Assigning XSAN MDC to a RAID controller

In reading the XSan administration guide, it specifies that you should assign data LUNS to each controller for balance. So LUN 1 goes to controller (A) LUN 2 goes to controller (B) LUN 3 Goes to controller (A) LUN 4 goes to contoller (B)
I am looking at my current set up that was installed by an integrator and all of the Data LUNS are assigned to one controller (A) and the MetaData LUN is assigned to LUN (B). I also noticed that Force Read Ahead is disabled on both controllers.
I am having some performance issues and plan on running a file system correct when I can take the XSan offline. Since I will be taking it down, and these settings appear incorrect... I was wondering if I should change the Controller assignments for the LUNS and enable Forced Read Ahead?
Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Ray

The VTrak config scripts in Apple's KB all have LUNs divided evenly between controllers. See the scripts in articles linked from Promise VTrak: Configuring for optimal performance. I'm not sure if the x30 VTrak built in scripts do the same thing.
Re Forced Read Ahead see this guidance in http://kb.promise.com/Attachment378.aspx:
• Controller Settings, Forced Read Ahead: Enable or Disable (aggressive pre-fetch)
o Controller Forced Read Ahead should be enabled for large block sequential access such as rich
media type applications
o Controller Forced Read Ahead should be disabled for Random IO type applications
You should test with each enabled to see which works better for you.

Similar Messages

Had to replace Xserve RAID controller and now I get Xsan Admin: ERROR: duplicate LUN label RAID1-Left1

I need some help, I had one of my five Xserve RAID boxes fail. The upper controller card needed to be replaced and so we replaced it. But now only one of my volumes is loading and I am seeing the following error in my Console.
7/18/12 9:23:18.550 AM Xsan Admin: ERROR: duplicate LUN label RAID1-Left1
This raid box holds three LUNs. the left is split into two with one being the metadata / Journal for the main volume and the 2nd being the same for my secondary volume. The right side of this box is the second volume while the remaining 4 RAID boxes are my main volume. Here is the rub, the main volume is using the left1 LUN and the secondary is left2. The left2 is the one that is not working and when I go into the LUN info the WWN number does not match the actual id on the raid box.
HELP!!!!
Thanks,
Kevin Rosenthal

Did you try turning it off and on again? I mean, the full SAN shutdown/startup: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4027
You're probably seeing "duplicate LUN labels" because the MDC has seen two LUNs with the same label but different serial numbers since it has been online. The serial number (which I think is based off the WWN) would have changed when the RAID controller changed. A reboot should fix that specific error message.
If the volume still doesn't start after rebooting, then you would want to check the cvlog for that volume.

Xserve raid brocade switch, do I need xsan for multiple xserve raid with one gbic hba?

So I have 3 xserve raids. I would like to mount all 6 volumes on a single server with a 2 port hba. I have a brocade silkworm 3200, however the raid volumes will not mount. The only thing I can think of is do i need xsan to accomplish this? Initially I gathered it would be like additional resources on a normally data switch bu that does not seem to be the case.
Thanks in advance for any assistance.

No, you don't need XSAN for this. XSAN is for connecting one or more RAID units to more than one host. Since you only have one host, XSAN isn't an issue.
You may need to look more closely at the switch configuration. Mac OS X doesn't support multipath (at least last time I checked), so you'll need to make sure that you're either using just one link from the server, or that you've setup zoning in the switch so that each link from the server sees a subset of the RAID volumes (e.g. three RAID volumes mapped to each link to the server).
You may also need to check the RAID configurations to make sure you're not using LUN masking (a feature of earlier firmware versions).
One test here would be to connect the server directly to each RAID controller in turn and see if you see the appropriate volumes. The chances are you do, which points back to the switch configuration being the issue.

