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Xserve RAID replaced by third party solution

Today has been a day of good news and bad news. The good news is that Xsan 2 was released and it looks GREAT, and the bad news is that Apple has now discontinued the Xserve RAID. It's bad news but it's bad news with a decent solution.

There was no official statement from Apple but the old Xserve RAID page now points to the Promise VTrak E-Class RAID Subsystem. It's a shame as I love our Xserve RAIDs (we have three), even though they do put out a lot of heat and noise.

I can see why Apple did it, as the price and complexity did not help sales, and endorsing an established third party is cheaper and easier. The Xserve RAIDs were in need of a update, so it is refreshing to read the specs on this machine:

	Xserve RAID	Promise V-Track
Fibre Channel Port Speed	2 GB	4 GB
Fibre Ports per Controller	1	2
Max number of drives	14	16
Max drive size	750 GB	750 GB
Max storage	10.5 TB	12 TB (24 TB with expansion module)
Drive type	Ultra ATA	SATA / SAS
Controller cache	512 MB	2 GB
On-drive cache	8 MB	16 MB
Redundant controllers	No	Yes
Expansion	None	Expansion chassis adds 16 extra drives
Rack size	3U	3U

See more specs here.

Pricing Comparison

Low-End:


Mid-Range


High-End


Other Promise Configurations


This is without a doubt much better value for money than the Xserve RAID but the high initial cost will put a lot of people off, I would imagine. I think I am going to take advantage of cheap Xserve RAID units and get the maximum possible performance out of our existing units before shelling out for these.

I have spoken to a few people that own Promise RAIDs and they say they are very satisfied with them, so my mind is at rest on that front.