Xsan 2 features Xsan Admin 2 — an application completely redesigned to make day-to-day SAN administration much simpler.
Storage configuration
With Xsan Admin, complex tasks such as expanding a volume, optimally configuring volume settings, or managing file system permissions are now easier and less error prone. SAN components — computers, volumes, and LUNs — are logically presented as assets, and an overview of SAN health is prominently displayed.
Xsan includes even more features for improved performance, and it’s especially noticeable in large SANs with dozens or even hundreds of individual nodes. The Inspector feature provides information about volumes, LUNs, computers, and the other components that make up your SAN. A LUN identifier causes the hard drive lights to turn on, specifying a LUN. Xsan also includes new options for connecting to remote computers and servers using Server Admin, SSH, and screen sharing.
Access control
Volume mapping and masking let you control which computers access various volumes. For finer-grained control, you can use Xsan on Mac OS X in conjunction with Open Directory to manage application, user, and group access to specific folders and files in shared volumes. So you can control access to SAN storage in exactly the same way, from the same centralized directory you use to control access to network-attached storage. Xsan lets you manage storage consumption by setting quotas for users and groups.
Admin notification
Real-time monitoring lets you keep tabs on your SAN file system performance and throughput. Should it fall below a specified level, you can set the program to send you a notification via email or pager. Xsan logs metadata controller activity and client access for each volume, and you can review these logs from any Mac OS X system on your network.