Copying between XServer RAIDs problem

I have two XServer RAIDs connected through a fiber switch to an XServe G4 1.33GHz running 10.4.3.
When I try and copy a folder of about 3,000 files (1.27TB) from one RAID to the other, I get a few hundred of the files and then the drives disappear from the desktop and the copy fails. I have to restart the XServe to get the drives to show back up. Any ideas?

The switch is a Vixel Emulex 355 12-port. The ports are not disappearing. The only thing I have to do is restart the server to get the RAIDs to show backup. I have tried restarting the RAIDs and the switch, but it seems to be a problem with the XServe. Wonder if the Fiber Card in the XServe could be having a problem? That is a LSILogic LSI7202P Firmware 0.0.0, Fcode 1.00.29.

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Capturing Video To Xserve Raid problems

I recently purchased an Xserve raid (1.75TB with 512mb cache on each controller), set it up for Raid 5. I also have an Apple Fibre Card on Slot 4 (the fasted PCI-X slot on my dual 2.0 G5. Much to my surprise when capturing DV video, not HD or DVCPRO, simply DV video via FireWire 400 to the Xserve Raid it can't keep up and drops frames! When I caputure DV video via FireWire 400 to my internal 150gb SATA drive all is well.
I do have journaling turned on for the Raid, but that can't be the problem.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks

Hi there,
I’ve been reading numerous posts by you on the Apple Discussions pages and was wondering if you could help me.
I work for a small video company with 1 G5 Quad, 4 Dual G5’s and a G5 Imac. We have always worked across a gigabit network, sharing media and projects from each other’s internal and external drives without any problems. However, it was very hard to keep track of what everyone was doing and it was often hard to find specific files.
Therefore, we decided that it would be a good idea to centralise all of our storage, so we invested in an Apple Xserve Raid, which we connected to one of the dual processor G5’s (which we installed 10.4 server software on) via fibre channel. We figured that we would all be able to access the raid (just like we access each others internal and external drives) and read the media across the network. However, this has not gone to plan!
I followed the instructions about how to initialise and setup the raid and striped one bank of 7 as Raid 0 (set as our Projects drive) and the other bank as Raid 5 (set as our capture scratch). It does work ok for the most part. The G5 that hosts it works perfectly and most of the time one or maybe two of the other G5’s work well, but on the whole we are dropping a lot of frames and images are freezing frequently.
My understanding is that all 6 of our edit suites should be able to read DV across the gigabit network and as I have said, this has been the case before we got the raid – which leads me to think there is something, not right with the Raid. I could be here all day if I were to explain all the network settings on each computer, as well as what settings the Raid is set to – and to be honest I wouldn’t even know where to look!
I don’t know if I made this clear, but we capture locally and move the footage across – the project files and render files are also saved on the raid! We are not trying to work from the same project files, just the same media – but not all the time!
I really need to understand why we are having so much trouble and any help would be greatly appreciated?
Kind Regards
Adam

Copy from xServe RAID to firewire drive is crashing my OS...

Fellow mac users,
I am a relatively new OS X system admin and I am having a hard time copying files from my xServe RAID to a firewire drive to do an intermittent backup. When I try to copy the files over it crashes the OS without fail. I was wondering if anyone has ever heard or seen of this before? It's rather discouraging when all I'm trying to do is get a quick backup of the RAID which is only 300 gb in size currently.
Our hardware is very good, we have a dual 2.3 G5 model with 3 gb of RAM so I know the hardware can handle a simple finder copy. The only idea I have is to do a "ditto" in the terminal. I thought I'd ask for input from the resident apple sages before trying that. Does anyone have any suggestions or ideas for me?
Thanks for any help,
Thomas
xServe Dual G5 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

Be sure you have the external drive connected when you boot from the installer disc. Use the OS X Installer One disc that came with your MacBook. After you boot from the installer and select your language select Disk Utility from the Utilities menu.
After DU loads select the drive entry (mfgr.'s ID and drive size) for the external drive from the left side list. Click on the Partition tab in the DU main window. Click on the Options button, select the GUID partition scheme and click on the OK button. Set the Format drop down menu to Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and the number of partitions from the Partition drop down menu to one (1). Click on the Partition button. Wait for the volume to mount on the Desktop.
Quit DU and return to the installer. Proceed with the OS X installation. When you get to the part where you select a destination click on the icon for the external hard drive.

What is the max distance recommended between xServe RAID and the host?

