Battery backed raid card
Hi,
I've been trying to determine whether there are any hardware raid cards with battery backed cache that are supported by Solaris 10 and offer online management and diagnostic utilities. The LSI Logic 320-2x (which is repackaged by Sun) is now supported by the lsimega driver, but there is little to no documentation for it (+broken links on sun.com).
Cards like this usually offer both BIOS-based configuration as well as online utilities. Some cards and the corresponding drivers may be managed using raidctl, but I cannot determine which cards and drivers.
If any body has links to documentation or personal experience that will enlighten me, it would be much appreciated.
Regards,
Michael
I was going to respond with my personal view, but this wikipedia page describes it adequately.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks:
"With a software implementation, the operating system manages the disks of the array through the normal drive controller (IDE, SCSI, Fibre Channel or any other). With present CPU speeds, software RAID can be faster than hardware RAID, though at the cost of using CPU power which might be best used for other tasks. One major exception is where the hardware implementation of RAID incorporates a battery backed-up write cache and an application, like a database server. In this case, the hardware RAID implementation flushes the write cache to a secure storage to preserve data at a known point if there is a crash. The hardware approach is faster and limited instead by RAM speeds, the amount of cache and how fast it can flush the cache to disk. For this reason, battery-backed caching disk controllers are often recommended for high transaction rate database servers. In the same situation, the software solution is limited to no more flushes than the number of rotations or seeks per second of the drives. Another disadvantage of a pure software RAID is that, depending on the disk that fails and the boot arrangements in use, the computer may not be able to be rebooted until the array has been rebuilt."
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RAID Card or Drive Failure ? ?
My Mac Pro with Apple RAID card will not boot to external FW800 or original install DVD if drives 2, 3, 4 are installed at the same time in any of the bays (i.e. gray screen, no apple, nothing).
If I remove or replace any one, or more, or remove all of drives 2, 3, 4 Mac Pro will boot to anything with an OS on it via Opt. key. I'm thinking if any one of drives 2, 3, 4 were bad and drawing too much power the same problem would present when drive 1 (J+ w/ OS) is substituted for any one of 2, 3, 4.
Replaced battery on RAID card no effect on problem. Passed Hardware Diagnostic on original Installer DVD. I'm thinking this has to be a RAID card issue. Do they go bad? Any opinions / suggestions would be greatly appreciated - Thank you,
John
My other related posts that document history of problem:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=13165862#13165862
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=13165864#13165864In hindsight... this was posted as part of 10.6.7 release fixes...
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3631 -
My Mac Pro with Apple RAID card will not boot to external FW800 or original install DVD if drives 2, 3, 4 are installed at the same time in any of the bays (i.e. gray screen, no apple, nothing). If I remove or replace any one, or more, or remove all of drives 2, 3, 4 Mac Pro will boot to anything with an OS on it via Opt. key. I'm thinking if any one of drives 2, 3, 4 were bad and drawing too much power the same problem would present when drive 1 (J+ w/ OS) is substituted for any one of 2, 3, 4. Replaced battery on RAID card no effect on problem. Passed Hardware Diagnostic on original Installer DVD. I'm thinking this has to be a RAID card issue. Do they go bad? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.
Software RAID?
No, I have an the Apple RAID card that came with the Mac Pro, factory installed. RAID set was created with Apple RAID Utility. About testing, D-Genius only does a random/sustained read/write. I like the looks of intech's suite, but just spent $$ on new, replacement SAS drive, they're still not cheap, even with the advent of SSDs. Anyway, I had saved a profile of the DG benchtest on the previous RAID volume. When I ran the new disk the results very closely parallel the previous profile very closely. Odd thing is that I'm not sure it was a hardware problem (bad disk). Once I introduced the new disk into the mix, I was able to also re-introduce the old suspected bad disk and it worked. Maybe a RAID fluke??? Maybe the disk was intermittently failing causing the RAID set to fall over? Maybe I'm just cursed....