Sil3114 RAID controller

I recently installed a sata raid controller in my new solaris 10 box. It is based on the sil-3114 chipset. Unfortunatly Solaris does not recognize either of the sata drives that are connected to it. When I do prtconf -pv the device shows up (I think) with the following information:
Node 0x000012
assigned-addresses: 81024810.00000000.00009000.00000000.00000008.81024814.00000000.00009400.00000000.00000004.81024818.00000000.00009800.00000000.00000008.8102481c.00000000.00009c00.00000000.00000004.81024820.00000000.0000a000.00000000.00000010.82024824.00000000.fa009000.00000000.00000400.82024830.00000000.00000000.00000000.00080000
reg: 00024800.00000000.00000000.00000000.00000000.01024810.00000000.00000000.00000000.00000008.01024814.00000000.00000000.00000000.00000004.01024818.00000000.00000000.00000000.00000008.0102481c.00000000.00000000.00000000.00000004.01024820.00000000.00000000.00000000.00000010.02024824.00000000.00000000.00000000.00000400.02024830.00000000.00000000.00000000.00080000
compatible: 'pci1095,3114.1095.6114.2' + 'pci1095,3114.1095.6114' + 'pci1095,6114' + 'pci1095,3114.2' + 'pci1095,3114' + 'pciclass,010400' + 'pciclass,0104'
model: 'RAID controller'
power-consumption: 00000001.00000001
66mhz-capable:
fast-back-to-back:
devsel-speed: 00000001
interrupts: 00000001
max-latency: 00000000
min-grant: 00000000
subsystem-vendor-id: 00001095
subsystem-id: 00006114
unit-address: '9'
class-code: 00010400
revision-id: 00000002
vendor-id: 00001095
device-id: 00003114
name: 'pci1095,6114'
I am unable to find additional information on what I have to do to use this controller. What am I missing here?
Thank you for your help.

ok, I gave devfsadm a shot. Nothing spectacular happened.
I also peaked in /var/adm/messages and got the following:
May 12 13:30:10 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 935449 kern.info]      ATA DMA off: disabled. Control with "atapi-cd-dma-enabled" property
May 12 13:30:10 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 882269 kern.info]      PIO mode 4 selected
May 12 13:30:10 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 935449 kern.info]      ATA DMA off: disabled. Control with "atapi-cd-dma-enabled" property
May 12 13:30:10 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 882269 kern.info]      PIO mode 4 selected
May 12 13:30:10 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 935449 kern.info]      ATA DMA off: disabled. Control with "atapi-cd-dma-enabled" property
May 12 13:30:10 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 882269 kern.info]      PIO mode 4 selected
May 12 13:30:10 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 773945 kern.info]      UltraDMA mode 5 selected
I then tried enabling ATA DMA mode using eeprom atapi-cd-dma-enabled=1 and on reboot the message changed to the following:
May 12 14:30:01 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 773945 kern.info]      UltraDMA mode 2 selected
May 12 14:30:01 pbfs01 last message repeated 2 times
May 12 14:30:01 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 773945 kern.info]      UltraDMA mode 5 selected
The full /var/adm/messages file is as follows:
May 12 14:46:01 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: rsm0
May 12 14:46:01 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] rsm0 is /pseudo/rsm@0
May 12 14:46:01 pbfs01 pcplusmp: [ID 637496 kern.info] pcplusmp: lp (ecpp) instance 0 vector 0x7 ioapic 0x2 intin 0x7 is bound to cpu 0
May 12 14:46:01 pbfs01 isa: [ID 202937 kern.info] ISA-device: ecpp0
May 12 14:46:01 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] ecpp0 is /isa/lp@1,378
May 12 14:46:01 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: devinfo0
May 12 14:46:01 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] devinfo0 is /pseudo/devinfo@0
May 12 14:46:01 pbfs01 pci: [ID 370704 kern.info] PCI-device: pci10de,e2@b, pci_pci0
May 12 14:46:01 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] pci_pci0 is /pci@0,0/pci10de,e2@b
May 12 14:46:01 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: pseudo1
May 12 14:46:01 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] pseudo1 is /pseudo/zconsnex@1
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 773945 kern.info]      UltraDMA mode 2 selected
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 last message repeated 2 times
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 773945 kern.info]      UltraDMA mode 5 selected
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 pcplusmp: [ID 637496 kern.info] pcplusmp: asy (asy) instance 0 vector 0x4 ioapic 0x2 intin 0x4 is bound to cpu 0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 isa: [ID 202937 kern.info] ISA-device: asy0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] asy0 is /isa/asy@1,3f8
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 pcplusmp: [ID 398438 kern.info] pcplusmp: asy (asy) instance #1 vector 0x3 ioapic 0x2 intin 0x3 is bound to cpu 0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 isa: [ID 202937 kern.info] ISA-device: asy1
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] asy1 is /isa/asy@1,2f8
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: ramdisk1024
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] ramdisk1024 is /pseudo/ramdisk@1024
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: lockstat0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] lockstat0 is /pseudo/lockstat@0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: llc10
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] llc10 is /pseudo/llc1@0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: fcp0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] fcp0 is /pseudo/fcp@0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: fcsm0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] fcsm0 is /pseudo/fcsm@0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: lofi0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] lofi0 is /pseudo/lofi@0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: profile0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] profile0 is /pseudo/profile@0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: systrace0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] systrace0 is /pseudo/systrace@0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: fbt0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] fbt0 is /pseudo/fbt@0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: sdt0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] sdt0 is /pseudo/sdt@0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: fasttrap0
May 12 14:46:03 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] fasttrap0 is /pseudo/fasttrap@0
May 12 14:46:04 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: fssnap0
May 12 14:46:04 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] fssnap0 is /pseudo/fssnap@0
May 12 14:46:04 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: winlock0
May 12 14:46:04 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] winlock0 is /pseudo/winlock@0
May 12 14:46:04 pbfs01 pseudo: [ID 129642 kern.info] pseudo-device: pm0
May 12 14:46:04 pbfs01 genunix: [ID 936769 kern.info] pm0 is /pseudo/pm@0
May 12 14:46:04 pbfs01 ipf: [ID 774698 kern.info] IP Filter: v4.0.2, running.
(sorry for the long post)
Still no drives in smc or after issuing a format command.