I'm looking to relocate my rack to quieter spot, but I would like to keep my xServe RAID in the rack. How far away can I keep my xServe RAID from it's host system? I have it hooked up to my MacPro right now.
Thanks

Hi
I would say about as far as the FC Cables and your budget will go. According to Apple's Tech Brief on the subject that will be around 500 metres provided you use the relevant transceivers:
http://images.apple.com/xserve/pdf/L322097A_FibrChnl_TB.pdf
Page 4.
HTH?
Tony

What's the best place to start troubleshooting my Xserve RAID problem

Hello all,
I have an older 2.5tb (ide drives) Xserve RAID connected to an HP workstation, which is a video editing sytem. The fiber card connecting the raid is an LSI 7202XP PCI-x card.
I'm using Windows XP Pro. Nothing on the hardware or software side has been updated or changed in years.
Recently, I'll be editing video and the Xserve RAID will just "disappear". A computer restart will usually restore it.
Where's a good place to start troubleshooting? I was going to replace the fiber cables, then the fiber card...then I don't know what.
I'm just an end user/video editor, so any maintenance help is appreciated!
Thanks,
Jason Kalinoski
Tallahassee, FL

Normally, it should take less than an hour @ $90 USD for labor to replace one. The HD cost is additional. Why do you think the HD needs replacing? Too small?.Then I suggest an ext FWHD, w/FW800 connector, rather than replacing the int one. If there are issues with the HD, check out the iMac HD replacement program. You should really know when you bought the machine and, IMO, it should have the AppleCare Protection Plan, which is the cheapest insurance policy for desktop machines.

MDS9000 (DS-C9124) and Apple XServe/RAID problem.

Hi all.
Im new at this so be gentle plz. :)
We want to connect some servers and raid with fiber channel-network. So we bought this switch to do the job.
When we connect all together nothing works. Im getting this error: sfpVendorNotSupported
I cant figure out why it doesnt work. If i connect the server with raid it works flawlessly.
Any help apreciated.
thx
p

I have seen that error before and it is generally associated with non Cisco "certified" SFP's. You would get that message when you hovered over the port with the mouse. HP sold us some switches and tried putting in some Brocade SFP's because they had some in stock. Once they put the right ones it, is worked.
There are only a handful of vendor SFP's around for servers and storage and you should not try to use them in the Cisco switches.
Where did your SFP's come from? If they came with the switch, thats another story.
Stephen

Can't copy files to Xserve Raid

Hello,
I'm having serious issues copying files to my work's Xserve Raid. When I try to copy files to it, it stalls for several minutes trying to copy, but making no progress, before giving an error saying:
"The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "filename" could not be read or written. (error code -36)"
When I click ok, I get disconnected from the Raid.
Any thoughts as to what could be happening?

What do your logs say? I'd check your afp (or whatever sharing mechanism you're using) and I'd keep an eye out for any fibre channel or LUN messages that might indicate connection/communication problems with RAID itself. (These might show up as LIP messages.)
Sounds to me like an underlying communications issue rather than a file sharing issue but without more information it's hard to say.
Good luck,
=Tod

Xserve RAID error -36 copy or move files fail

Heres an interesting one - Xserve G4 on 10.4.11, Xserve RAID with two RAIDs is on 1.5.0 firmware.
Clean new OS, RAID unchanged - clients or local admin have same problem - copy file from one RAID bank to another results in error -36, copy fails. Duplicate a file on same RAID volume same error, copy fails but original file also disappears after error. Copies from RAID to Xserve (or to users desktop) OK, copies back seem OK. no errors recorded on server logs, no events recorded in RAID logs - all green lights but we can't get work done... RAID has write cache turned off.

Hey Kel,
I've only seen a error -36 on a raid volume twice.. both times were days before a controller failed. I'd try swapping controllers and see if the problem follows the controller...

XSERVE RAID - copying to array causes "error -50"

I am a n00b when it comes to administering an XSERVE RAID, so this may be something you can easily answer...
I have a brand new XServe with XSERVE RAID attached using a fibre channel card. The upper controller is connected to the left-side of the array, array 1, while the right-side of the controller is connected to the lower controller, array 2. Each array is 4.08 TB, the entire array is stocked with 750GB HDDs.
Array 1 has no problems copying, deleting, etc. Array 2 times out after I try to copy files, either across the network or using an external FW800 drive (2TB) from LaCie. I am trying to dump a lot of video data, and it blows up giving me an error -50. After that, I can't delete or do anything. Initially I thought this was due to ownership/file permissions but that doesn't make a difference. The external drive copies to Array 1 with no issues either. Any advice?

