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 when filled with 750 GB 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 and was 3U 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 ports for regular data transfer, a 10/100 Ethernet port for remote management, and a serial port for UPS communication via the Simple Signaling Protocol.
Apple marketed Xserve RAID mainly as a companion to Xserve in file server and high-performance technical computing applications. The storage array is also useful in some professional environments such as non-linear video editing. Also, Apple certified Xserve RAID for use with some other vendors' servers, such as those running Windows Server 2003 or Red Hat Enterprise Linux. 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, Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Sun Solaris.
Xserve RAID was available in models costing between US$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 VTrak E-Class RAID Subsystem.
Read more about Xserve RAID: History
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