If you're really board you can check out all the associated posts from when this debacle began:
http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=13165864#13165864
Anyhow, thanks for your help!
J. -
UCS C200 M2 - RAID Card R200-PL004 battery back-up
During the installation of a LSI 6G MegaRAID 9260-4i, I'm prompted with the statements "The battery is missing" and "Protect against data loss in the event of a server or power failure by providing emergency power to the cache memory."
Can anyone tell me if the battery back-up (R2XX-LBBU) for the LSI 6G MegaRAID 9260-4i (R200-PL004) is required or just simply a recommendation to prevent loss of data during a power failure? The ordering guide says "Battery Back-Up Option Available" so I'm assuming this is not a mandatory item for purchase.
Please advise.
Thanks,
CHello Chad,
BBU is optional.
C200 M2 technical spec sheet
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/ps10265/ps10493/c200m2_lff_specsheet.pdf
Please check out STEP 4 section.
HTH
Padma -
MacPro Raid Card w/ SAS Drives is battery required?
We have a MacPro (early 2008) dual 2.8 Quad with Mac Raid Card and 4 300g SAS drives. The battery became an issue early on it was always showing low on start-ups. Now it shows failed. I am now running system with 3 drives striped raid 0. Is the battery required to be replaced? I like this system for the speed it gives us on short HD, using my original media as the back-up. I am a little out of my league with the SAS drives so any opperation tips would be a plus! Thanx in advance....
The RAID card allows for the use of SAS drives or for the use of RAID 5 (which requires checksum calculation on writes and for data re-creation after a failure).
The battery assures that the data will be held in the RAID card's RAM until it can be written to the drives, even if a power failure occurs just after the data are written to the card (but before they are re-written to the drives).
Not using that feature? You don't need the battery.
Not using RAID 5 or SAS drives? You don't need the Apple RAID card. Disk Utility can set up Striped or Mirrored RAID sets. -
I replaced the battery on my RAID card, when I booted my mac pro up, I get the folder with the question mark. I used a boot USB drive to boot and when I looked in the RAID utility, my RAID 5 volumes were no longer showing, advise.
ErnestNot sure if I'm following you. I have 4 hard drives installed on my Mac Pro. I had a RAID 5 configured and functional for about 5 months. My battery died on the RAID card. I replaced the battery, seated the RAID card back in the slot I removed it from. When I booted to the USB drive to look in the RAID utility, I could see the battery is charged but my volumes are not showing.
The drives don't show in disk Utility. I built the RAID with the RAID Utility and they did show there. I have a early 2008 Mac Pro, Mavricks OS running Mac Server -
Apple Raid Card Battery Failed
Hey guys !
I have an early 2008 Mac Pro with a Raid Card and i get this message battery failure other than expired
actually i got this message again about an year or so back ... so yes it happened before ... Apple replaced my battery
Now im out of warranty coverage.
Questions are :
How does this affect my Raid Set ?
Can my Raid Set survive without the battery ?
If yes ... what are the downsides ?
What can i do to manage the situation without changing again the battery ?
Hope to get some advice soon on this matter
Thank you very much.
