethernet

Ethernet is a family of computer networking technologies for local area networks commercially introduced in 1980. Standardized in IEEE 802.3, Ethernet has largely replaced competing wired LAN technologies....

 port for remote management, and a serial port for UPS

Uninterruptible power supply

An uninterruptible power supply, also uninterruptible power source, UPS or battery/flywheel backup, is an electrical apparatus that provides emergency power to a load when the input power source, typically mains power, fails...

 communication via the Simple Signaling Protocol.

Apple marketed Xserve RAID mainly as a companion to Xserve

Xserve

Xserve was a line of rack unit computers designed by Apple Inc. for use as servers. When the Xserve was introduced in 2002, it was Apple's first designated server hardware design since the Apple Network Server in 1996...

 in file server

File server

In computing, a file server is a computer attached to a network that has the primary purpose of providing a location for shared disk access, i.e. shared storage of computer files that can be accessed by the workstations that are attached to the computer network...

 and high-performance technical computing

High-performance technical computing

High Performance Technical Computing refers to the application of high performance computing to technical, as opposed to business or scientific, problems...

 applications. The storage array is also useful in some professional environments such as non-linear video editing

Non-linear editing system

In video, a non-linear editing system is a video editing or audio editing digital audio workstation system which can perform random access non-destructive editing on the source material...

. Also, Apple certified Xserve RAID for use with some other vendors' servers, such as those running Windows Server 2003

Windows Server 2003

Windows Server 2003 is a server operating system produced by Microsoft, introduced on 24 April 2003. An updated version, Windows Server 2003 R2, was released to manufacturing on 6 December 2005...

 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Red Hat Enterprise Linux

Red Hat Enterprise Linux is a Linux-based operating system developed by Red Hat and targeted toward the commercial market. Red Hat Enterprise Linux is released in server versions for x86, x86-64, Itanium, PowerPC and IBM System z, and desktop versions for x86 and x86-64...

. Due to the cross-platform support available, users do not need a Mac to administer the Xserve RAID. Apple shipped a CD-ROM with the device containing the Xserve RAID Admin Tools, a Java software application that runs on most operating systems — including Mac OS X

Mac OS X

Mac OS X is a series of Unix-based operating systems and graphical user interfaces developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc. Since 2002, has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems...

, Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, Linux

Linux

Linux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...

, and Sun Solaris.

Xserve RAID was available in models costing between US$

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

5,999 and US$12,999, plus configuration and support options.

The Xserve RAID was discontinued on 19 February 2008. It has been replaced with Promise

Promise Technology

PROMISE Technology, Inc. is a Taiwanese computer hardware manufacturing company. A longtime manufacturer of hard disk controllers, they presently manufacture RAID host adapter cards and have recently introduced a NAS enclosure....

VTrak E-Class RAID Subsystem.

History

• Xserve RAID
• Build: Feb 2003 - Jan 2004
• Part numbers: M8668, M8669, M8670
• Dual independent RAID controllers each with:

  • One HSSDC2 Fibre Channel Port
  • One DB-9 serial port for UPS systems
  • One 10/100BASE-T Ethernet interfaces for remote management

• 14 independent ATA100 Apple drive module channels/bays
• 180 GB PATA supported

• Xserve RAID (SFP)
• Build: Jan 2004 - Oct 2004
• Part numbers: M9721, MA208
• Dual independent RAID controllers each with:

  • One 2GB Fibre Channel SFP port with 200 Mbit/s throughput
  • One DB-9 serial port for UPS systems
  • One 10/100BASE-T Ethernet interfaces for remote management

• 14 independent ATA100 Apple drive module channels/bays
• 180 GB, 250 GB PATA support added on firmware 1.2.6

• Xserve RAID (SFP Late 2004)
• Build: Oct 2004 - Feb 2008
• Part numbers: A1009
• Dual independent RAID controllers each with:

  • One 2GB Fibre Channel SFP port with 200 Mbit/s throughput
  • One DB-9 serial port for UPS systems
  • One 10/100BASE-T Ethernet interfaces for remote management

• 14 independent 100MB/s ATA100 Apple drive module channels/bays
• 180 GB, 250 GB, 400 GB and 500 GB support added on firmware 1.5, 750 GB PATA support added on firmware 1.5.1

• Line discontinued: 19 February 2008

External links

• Xserve RAID - official support page
• AlienRAID - Xserve RAID on non Apple environments