HD and Mac Pro - Optimal RAID configuration?

I'm fairly new to RAID, but have done a fair amount of reading over the past few weeks. I currently only have 1 external drive setup as mirrored RAID (1.5TB).
I do a lot of HD video work (as well as a lot of PShop/Illustrator/AE) and just ordered a new Mac Pro (to arrive in a few weeks). I'm curious to know what you may suggest configuring my system like with the following components. I don't want to have to buy anything else right now, nor do I think that I'll have to.
I've got:
1. New Mac Pro with RAID card and 4 identical SAS 300GB internal drives (no, didn't order those all from Apple)
2. An external 1.5 TB WD drive
3. Two external 500GB WD drives
Of course, I want the best of both worlds of speed and redundancy. I had been considering RAID 5, but the more I thought about it, I thought maybe RAID 0 was the way on some of the drives, then create another array making use of the externals and/or Time Machine to take care of the redundancy. I have this super machine coming, and just want to be sure I'm making most efficient use of it all. Any opinions on how you'd set this up, very welcomed.
I typically work on short projects, I'm not a filmmaker. Client work is usually between 2-15 minutes per clip, and once its done, it can be archived. I've got a ton of old data and large photo library and all the space needs you may imagine with HD video and photography, but I'll certainly have room to spare and play with. How would you work with these 7 drives?

There is a significant difference between 'running incompatible' software and using a version that has some vestigial system checks. The software is quite capable of running as it should. The issue I experienced has nothing to do with the factors that make it not supported (which is significantly different than incompatible). While your statement is true, its not properly applied. Fact is, FCP HD is NOT incompatible with the Mac Pro.
The quick fix of ignoring the scratch location did the job. Taking that option vs spending money has nothing to do with wisdom, rather discernment. It runs just fine now, cost me nothing to get it running, and isn't something I have a huge need for anyway. So this somewhat pretentious attitude isn't needed.

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HT201380 keep having scrolling problems with Maverick on both iMac and Mac Pro despite downloading mail software update

Have scrolling problems with Maverick despite downloading mail update on both IMAC and Mac Pro
Have to reboot and it helps for awhile then stalls again

The Mac OS X 10.4.7 Update introduced connection issues as a result of (according to the documentation) "Mail now supports connecting to mail servers through a SOCKS proxy". This probably has nothing to do with your problem, but it'd be worth going to System Preferences > Network and making sure the SOCKS Proxy is not enabled in the network configuration used to connect to the Internet.
Also, it looks like the crashes you're talking about are actually freezes, i.e. Mail becomes unresponsive rather than quitting unexpectedly. In Mail, open Window > Activity Viewer, and see whether Mail displays there what it's doing when it freezes. Actually, you may be able to avoid having to force quit Mail by canceling whatever it's doing (by clicking on the red stop icon of the activity).
Reinstalling Mail will probably accomplish nothing, but it might be worth reinstalling the Combo Update for the type of machine and the version of Mac OS X you're using (which you would have to do anyway if you wanted to reinstall Mail):
Mac OS X 10.4.7 Combo Update for Intel
Take a look at the following articles for guidelines on how to properly install system updates:
Troubleshooting installation and software updates
Installing software updates
Basically, you should verify/repair the startup disk before installing the update, and no applications should be running while installing it.

Mac PRo with raid card shipped with drive not suitable for raid?

Hi all,
I ordered a Mac Pro with raid card and a 1TB hard drive. The drive which came in the computer was WDC WD1001FALS which is not a hard drive rated for raid usage. On Western Digital's site they suggest using WD1002FBYS.
Is the model WD1001FALS the correct drive which Apple ships although one ordered the raid card?