Tiered Storage Spaces with LSI RAID Controller 9260-8i (no JBOD) - Performance Drop

Hello
I have a Lab-Server with a LSI-Raid-Controller 9260-8i and 2x 256GB SSDs / 6x 600GB HDDs. First I configured the LSI-Raid-Controller with a RAID 1 (2x 600GB HDD) and installed
Windows Server 2012 R2 with Hyper-V Role on this RAID 1. This works just fine. Then I configured the LSI-Raid-Controller with additional 6x "Raid 0 Drive Groups" where each Drive Group has one single physical drive
in it. And then I created 6 virtual drives out of these 6 Drive Groups. So far so good: my Windows Server 2012 R2 now sees 6 new Harddrives (4x 600GB HDD and 2x 256GB SSD). I then created a Storage Pool out of these 6 drives (with PowerShell /
assign MediaType SSD/HDD) and on top of the Storage Pool a "Tiered Storage Space" with Mirror Layout (2x 256GB SSDs mirrored and 2x2x 600GBs HDD mirrored). This gives me a Tiered Storage Space of about 1.3TB. On this Storage
Space I created a Virtual Drive of 1.3TB capacity. Success!! It seems to work fine.... Even I do not have a Storage-Controller supporting JBOD directly, I was able to create a Tiered Storage Space!!
Now where's the problem? Fine-Tuning the LSI-Raid-Controller Settings and the resulting
Disk Performance....
1) LSI-Raid-Controller: Virtual Drive Properties: What should I choose? Read Policy (Ahead or no) / Write Policy (Write Back with BBU or Write Through) / IO Policy (Direct IO or cached IO) / Disk Cache Policy (enable or disabled or unchanged)
/ Stripe Size (256 KB or ??). Do these settings conflict with the Windows Server Storage Space Layout?
2) Windows Server Disk Management (under "Disk XY"): Write Cache Policy? (activate Write Cache on this Device)
3) Windows Server Device Manager (under "Drives" - Microsoft Storage Space Device): Write Cache Policy? (activate Write Cache on this Device)
4) Performance - Results with Crystal Disk Mark: the inital Results after setting up the Storage were quite good (Seq R: 550 MB/s and W: 590 MB/s // 512K R: 490MB/s and W: 618 MB/s // 4K R: 18MB/s and W: 37 MB/s // 4KQD32
R:270 MB/s and W:37 MB/S) But 2 months later the values dropped to: Seq R: 290 MB/s and W: 170 MB/s // 512K R: 120MB/s and W: 239 MB/s // 4K R: 1.5MB/s and W: 31 MB/s // 4KQD32 R: 9 MB/s and W: 71 MB/S). Huge loss of performance
- SSD full?
5) Since this is a Hyper-V Server I put some VMs on it. The Performance within the VMs has also dropped accordingly. Are there any
best practices when placing VHDX-Files on a Tired Storage Space? I could of course assign one or two VHDX-Files directly to the SSD Tier, but actually I don't want that because that would use too much SSD-Space.
Any Experts on this Subject?
Mark

