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If you have an OSX server, you could potentially netboot your macs from a golden image. It's kind of like VDI in that it should reset to the default state when rebooted, but it is an OSX environment running on the machine locally (just booted over the network). However, not sure how long it would take to boot a large image.

You could telnet into the box if it booted up far enough, but usually for boot problems you have to connect to the console port directly and this shows you the OS boot process, modules loaded etc. The iStor firmware seems to work perfectly, at least on our 2 Axstor boxes. No problems connecting with any initiators that I've tried software or hardware, including Microsofts. It's your call really, our Axstors are all but decommissioned now and hold only duplicates of data held elsewhere. That said, I had no problems when upgrading to the iStor firmware, but it's always best to have a backup just in case.

You will probably need to connect to the console port and use something like hyperterminal to see what is actually happening/failing. The Axstor kit is based on istor's GigaStorATX board, but istor has been bought out or set for exclusive use by DLINK/Promise Technology. I've just upgraded one of our Axstors with the firmware from iStor Networks, Inc. -- Tools and Resources to fix a problem with drives going bad for no reason, seems to work for us, but there are no warranties with it now. You may also want check the Dlink forum for the DSN-3200 as it also uses a GigaStorATX http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?board=163.0

Before everyone goes off and destroys their networks or whatever, you may want to try this first: 1) Join OSX computer to your AD domain 2) Test to see if joined correctly (see if it logs in) 3) Open terminal (need to be an admin user on the local machine) 4) Type: dsconfigad -passinterval 0 5) Press enter and type your password if it asks This should set the trust password refresh interval for the computer to never expire. Alternatively, setup and use DeployStudio freeware, closest I've come to finding something useful for macs.