The WD 640GB Blue, and WD 1TB Black are the only drive options for the mac pro; that's what you choose.
The RE3 (or FBYS) is not an option sold through apple. Buying the raid card, is not going to change the drive.
On whether to use the RE3 over the Blacks, it depends on how you will be using it. From what I've heard, the Blacks are enterprise drives themselves; basically with just a less robust firmware (no TLER). If you will have the drives on 24/7 in a raid 5, then yes, RE3 will probably be better. If not, I think the black will suffice; note the blacks are GREAT drives by themselves anyway.
The apple raid card can connect to both SATA and SAS drives internally, however most times people buying the raid card want to use it for SAS drives. There are a lot more cheaper and possibly a lot more stable options then apple's raid card if you are looking to use SATA drives.
Check amug:
http://www.amug.org/
A common problem with the apple raid card is the battery:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MA849Z/B?mco=NDc1ODczNw
Lastly about enterprise drives, truthfully I don't see the difference really. I have enterprise drives in a 8-drive raid5 config running 24/7 as a server. 2 drives died on me after about 4 months. To top it off, they died within 10 min of each other, crushing the raid to pieces. Granted they were Seagate ES.2's, it's understandable
The boot drive of the server is a stock desktop WD drive and running 24/7. It's been running for almost 4 years straight.

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If you have a mac pro, why not stick the external HDD inside via one of your many SATA cables & have it run 9 times faster than your USB?
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The Mac Pro - the desktop computer - does not support Airdrop, if that's what you mean.
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http://web.mac.com/jerimydulay/Site/MyAlbums/Pages/Lacie_FirewireMIDI.html
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SADLY not as i downloaded an upgrad to my original PAGES/
i have in the meantim had to open www.icloud. then from there import the file that i am working on and then check on ipad if it uploaded/ yes it did.
but what a waste of time as it doesn not save any changes done automatically back in the cloud....
i am now downloading the new LION and hope that it will fix the problem
i cant find any other way. I was lead to believe that you wrote, it saved automatically, on to the cloud, you then opened anohter device in anotother country even, and the new file was there, waiting, in its latest version.......
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Hi,
Just made the switch to Mac. Purchased my Mac Pro yesterday, loaded .Mac, and plugged in my iPhone to the computer. Followed the steps to Sync iCal and contacts from iPhone and although it is registering there is a phone and downloading photos, it is not syncing anything else.
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You use iTunes to sync an iPhone - not *.Mac Sync* or iSync.
*.Mac Sync* is for syncing between Macs, and iSync is for syncing third-party mobile phones and PDAs.
The iPhone specific forums are here:
http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=201

Mac Pro + XServer RAID + FCP2 + Configuration

Hello all. This is my first post here.
I will soon buy a MacPro por video editing on Final Cut Pro 2 and I was wondering if you could help sort out if the configuration I've chosen is the best.
I'll show you the configurations I thought first:
*Mac Pro*
- Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
- 4GB (4 x 1GB)
- Mac Pro RAID Card
- 2 x 500gb HDD
- ATI Radeon X1900 XT
- 20" Apple Cinema Display + 23" Apple Cinema HD Display
- Dual-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCIe
*XServer RAID*
- 2000GB ADM (4x500GB Ultra ATA)
- Cache Battery Back-up Modules
- Dual-channel 4Gb Fibre Channel PCIe
My idea:
A) The MAC Pro I'll be used for 3D rendering and video editing. I'll configure the 2x500GB with RAID1 (mirroring) for a fail safe env, leaving my with 500GB of available space
B) XServer RAID will be connected directly to the Mac Pro (for now) via the fiber optic cards and we'll provided additional storage.
C) For projects stored on the XServer RAID (videos for example) I must be able to access and edit directly with FCP2 without having to pass it to the Mac Pro
D) I was thinking of using RAID5 for XServer RAID configuration leaving me with 2.64 x 500GB (as described on support faqs) = 1.3 TB of disk space with a reasonable fail safe environment (RAID5 with 3 drives allows one drive to fail and offers a good recovery rate).
OK. My questions:
1) Is my MacPro config enough for FCP2 + 3D Rendering ?
2) Can I use the XServer RAID directly with Mac Pro or do I need aditional software / hardware?
3) Can I connect the fiber optic from one board to the other without using the router? (on google the answers I found were very vague...)
4) Is the RAID5 the best choice (in terms of performance vs data recovery) for video editing. The RAID5 specs states that random writes to disk are slower that other RAID configs. Is RAID 50 (5+0) a better choice?
5) I opted for the 4 HDD config on XServer but I could change to a 7 HDD config for a similar total space.
I'm sorry for the long post, but I can't find anywhere suitable information about this questions.
Hope to hear from you.
Thanks in advance!