Hi Mark,
For the settings of the Raid Controller, it is better to confirm with manufacturer for detailed information. As you said these settings will affect with storage space settings.
From the description you set the 6 disks as 6 RAID0 groups. Is it supported to leave these disks as JBOD and directly add them into a storage space? If Raid settings will affect storage space performance, this could help us avoiding the RAID settings.
As data is already written onto the virtual disk, we may not available to recreate it. You could have a try with following PowerShell cmdlet to see if it will work better after optimize.
Optimize-Volume -DriveLetter X -TierOptimize
If you have any feedback on our support, please send to [email protected]

Help Installing RAID Controller Driver

Solaris Express 11 live CD cannot find drives('format' output says "no drives found")
After booting up from Solaris Express 11 live CD,there is a message "Some device drivers cannot be found".
After clicking Device Driver Utility there are two storage related items in the list with 'missing drivers':
PromiseTechnology PDC20575 SATAII150 TX2plus
Intel Corporation 631xESB/632xESB SATA RAID Controller
There is an option to install 'PromiseTechnology' driver,I clicking 'install',after a while it says "Installed successfully" but 'format' still cannot find anything.
The details for both items are below. How do I continue installation from this point ????
Many Thanks.
Driver URL:
node name: pci8086,3473
Vendor: Intel Corporation
Device: 631xESB/632xESB SATA RAID Controller
Sub-Vendor: Intel Corporation
binding name: pci8086,3473
devfs path: /pci@0,0/pci8086,3473
pci path: 0,1f,2
compatible name:
(pci8086,2682.8086.3473.9)(pci8086,2682.8086.3473)(pci8086,3473)(pci8086,2682.9)(pci8086,2682)(pciclass,010400)(pciclass,0104)
driver name: unknown
acpi-namespace: SB.PCI0.IDE1
assigned-addresses: 8100fa10
reg: fa00
compatible: pci8086,2682.8086.3473.9
model: RAID controller
power-consumption: 1
66mhz-capable: TRUE
fast-back-to-back: TRUE
devsel-speed: 1
interrupts: 2
max-latency: 0
min-grant: 0
subsystem-vendor-id: 8086
subsystem-id: 3473
unit-address: 1f,2
class-code: 10400
revision-id: 9
vendor-id: 8086
device-id: 2682
Driver URL:solaris
node name: pci105a,3d75
Vendor: Promise Technology, Inc.
Device: PDC20575 (SATAII150 TX2plus)
Sub-Vendor: Promise Technology, Inc.
binding name: pci105a,3d75
devfs path:
/pci@0,0/pci8086,25f7@2/pci8086,350c@0,3/pci105a,3d75
pci path: 5,1,0
compatible name:
(pci105a,3d75.105a.3d75.2)(pci105a,3d75.105a.3d75)(pci105a,3d75)(pci105a,3d75.2)(pci105a,3d75)(pciclass,018000)(pciclass,0180)
driver name: unknown
assigned-addresses: 81050810
reg: 50800
compatible: pci105a,3d75.105a.3d75.2
model: Mass storage controller
power-consumption: 1
66mhz-capable: TRUE
devsel-speed: 1
interrupts: 1
max-latency: 12
min-grant: 4
subsystem-vendor-id: 105a
subsystem-id: 3d75
unit-address: 1
class-code: 18000
revision-id: 2
vendor-id: 105a
device-id: 3d75

Hi:
See if this driver works...
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareDownloadIndex?softwareitem=ob-123851-1&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en...

K8T NEO FIS2R can't use the RAID controller....

I have this very strange issue.
As soon as I connect a harddisk to the Promise (378) controller of this board and assign it to an array, the system doesn't work like it should.
Symptoms:
- MS Windiag (a memory testing application) reports thousands of errors
- Memtestx86 causes a spontaneous reset within seconds
- I can try to install Windows, but the process never completes; during the installation everything works really really slow (partial XP installation takes over 2 hours!)
- Linux gives me a kernel panic while booting
My system specs:
- MSI K8T Neo FIS2R (bios 1.5)
- Athlon 3000+
- 2x 512MB PQI memory (tested with GEIL/Kingston/Infineon memory as well, the problem persists!)
- Radeon 9700
- Levicom PSU (34A RMS on 12V line) (also tried Enermax 460W and Antec tru power 480W)
- 2x WD Raptor 36Gb (RAID 0 array 1)
- 2x Maxtor Diamond plus (RAID 0 array 2)
- 4x optical drive
I just can't figure out what's going on here... if I don't use the onboard RAID controller everything is fine.... but I need it for my two arrays... (besides that, it should work, shouldn't it?).
Is this perhaps just a bug in the BIOS of my system? If so... MSI please resolve this issue, my computer is worthless for the time being.. :(