PS
Down below i pasted some specs for my machine
Mac Pro RAID Card:
PCI Slot: Slot-4
Hardware Version: 1.00
Firmware Version: M-2.0.5.5
Expansion ROM Version: 0018
Shutdown Status: Normal shutdown
Write Cache Enabled: No
Battery Info:
Firmware Revision: 1.0.2
First Installed: 1/1/01 2:16 AM
Last Date Conditioned: 2/24/12 3:47 PM
State: Faulted Battery
Fault: Battery failed (other than expired)
Status:
Charging: No
Conditioning: No
Connected: Yes
Discharging: No
Sufficient Charge: No
Drives:
Bay 1:
Product ID: ST3300655SS
Serial Number: 3LM35BGK00009827PBXY
Firmware Revision: A005
Type: SAS
SMART Status: Unsupported
Capacity: 300 GB (299,999,999,488 bytes)
RAID Sets: RS1
Status:
Assigned: Yes
Failed: No
Foreign: No
Missing: No
Reliable: Yes
Roaming: No
Spare: No
Bay 2:
Product ID: ST3300655SS
Serial Number: 3LM622YT00009923HP5Q
Firmware Revision: A005
Type: SAS
SMART Status: Unsupported
Capacity: 300 GB (299,999,999,488 bytes)
RAID Sets: RS1
Status:
Assigned: Yes
Failed: No
Foreign: No
Missing: No
Reliable: Yes
Roaming: No
Spare: No
Bay 3:
Product ID: ST3300655SS
Serial Number: 3LM2Y49T00009827PAZV
Firmware Revision: A005
Type: SAS
SMART Status: Unsupported
Capacity: 300 GB (299,999,999,488 bytes)
RAID Sets: R0-3
Status:
Assigned: Yes
Failed: No
Foreign: No
Missing: No
Reliable: Yes
Roaming: No
Spare: No
RAID Sets:
R0-3:
RAID Level: Enhanced JBOD
Capacity: 299.8 GB (299,798,364,160 bytes)
Available Capacity: Zero KB
Drives: Bay 3
Volumes: Vol-R0-3
Status: Viable (Good)
RS1:
RAID Level: 0
Capacity: 599.73 GB (599,730,946,048 bytes)
Available Capacity: Zero KB
Drives: Bay 1, Bay 2
Volumes: R1V1
Status: Viable (Good)
Volumes:
R1V1:
BSD Name: disk1
Capacity: 599.73 GB (599,730,946,048 bytes)
Read Command Size: 2 MB
Read Ahead Margin: 16 MB
RAID Set: RS1
Status:
Degraded: No
Inited: Yes
In Transition: No
Viable: Yes
Vol-R0-3:
BSD Name: disk2
Capacity: 299.8 GB (299,798,364,160 bytes)
Read Command Size: 2 MB
Read Ahead Margin: 16 MB
RAID Set: R0-3
Status:
Degraded: No
Inited: Yes
In Transition: No
Viable: Yes
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: Mac Pro
Model Identifier: MacPro3,1
Processor Name: Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Processor Speed: 3.2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 2
Total Number Of Cores: 8
L2 Cache (per processor): 12 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Bus Speed: 1.6 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MP31.006C.B05The RAID card battery backs up the memory buffers on the card. These are needed for calculating the checksum blocks used in RAID 5 and similar schemes.
If you are not running RAID 5 or similar, you do not need the battery. For that matter, you do not need the RAID card, either (unless you are running SAS drives). -
I was trying to insert a SIM card into my iPhone 4 without actually knowing how to do so. I assumed that I was to remove the back of the phone and find a slot for it near the battery. I removed the battery in an attempt to find a SIM slot, and was obviously unsuccessful. I put the battery back into place and screwed the phone back plate back on. Note: the battery was fully charged and the iPhone was working perfectly fine before. After screwing the iPhone back into place properly, I thought, I attempted to cut the phone on and it would not do so. I put it back on the charger, and the screen came up that says "Connect to iTunes". I obviously couldn't do so if its plugged into the wall. I plugged into the computer, connected it to iTunes, went through the Recovery mode process, and it still won't turn on. The computer says that the iPhone is in Recovery mode, but iTunes can't do anything because it has already been restored. When I disconnect it from the computer, I hold all buttons in all possible combinations, but it won't turn on at all. When I plug it into the wall, it again says to connect to iTunes. I don't know if I damaged the battery or any part within the iPhone, but I was sensitive in my approach to removing the battery and putting it back in, and there is no visible damage whatsoever. I am extremely frustrated and in desperate need of Apple-Pro help.
do you have a cdma iphone 4? becauase cdma iphones dont have a sim card slot... the providers that use cdma technology here in the us would be verizion, sprint, criket, ect... if you want to use your iphone 4 on att or tmobile (gsm carriers). then you would need a gsm iphone 4 (has sim card slot). a gsm iphone 4 is different than a cdma iphone 4 (they have different radio chips). maby you missed the sim card slot? sim card slot would be on the side of the phone.. never inside (unless it has a removable back cover like the galaxy s3 or s4), if you dont see a sim card slot on the side of the phone than you have a cmda iphone 4. can you tell me what carrier you are trying to use?