We have a ton of Xserve's and Xserve RAID's at my work. As of right now they're all directly connected to our servers with Fibre Channel cables (NOT fiber optic, totally different animal.) We finally just bought our first Fibre Channel switch to hookup five 10.5TB RAIDS and a huge tape loader for backups. The RAID's work perfectly when directly connected and are very fast. The only reason that you would need a Fibre Channel switch is if you want multiple machines to be able to access the array without using network shares.
I really don't think that just four drives will give you the performance that you're looking for. In order to get good performance out of a RAID5 you NEED as many spindles as you can get. If you're stuck to a budget if would probably go to smaller drives but get more of them. I think you've already discovered this but if you want to do a RAID5+0, you'll need to populate drives on both sides of the RAID as they are physically seperated.
As far as I know, you can only get Xserve RAID Drive Modules from Apple as they do some pretty intensive testing on every drive before they ship. You can't even buy empty modules, you can buy blanks but they don't include the required electronics.

HT1175 Using G-Raid to backup iMac and Mac Pro laptop

Has anyone atttempted to backup both machines to a Hitachi G-Raid with one partition? If they have, was it by direct USB 2.0 wire using AirPort Express for the Mac Pro and direct fire wire to the iMAC?
Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Len

leonardfromoshawa wrote:
To backup in the future requires hooking up each machine individually and using TM.
To do it that way, yes, but that's not your best bet.
First, having both sets of backups made directly, in the same partition, may present problems later on. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #4 for details.
Second, the inconvenience of switching back and forth means both Macs won't get regular backups. If you do switch frequently, there's the risk of damaging a port or plug.
Your best bet is to partition the drive. Continue backing-up the iMac to one partition directly. Leave the drive connected to the iMac, and back the laptop up to the other partition via your network. See Time Machine - Frequently Asked Question #33 for details, and #22 for setup instructions. That way, both will be backed-up hourly, as long as they're awake and the laptop is in range of your network.
Will my original question of using AirPort Express work
No. You cannot connect a drive to an Airport Express's USB port, only a printer.

Windows and Mac Pro w/ Apple RAID card

It happened i have a need to run Windows natively on Mac Pro with Apple RAID card installed.
I know there is no Windows driver for that card, but i had a hope to bypass RAID card via connecting of internal SATA drive directly to iPass(SSF-8087) connector of Mac Pro's motherboard and using of that drive for Windows.
So, i've connected SATA drive this way and it works fine with OS X.
But i can't even try it with Windows because Mac Pro doesn't boot up from Windows installation CD if Apple RAID card installed
Empty black text console is all that i've got after selecting of Windows installation CD in EFI boot menu.
I need a suggestion how to bypass my problem, or generally speaking, how to install Windows onto Mac Pro with Apple RAID card.

I've tried that.
Installation and booting of WinXP passed OK if RAID card removed.
But i've got black screen again trying to boot WinXP after RAID card re-installed.

MA849Z/B RAID card and Mac Pro 4,1 octocore

Hello,
is the Apple RAID card ref. MA849Z/B compatible with a Mac Pro octocore 4,1 (using Xeon 5500 if I am right) ref. MB535LL/A?

Hi-
The blue, Mac Pro RAID Card (MA849Z/B), is compatible with Mac Pro 3,1 and earlier.
The 2009 Mac Pro 4,1 uses the black, MB845Z/A card:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3514

