Active Storage Announces 'ActiveSAN' Replacement for Xserve

Late last week, we noted that Active Storage appeared set to introduce a replacement for Apple's Xserve, which is being discontinued as of today. The company followed through today with its introduction of ActiveSAN, a new metadata controller appliance to fill the void left by Xserve's departure.

"On the day that Apple has formally stopped selling Xserve, we have exciting news. Until now, Apple's Xserve was the Metadata Controller of choice for most Xsan installations, providing enterprise form factor and capabilities," said Alex Grossman, CEO of Active Storage, Inc.

"Xsan users in high-pressure industries require datacenter-level quality products to manage their Metadata, but also demand the ease of use and setup of Xsan," continued Grossman. "Previously, that meant one thing: Xsan on an Xserve. But all that changes today - with ActiveSAN."

ActiveSAN is a 1U rackmountable controller based on Linux and the Quantum StorNext SAN file system. Active Storage also offers an integrated Mac OS X user interface to make setup and maintenance a fast and simple process.


ActiveSAN runs on a quad-core Xeon processor with 8 GB of 1066MHz DDR3 memory while offering mirrored hot-swappable 1 TB drives, a dual port 8Gb Fibre Channel card, and dual hot-swappable power supplies.

Full details on pricing and configuration options for ActiveSAN are yet to be announced, and Active Storage plans to demo the new hardware at NAB 2011 in early April with product availability set to follow soon after.