Quote
Originally posted by Bas
Try this version of Memtest86.
YAY! This memory tester seems to work correctly..!
If I put a single module (PQI memory) in DDR slot 1 I get loads of errors. In slot 2 and 3 they work just fine. When combining two modules, using slot 2 and 3, I still get some errors (32, all above 1000Mb)... but it's the best I can get out of my 1Gb.
Is it safe to assume that this is a compatbility issue that can be fixxed by buying some supported memory?

RAID controller on G4; problems... is RAID dead? Help please!

Hey.
Here's the deal... Our graphics department has a MAC G4 (fully upgraded. newest patches, OS, etc.) that's got a 4 port SATA RAID controller. They use this with four 750GB hard drives as an external RAID (the OS is on a seperate, 65GB hard drive). The way it's set up, through Apple's OS, is we have the four 750GBs in pairs... those pairs are striped, and then the two sets of striped 750s are mirrored. This has worked just fine for a number of months, but we recently had a power surge, and now we're unable to mount "Monkey" (the name of the 1.4TB array).
See the below screenshots for more clarification.
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/raidsetup.JPG
This shows the RAID card, and the four SATA cables coming out of it.
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside1.JPG
As you can see in this and the below screenshots, this shows the 1.4TB Striped set as 'online', but the two below (the two 750GB hard drives) show up as "offline".
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside2.JPG
this shows the actual drive i click on. same thing
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside3a.JPG
If i click the entire array, you can see how it's set up (the Mirrored RAID set consisting of the two Striped RAID sets). The RAID sets (all 3 of them) are showing up as online, yet the drives are offline. No idea why. The drives are all powered, and are spinning, and plugged in.
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside3b.JPG
when you click "Monkey Drive", nothing shows up in it. i don't remember if anything ever used to. if you click 'mount', nothing happens.
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside4.JPG
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside5.JPG
this shows the exact same problem as the first RAID set.
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/verifyRAIDset1.JPG
If you try to Verify the RAID set, it shows that no repairs are necessary
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/verifymonkey.JPG
If you try to verify Monkey, you get a "Volume Needs Repair" error... but when you try to repair it, you get this:
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/repairmonkey.JPG
Really need help; this is a pretty critical problem. Someone that's familar with RAID solutions on MACs please help me out. We can't risk losing any data if at all possible.
Thanks
~Lorenzo

have you gotten this to work yet ?? if not let me know
-d

Hard drive configuration with Promise Raid controller

I plan on running two 30 gig 75GXP drives on the Promise controller in Raid-0 mode. I also have a 60 gig WD drive that I use for backups and for initial installation. During installation, I put the Win98SE setup files and all the drivers, apps, backup data, etc. on the WD drive and do a clean install from there.
My current (old) board is an Abit KT7-R with the Highpoint raid controller. Using the Highpoint controller, I am able to put the WD drive as a slave device and the controller treats it as a normal IDE drive. I'm moving to the 845 Ultra ARU. From what I've read, if you put a single drive on the Promise controller, it tries to set it up as a Raid drive? I don't want to risk losing my backup data on the WD drive to some attempt by the Promise controller to "raid" my single drive. So, where is the best place to put my WD drive so that I can install my system from it? I'm thinking about putting it as Master on IDE2. I normally run my CD as Master on IDE1. Once the installation is complete, I will remove the installation files from the WD drive and use it exclusively for backups. I have the WD drive in a Vantec EZ-Swap rack, and I normally keep it powered off unless doing a backup.
So, the plan is to create the Raid-0 array, Fdisk and format the array, and then load Windows from the WD drive, followed by all my applications. Is Master on IDE-2 the best solution for the WD drive?

hi
not very clued up on raid but it sounds right
if the wd drive is on its own on that ide do not jumper
as master you have to have no jumpers if all alone

Unknown Raid 5 Array after Raid controller replaced

Hello,
I had a raid controller fail during the week, and after shutting the xraid down and installing the new controller, all the drives in the array are now amber.
In Raid Admin 1.5 the array does not show up, only all 6 member drives with an amber warning and 'Type: Unknown Array'.
I used the 'Recognize Array' utility to try and fix this, however whilst each drive shows as being recognized as being part of a Raid 5 set, it will not recreate it.
Am I completely screwed? or is there some other way to get this to repair/recognize?
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Mark

Due to time restrictions on getting the xraid back online, had to recreate the raid and restore data from backup.
No fix found.