Any updates on this? I think I am experiencing something similar.
We have a Xserve RAID that has 1 array for our file server and we have just added 5 750GB drives to the right side of the RAID for a 2nd array. I spent most of the Thanksgiving break dealing with crashes and corrupt drives in Array 2 trying to migrate the files from the original array to the new array.
Array 1 works just fine, but if I try to copy large files to the 2nd array things go haywire and the server usually "crashes". If I use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy Array 1 to our Wiebetech RAID box things are fine, however if I use the same process to copy Array 1 to Array 2 and even the Wiebetch box to Array 2, then the server "crashes". I say crashes since I don't really know what is going on. When I come back to check on things the server has locked up and isn't responding to anything or has restarted and I am back at the login screen. Array 2 will have been "corrupted" and won't mount unless I reformat via disk utility.
In the RAID Admin events the only thing I get is that both controller 1 and 2 have gone down and are back up. The system log on the sever looks fine.
Just trying to see if it was a cable or some other hardware issue.
Thanks
Carl

Problems with Xserve RAID

I have been having problems with Xserve RAID, which happened in a close time span, but may not be related. The Xserve RAID is set up with 7 disks with RAID 5, totaling to 1.3TB in storage capacity.
First, the first disk failed and the RAID system was degraded. Since I got a very similar 250GB harddisk (but without "Apple Firmware") I tried putting it as a replacement. It was recognized but it became a hot spare disk, even though I did not set the system to use hot spare.
Later Mac OS X reported that the Xserve RAID's 1.3TB volume was unmounted. I check with Disk Utility, and it reported a lot of errors. I ended up with about 70GB of files in lost+found, and I confirmed that many files were missing. Disk Utility could not really fixed it.
I put back the failed disk, and Xserve RAID successfully rebuilt the array. I did "Background Array Conditioning" to perform surface scan and mapping of bad blocks. It completed without error. I then did "Verify Parity Data", and it completed but with error, as follows:
Event:
Disk 5 Reported An Error. COMMAND:0x37 ERROR:0x64 STATUS:0x81 LBA:0x119E6880
Description:
The drive reported ATA error. This is a failure in the communication from the RAID Controller to the drive.
Any idea what is happening with this Xserve RAID? Bad disk? Bad controller? Or what? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Xserve RAID Dual G5 2.0GHz Mac OS X (10.3.9)

After reading here and there on the net (including this forum), yes I realized that the "Apple Firmware" thing may be significant after all. But since I set the Xserve RAID to use RAID 5, a failure of one disk should not affect data integrity. And surface scan was successful, implyingthat all disks are now free from defects. So why did it lost 70GB worth of data? I experienced disk hardware failure often with Windows system but never experienced losing data while the hardware seems to be fine. Without knowing why this happened, I feel scared to put data on Xserve RAID, and this is ironic since this 1.7TB Xserve RAID is meant for storing data safely...

Xserve RAID email problem notification problem

Hello,
I had a big problem last week with losing a lun on the Xserve RAID, after rebuilding the raids and replacing the data, I can no longer send email notifications, I can add email addresses, but nothing happens during email tests.
Any ideas where to start looking?
Thanks in advance,
Michael Germana

I also have this problem but it has been since we first installed the system. Test e-mails don't go out, nor do actual alert e-mails. There is nothing on the SMTP server to evidence that it is receiving any notifications to send, let alone denying any e-mails.

Xserve raid (14 drive) / several problems

Hi, I have bought a used xserve RAID (the one with 14 drives). It's using 1.5.1 firmware. I have equipped the RAID with 14 WD5000-AAKB-00H8A0 500GB drives.
I first installed 4 drives (slot 1-4), created a RAID array and later on extended the RAID with 10 drives. But those 10 drives never worked without problems.
The problems we have are:
- drive-modules working in slots 8-14 are not working in slot 7
- some drive-modules don't start-up at all. Only red led showing in the front panel.
- The lower controller slot sometimes makes problems, even when swapping upper & lower controller.
Has anybody good experience with this RAID system and can give me some tips what to do?

This is all a bit odd.
You say you have extended the RAID with 10 drives. Bear in mind that you can't create a proper hardware RAID volume across the two controllers/sides of the RAID. You can make arrays over 1-7 then over 8-14.
Did the bad drives ever work? If they are new, have you been in to RAID Admin and made them available for use? Under RAID Admin > Components, click the drives radio button. Do the drives show up here as installed?

