Xsan 1.4
Poor Xsan 1.4, managed to baffle some folks last week. The update was announced and appeared to be available, but no-one had any success locating the new software!
Some of the speculation about the fate of the update ended today, with the release of Xsan Filesystem 1.4 for Mac OS X 10.4, Xsan Admin 1.4 Update, and Xsan 1.4 Uninstaller. The remaining anomaly is the absence of “Xsan 1.4 Update for 10.4 (PowerPC)”, which is still referenced in the related KB article “About the Xsan 1.4 Update”, but appears to have been supplanted by a more generic version.
Combined the three applications offer a range of new features and they’re recommended to all current networks running Mac OS X 10.4.
*UPDATE #1: Having commented on the change of name the Xsan Admin update is refusing to install on my MacBook Pro, where I have version 1.3 installed and meet the other system requirements…

Obviously I need to look into this further, but I have to wonder if the name change on the download version is purely cosmetic…
UPDATE #2: The KB article, “Using Xsan 1.4 with Intel-based Macs” currently makes reference to the “shrink-wrap retail version of Xsan 1.4”, which would support the idea that the download is PPC only as the original name suggests…
UPDATE #3: A quick hunt through the package contents** revealed a ReadMe.rtf document (Contents/Rseources/English.lproj), which only provides instructions for installing the admin software from the original Xsan CD.

**Requisite notice to exercise extreme caution if you do decide to poke around packages on your system.
UPDATE #4: The updated Admin Guide (PDF) reassuringly states, “You can also install just Xsan Admin on any other computer you want to use to manage the SAN.” (p. 52) So why not my MacBook Pro? I’ll try again tomorrow when I have access to the SAN and the original install disks.

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