G5 Xserve Harware RAID controller - do all drives have to be connected?

Hi,
I am installing a hardware RAID controller into a G5 Xserve. The machine has three drives in it - one 80 GB drive module that has just the operating system installed on it, and two 500 GB drive modules that are currently configured as a RAID 1 array via software. I am aware that I have to reformat the drives after installing the RAID controller, and I have taken appropriate steps for backing the data up. My question, however, is if I will have to attach all three drives to the RAID controller, or whether I can leave the 80 GB module separate (the preferred configuration). Thanks.

Watch out for the firmware bug on the Apple Hardware RAID - doesn't always fully flush write caches on graceful power down (disconnects from the drives before the caches are fully flushed). I turned in a RADAR bug report in November 2005 (RADAR # 4350243), still open. It was a very difficult bug to pin down and create a reproducible test case - causes mystery garbage blocks from space, especially hard to get reproducible results because of the way RAID 5 works on reads. LSI Logic fixed this bug after Apple's code split from the LSI firmware code (the Apple Hardware RAID card is a rebranded LSI Logic megaraid card with Apple firmware), but it seems unlikely that Apple will ever fix this bug because the Xserve G5 and Apple Hardware RAID card are both EOL.
Only known workaround of which I am aware is to disable write cache on all LUNs.
Russ
Xserve G5 2.0 GHz 2 GB RAM Mac OS X (10.4.8) Apple Hardware RAID, ATTO UL4D, Exabyte VXA-2 1x10 1u

Shopping For A RAID Controller

I have seen the Areca brand name on here many times, so I assume they are the best for what we do. But, there are so many models that I have no idea what to look for. I probably won't ever have more than 4 or 6 storage drives plus an SSD system drive. Maybe a couple of external drives and an NAS.
If I have Windows 7 64-bit
i7-2600k processor
ASUS P8P67 Pro motherboard
32 GB RAM 1600
GeForce GTX 580 Amp! from Zotac
AX850 PSU from Corsair
Every component is reasonably fast, bu I am sick of the senseless limitations of this mootherboard. My drives are aging so they need to be replaced.
Which specs are important for video editing? Which brand and models are most popular and shoould I wait for some new release?
Another thought - If a RAID controller is over $400 US, Is it more cost-effective to upgrade to a more capable motherboard/processor with all the ports I need?

What to look for
Brand
Areca or LSI
Ports
8 or more
Card
PCIe-3.0 8x
Cache
512 MB or more
Multi-lane
SFF-8087/8088
Examples
Areca ARC-1882 series or LSI MegaRAID 9285
Warning: You have to realize that on your motherboard adding a dedicated raid controller will entail that your video card will throttle down from PCIe-16x to PCIe-8x mode, resulting in a 10 - 15% performance penalty, due to limitations of the chipset. A dedicated raid controller, especially with around 6 disks always outperforms an on-board raid by a wide margin. To see some benchmark results, look here: Reflections
To see what meets your requirements, also consider the raid level you want to use. If raid3 or raid30, then LSI is out. You can check out what controllers are popular here: Detailed Results but you have to be registered and logged in to access the page.

"Waiting for RAID Controller F/W to become ready..."

Hello
Lately I have been getting this message more often than not -- before Windows 7 (not) booting: "Waiting for RAID Controller F/W to become ready..."
Any suggestions?
I have a
Areca ARC-1680D-IX 12-ports SAS RAID
Thanks
Rowby

We sell and use these now:
http://www.intel.com/products/server/raid-controllers/RS2BL080/RS2BL080-overview.htm
http://www.intel.com/products/server/raid-controllers/RS2PI008/RS2PI008-overview.htm
But they have more here: http://www.intel.com/products/server/raid/index.htm
They also use LSI chips like Areca and Atto.
Eric
ADK

K8N master2-far doesn't detect Areca 1220 raid controller

Today i purchased the last components for my system. Everything works perfectly except for my Areca 1220 8x pci-e raid controller. As i feared the controller is nowhere to be seen, not in the bios, not in windows. I already had bios version v1.10 but flashed the bios version on the msi site anyway. Nothing changed. On the msi site under "QVL" i see my Areca at the bottom of the list. Does that mean that this MB can work with this controller? What must i do to make it work? I think i have to see it at least in the bios!
Your help is appreciated. Now 5x 300 GB of storage is doing nothing.