Switching to Xserver/Xserve RAID

Hi boys and girls...
I was looking for a little assistance in switching over to Xserve. Let me give you some background info first.
Were a small studio in London, with only 11 people in-house and the majority working externally whether free-lance, from home or from another country etc. Were mostly Mac based, though 4 machines are those little beige pc things all running XP 2002. At the minute its 1 G5 and a collection of G4 tower's and G4 power book's, G4 cube's and so on. Were all connected to a G4 server running Mac OS X Server 10.2.8 with a very small dual 120GB HD raid thing running Retrospect.
Our problem is, this system was set up some time ago and were starting to outgrow it.
What were looking for is a way to backup all of our current work and archive all of our old work. Most users like to work directly off the server as theres so much file sharing between the macs and pc's, directly updating files so there isnt any duplication etc.
First question, is it possible (and a good/bad idea ?) to have 10-15 users working directly from a Mac server, that stores the archived work for users to reference and also current work which is backed up to tape and duplicated (as we currently have) to another HD?
Secondly, Is the ideal way to be running things? Is there a more efficent way?
Finally, what kind of spec should we be looking at? There's such a huge difference between servers, while were willing to invest, we dont want to go crazy (maybe a little) on costs.
I look forward to your responses and thank you in advance
Marcus

There are certainly some drawbacks with your current setup that mean you should make some changes.
In general, there's nothing wrong with working with files directly off the server, however, 10.2.8 has some issues with multiple users accessing the same files at the same time, so you should look to move to 10.4 ASAP to address that issue, regardless of any other changes you make.
I am assuming that the remote users don't work this way - uploading/download files as appropriate - it would be painful to work off the server remotely.
The only real disadvantage with working with files directly off the server is that if a file is changed erroneously and saved, there's no easy backup.
If the file was copied to the local drive and saved, it's easy to roll back to the previous version by re-copying it from the server, but if that change is saved directly to the server the only rollback involves pulling out Retrospect.
The other change that would make a difference is installing a gigabit switch and connecting the server to it. Even if all the host systems don't have gigabit ethernet, the extra bandwidth to the server will definitely help.
As for a new server, 10-15 file sharing users are not likely to stress the server, do you don't need a top-of-the-line configuration.
You should first decide how much disk space you need. With 500GB drives, the XServe can handle up to 1.5TB on its own, without any additional XServe RAID. However, you might want to consider RAID (using RAID you're limited to 1TB of RAID 5 storage, or 500GB of mirrored storage in the box).
In addition to your current data usage, consider using an online disk backup where multiple copies of the data is stored on the server itself before (or in addition to) backing up to tape.
While tapes offer several long-term archive advantages, they really don't work so well for quick restores of a file or two. Having a snapshot of the last couple of days data online makes it trivial to step back a day or so without having to resort to tapes. This may mean, though, that your 100GB of data requires 200 or 300GB of disk space.
If you do decide than an XServe RAID is the right solution, consider getting it right-sized from the get-go rather than buying it small (e.g. 4 drives) and adding later. While it can be done, adding drives to an existing array is a PITA.
If you do opt for an XServe RAID, and you don't currently have any rack-mounted equipment, consider using a PowerMac G5 as your server rather than an XServe. While similar in terms of performance, the PowerMac can work out cheaper depending on configuration.

Dropped Frames w/Xserve RAID: Solution

We were having problems with capturing DV footage onto our new Xserve RAID and having dropped frames or even image freeze during the capture. Found some threads on the Xserve RAID forum regarding the issue and after following some of the suggestions (summed up in the article below) we can now report the problem has been solved. However, there are some reports the remedy may need to be reimplemented if the Xserve RAID is powered down. But I hope this helps those out there experiencing similar problems between FCP and Xserve RAID.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=302780

every night I shut down my xraid unless it's rendering or copy ing. I use raid admin to shut it down. Every morning I start the array from the button on the back, boot the G5, and launch raid admin and uncheck "allow host cache flushing" It's like brushing your teeth and having a shower tho those personal habits don't have to follow the same order

How to connect multiple Xserve Raid for Best Performance

I like to get an idea how to connect multiple Xserve Raid to get the best performance for FCP to do multiple stream HD.

Again, for storage (and retrieval), FireWire 400 should be fast enough. If you are encoding video directly to the external drive, then FireWire 800 would probably be beneficial. But as long as the processing of the video is taking place on the fast internal SATA drive, and then you are storing files on the external drive, FireWire 400 should be fine.
Instead of speculating about whether it will work well or not, you need to set it up and try your typical work flow. That is the only way you will know for sure if performance is acceptable or not.
For Time Machine, you should use a single 1.5TB drive. It is likely that by the time your backup needs comes close to exceeding that space, you will be able to buy a 3TB (or larger) single drive for the same cost. Also, I would not trust a RAID where the interaction between the two drives is through two USB cables and a hub. If your primary storage drive fails, you need your backup to be something that is simple and reliable.
Oh, and there should be no problem with the adapter, if you already have it and it works.
Edit: If those two external drives came formatted for Windows, make sure you have use Disk Utility Partition tab to repartition and reformat the drive. When you select the drive in the Disk Utility sidebar, at the bottom of the screen +Partition Map Scheme+ should say *GUID Partition Table*. When you select the volume under the drive in the sidebar, Format should say *Mac OS Extended (Journaled)*.

Copying between XServer RAIDs problem

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