Xserve RAID is a attachment mass-storage server 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.[1] It was
rack-mountable and was 3
U high.[1]
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 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
OS X,
Windows,
Linux, and
Solaris.
Xserve RAID was available in models costing between
US$5,999 and US$10,999[2][3] (later US$12,999),[4][5] plus configuration and support options.
The Xserve RAID was discontinued on February 19, 2008.[6]