SNFS/Xsan: Quantum SNFS metadata controller and Xsan client compatibility chart

In a previous life, I designed and built many SANs based on Xsan (I believe I started with Xsan 1.3). I then migrated to looking after SANs based on SNFS, either from 3rd party vendors, or Quantum.

I believe that the age of Fibre Channel is long over (although SNFS also works on Infiniband if I recall correctly). The advantages of block-level access have been eclipsed by the much higher bandwidth with Ethernet, at a fraction of the cost.

However, I want to share some of my documentation with the world. This is done under an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0) license.

The information has been collected from Apple support articles (current and obsolete ones), ADIC’s and Quantum’s StorNext documentation, and personal experience.

Every Xsan 2.0 and above client has been included. Maybe one day I will add Xsan 1.x releases for historical purposes

Xsan 20.0 Xsan 5.0.1 Xsan 5 Xsan 4.1 Xsan 4 Xsan 3.1 Xsan 3 Xsan 2.3 Xsan 2.2 to 2.2.2 Xsan 2 to 2.1.1
11.0.1 10.13, 10.14, 10.15 10.12 10.11 10.10 10.9 10.8 10.7 10.6 10.5
SNFS 7.0.x ✓ ✓ ✓ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
SNFS 6.4.0 ✓ ✓ ✓ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
SNFS 6.3.x ❌ ✓ ✓ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌
SNFS 6.2.x ❌ ✓ ✓ ❌ ❌ ❌ ? ? ?
SNFS 6.1.x ❌ ✓ ✓ ❌ ❌ ? ? ? ? ❌
SNFS 6.0.5, 6.0.5.1, 6.0.6 ❌ ✓ ✓ ❌ ❌ ? ? ? ? ❌
SNFS 6.0, 6.01, 6.0.1.1 ❌ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ? ? ? ? ❌
SNFS 5.4.x ❌ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ? ? ? ? ❌
SNFS 5.3.2.x ❌ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ❌
SNFS 5.3.1 ❌ ❌ ❌ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ❌
SNFS 5.3.0 ❌ ❌ ❌ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ❌
SNFS 5.2.2 ❌ ❌ ❌ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ❌
SNFS 5.2.1 ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ❌
SNFS 5.2.0 ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ❌
SNFS 5.1.x ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✓ ❌ ❌ ❌
SNFS 5.0.x ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✓ ❌ ❌ ❌
SNFS 4.7.x ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ❌
SNFS 4.6 ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ❌
SNFS 4.3 ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ❌
SNFS 4.2.1 ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ❌
SNFS 4.2.0 ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✓ ❌
SNFS 4.1.1 to 4.1.3 ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✓ ✓ ✓
SNFS 4.0 to 4.1 ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✓ ✓
SNFS 3.5.x ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✓ ✓
SNFS 3.1.2 to 3.1.5 ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ❌ ✓
SNFS controller and Xsan client compatibility chart.

There are some caveats with some of the supported configurations. Some releases were originally marked by Apple as incompatible and then reverted. In the same way, some configurations that were originally marked as working were then updated as not compatible.

Double-check official documentation before any deployment.

I hope you find this table useful. There are some additional Xsan curiosities I will post in the future.