Quote from: Bas on 10-November-05, 20:30:00
Maybe you need to update the cards firmware.
I already looked into that matter and found out that the only way to upgrade the firmware or bios is to use their http tool McRAID Storage Manager. This of course is done in windows. Now windows doesn't see my Areca 1200 and so McRAID doesn't see it either. I can't update my Areca.
This problem is well known by the motherboard manufacturers. Let me quote something from the Areca site:
Q10150407 - Is there any socket 939 motherboards that work with your model ARC-1210 raid controller? In a SLI board I would use one 16x slot for Graphics card.
Our PCIe ARC-12xx series controller uses Intel IOP332/333 processor. The Intel high performance IOP (IOP331/332/333) has integrated the bridge chip in the controller. But the original NVIDIA nForce4 SLI chipset BIOS has the problem after Bridge IRQ routing. All controllers use Intel new IOP 332/333, such as Areca, Intel, and LSI have the same IRQ routing problem. Those NVIDIA 939 M/Bs can be worked in the Windows environment. Due to the Windows system takes over the BIOS job, and Linux & FreeBSD need to use the M/B BIOS, so it has problem with our PCIe controller.
Currently, DFI, Ausu, MSI and Gigabyte have BIOS to solve the problem. If you have problem in this kind of mainboard, please try to manufacture latest BIOS.
We have tested DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI & ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe, and Asus A8N-SLI Premium. It works very well with our firmware 1.38 and newest mainboard BIOS. Try to swap the graphic and our controller, if you find some warm boot problem in the Asus A8N-SLI Premium.
I still think i need an updated bios for the k8n master2-far (ms-9620). The fact remains that there are problems reported with every SLI motherboard. I knew this already from the socket 939 platforms. I was sceptical about the k8n master2-far but thought that a server MB should have no problems. I did ask a question about this however at the shop where i bought this MB. I even found an reply from you to another user who had similar concerns about the Areca controllers and an SLI MB. You said that it should not be a problem. Even so i always kept the possibily open that this problem can happen. And here i am
Thanks for your help. More input is always appreciated as i am still waiting for an answer from MSI in the Netherlands about this problem. Right now my server is doing nothing. I hope my raid controller will work very soon.

Solaris 10 on an HP DL180 G6 server with P410 Raid Controller.

This is an informational post to try and save people some of the pain that my colleague Joe and I have just gone through to get Solaris 10 installed!
The DL180 G6 is an interesting box. It uses the latest Nehalem processors, and can support up to 12 x 3.5" old school high density 15k RPM drives. This is pretty unique in the industry. However, here is what you need to know -
- The P410 raid controller must have memory if you want to present all 12 drives down as JBOD to solaris to be managed via ZFS. i.e. order the P410/256. If you order the P410/ZM you will only be able to create a maximum of 2 arrays which will be seen as disks by Solaris.
- The P410 requires a driver that doesn't exist on the DL180 G6 driver page at HP. If you look under the DL585 G6 page you will find the solaris driver you need. [HP DL585 G6 storage driver page|http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=3949980&prodNameId=3949981&swEnvOID=2023&swLang=13&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=MTX-f490e7c0f736457c92229f7e8c]
- The network card is a NC362i. This is intel based and referenced by this Solaris patch - [patch ID = 138175-02|http://sunsolve.sun.com/search/document.do?assetkey=1-21-138175-02-1]. The latest solaris 10 release (u7) doesnt contain the drivers for this card. You will have to add this patch separately. When added and recofigure rebooted etc etc, the device can be plumbed as igb0.
Hopefully this helps someone out!
Edited by: foobar50 on Jul 31, 2009 8:27 AM

Hi, try this out - it helped me some time ago:
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5081926
HTH,

Assigning XSAN MDC to a RAID controller

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