BeamDisk
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BeamDisk for business

BeamDisk gives a fleet of Macs with Apple Silicon fast iSCSI storage without touching their security policy. It's a sandboxed Mac App Store app with no kernel extension, so there is nothing to allow-list, no Reduced Security to manage and no Recovery-mode visit to schedule.

Security

  • No kernel extension. On Apple Silicon, a kernel extension only loads after the Mac is restarted into Recovery and its security policy is lowered to Reduced Security. BeamDisk needs neither, and the Macs keep the security your MDM enforces.
  • A sandboxed Mac App Store app. Apple reviews and signs every release, and updates come through the App Store.
  • Credentials stay on the Mac. CHAP and mutual CHAP secrets are stored in the Keychain, on that Mac only, and removed with the disk.
  • No account, no analytics. BeamDisk connects only to the storage you add, and to Apple for purchases and updates.

Data safety

  • One Mac per disk. BeamDisk takes exclusive access to each disk with SCSI persistent reservations, so a second computer is refused rather than corrupting the file system. Your target needs to support persistent reservations (TrueNAS does).
  • Outages are ridden out. If the server stops responding, writes are held for up to 60 seconds (adjustable from 15 to 300) while BeamDisk reconnects; apps only see errors after that.
  • Flushes reach the server. When an app or macOS asks for its data to be safely stored, BeamDisk passes the request on to the server.
  • Every state is visible. The app shows each disk's state, live throughput, IOPS and latency, keeps 7 days of history, and notifies the user when a disk disconnects, reconnects or is taken by another computer.

Deploying

  1. Buy and assign. Buy BeamDisk for Business in volume through Apple Business Manager, and assign it to Macs with your MDM like any App Store app.
  2. Turn it on. On each Mac, BeamDisk asks once to be turned on in System Settings.
  3. Allow the Macs on your storage. Each Mac has its own initiator name, shown in BeamDisk under This Mac and in Settings → General. Allow it on the targets the Mac should use.
  4. Add the disks. In BeamDisk, Add Disk finds the target's disks by address; CHAP secrets go in the Mac's Keychain.

Not in version 1: managed configuration through MDM profiles, multipath (MPIO), encryption of iSCSI traffic (keep storage on a trusted network or VLAN), and Intel Macs.

Licensing

Using BeamDisk for work, at a business or for paid work at home, needs Pro or BeamDisk for Business after the trial, one purchase per Mac. Individuals can buy Pro in the app ($25). Organizations buy BeamDisk for Business, the separate app for volume purchase, at $25 per Mac. Both unlock the same features. Pricing and licensing.

Requirements

A Mac with Apple Silicon on macOS 27 or later, and an iSCSI target on a storage server or SAN (tested with TrueNAS). Wired Ethernet is recommended.

Talk to us

Questions about deployment, licensing or a pilot: get in touch.