Best Raid 0 for PS CS3 and Mac Pro

I am getting closer to ordering a new Mac Pro to run PS CS3 - and to drive 3 big Epson printers. I am leaning toward the dual-core 3.0 GHz as the results and speed for the 8 core with PS CS3 are still not known. It will have 6 to 8 GB of RAM (depends on my budget).
I want to make a machine that will do only PS CS3 - at the fastest possible rate. I have lots of other Macs for running other applications. I plan to order the Mac Pro with 1x 500MB hard drive - and add 2 smaller, but faster drives for the OS and for PS - and for the PS scratch/cache- and to put that on a Raid 0.
I am looking at getting 2 Raptor 150MB 10,000 RPM drives for the Raid 0. They can be small -maybe even just the 70MB versions -as I would only use them for booting OS and for running PS CS3. Images would be saved to a different disk. I have 10 external LaCie FW800 drives for image storage and backups. I will also use the 500MB drive that comes with the new Mac Pro for image storage - and maybe add a 4th similar 500 or 750MB drive for additional storage on the mac Pro itself.
My thought is that if I only have the OS and the PS on the Raid 0 a total failure would do little harm. I would not lose anything except maybe the image being worked on at the time of failure. The applications and OS could be rebuilt from the install CDs.
Is this a good plan? Is there another way to get maximum PS CS3 speed on the new Mac Pro?
Dual 2.7 G5, 2 intel iMacs, 1 MacBook, 1 Powerbook, 18 G4 Macs, 3 iPods Mac OS X (10.4.9) I teach Digital Photography clases - on Macs

Some considerations:
Ideally you want to use separate drives (or RAID volumes) for:
1. Mac OS X and Photoshop
2. Scratch space
3. Storage of images that you're processing
If you use a striped volume for the boot disk, then you'll have to keep another bootable disk to perform some firmware updates (firewire drives work well) - you'll want to do this anyway with a RAID 0...
Buy your RAM so that you can get the quad-channel performance...
If you are comfortable working inside the computer, you can also add a 5th/6th drive in the optical bay. To add one extra drive, you just need 5.25 drive mounting bracket. For two extra drives (or even 4) you can use this product:
http://www.maxupgrades.com/istore/index.cfm?fuseaction=product.display&product_i d=158
I found that an 18" SATA cable with elbow connectors is the best... you'll also want a 6" SATA power adapter (4pin-15pin)
My suggestion would be to add a 5th hard drive to the Mac Pro. That way, you could use (1) 150 GB raptor as the boot/PS disk, and then created TWO striped RAIDs with the 4 remaining disks. Perhaps (2) raptors for a scratch stripe, and (2) disks for users/storage. If your storage needs are less than 300 GB, then get 5 raptors...
If your LF Epson printers are firewire, then you'll want each to be on it's own firewire bus - get additional PCIe firewire cards as needed.
All of the drive recommendations above assume that you're doing daily (or more often) backups of any RAID 0 stripes that you create...
EDIT:
On second thought, you might want to stripe the boot drive for better printing performance (waiting for OS to write to the spool)... so perhaps add a 6th internal SATA disk and have 3 unique 300 GB (striped) volumes.

Final Cut Studio 7 and Mac Pro RAID recommendations

I have a Mac Pro (early 2008) with 4 x 750gb SATA drives and 1 Promise DS4600 eSATA, decked out with 4 x 1TB 7200 RPM drives.
I am considering the following setup for the disks. I am trying to make sure there is enough redundancy in the setup to survive a hard drive failure and enough performance to satisfy edit and uncompressed HD capture needs over a BlackMagic Intensity card (120mb/s required):
1 x 750gb RAID1 System Drive - Macintosh HD (internal drives 1 & 2), block size 32kb
1 x 750gb RAID1 for FCP Scratch - ScratchDisk (internal drives 3 & 4), block size 128kb
1 x 2tb RAID10 for FCP capture - FCP Capture (Promise DS4600), block size 128kb over eSATA
…purchase something for Time Machine backup or use CCC (external firewire800)
Anything I've missed or anything I should or should not do? Thanks for the input.

I know of audio folks that use mirror for live recording and editing, yes, but there they need multiple drives and to spread out their tracks and libraries and plug-ins, not HD video.
There are excellent RAID6 card setups that make sense. And stick with quality drives.
Audio high-end anyway use to mean SCSI and FibreChannel.
So yes, move project files to RAID6 would be a good move. And do 'torture' the drives to death - BEFORE they are used - for like a week at least, to work and break them in and iron out any bugs.
Use Enterprise RAID Enabled drives, stay off bleeding edge and use safe trusted and reliable equipment (drives, controller, software). One of the real "killers" is if you need new hardware, are forced into an OS that hasn't had a year of testing and your applications usually take 6-12 months (or more) to really be certified.
There aren't a lot of RAID6 controllers, but there are some, and some SAS/SATA.

HD and Mac Pro - Optimal RAID configuration?

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