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How to change xserve raid-card battery?
how to change xserve raid-card battery?
Xserve RAID Card Battery Replacement Instructions:
http://manuals.info.apple.com/MANUALS/0/MA277/en_US/Xserve_RAID_Card_Battery_DIY Instructions.pdf -
Xserve / internal RAID card / Battery Failed (code 0x#0 = 18)
Hi, RAID utility is reporting a battery problem. I have rebooted xserve once, the problem went away, the battery was charged but now I have the problem again.
The result is a disabled write cache, which reduces performance.
Changing the battery is quite a big effort, so I really would like to avoid this. Any ideas, what the problem might be and how to solve it?Hi Lordlobby,
I've had this on 2, 2008 xserves. Started off randomly happening that the RAID card would report the same error code which wasn't down to the discharge cycle. It became worse so the battery was replaced and it's been fine since... It's about 15mins work to replace the battery..
Good luck
Beatle -
RAID card battery conditioning - "Battery failed (other than expired)"
OK, so if you log-in using the GUI, you get a warning telling you that battery conditioning is happening and that you shouldn't the server.
However, if you log-in over SSH, as you might, for instance, with a headless Xserve, you don't get that warning. And then, if you restart more than a certain number of times, for instance because you're installing all the software updates that the server has missed while it hasn't been switched on, you end up in the following state:
$ raidutil list status
Apple raidutil version: 1.2.0
General Status: Issues Found
Battery fault. See Battery Status below.
Battery Status: Battery failed (other than expired)
Controller #1: Hardware Version 2.00/Firmware E-1.3.2.0
Write Cache disabled
Plainly this is undesirable.
Does anyone know how to reset the battery state, preferably without having to pull the server out of its rack and disconnect the RAID card battery?
Also, since when was it in any way reasonable to tell a user that they can't shut their machine down for 24 hours? Even with a server, that's ridiculous - sometimes you just have to reboot.
Kind regards,
Alastair.FWIW, I just filed rdar://7653429 about the fact that terminal users don't get any warning of this, and rdar://7653468 about the fact that battery conditioning shouldn't force sysadmins to keep their machine running for the next 24 hours (since they might really need to shut it down, right now).
-
What's the difference in Apple RAID card battery error messages?
I have a Mac Pro with 2 quad core Intel Harpertown CPUs at 3.2GHz, and an Apple RAID card. RAID Utility shows that the battery failed but in my research, nobody explains the difference between "Battery failed (code 0x#0 = 17)" (which is what I have) and "Battery failed (code 0x#0 = 18)" or ""Battery failed (other than expired)" (the latter two are what everybody talks about) and what the code numbers mean. Speaking to a local AASP, they recommend that I just wait for a couple of days to see if it's doing the automatic 72-hour reconditioning operation since my Mac Pro is attached to a pretty hefty UPS (2200VA with nothing else attached) and power failures where I live are rare plus the write cache has been disabled so the RAID card is basically doing write-throughs at the moment. But curiosity about the various, different error codes and messages is getting the better of me. Thanks in advance.
Also, what's worrying me (since RAID Utility is so vague) is this entry I found under "Hardware RAID" in System Profiler:
Status:
Charging: No
Conditioning: No
Connected: Yes
Discharging: No
Sufficient Charge: NoAs an update to this, once I replaced the RAID card battery (which was an absolute nightmare--the writer of the instructions at Apple obviously had never done it for real nor seen it done since they omit a lot of important things), the problem went away. But I'm still intrigued about what the error codes mean.
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Hi,
I have a MacPro computer that has 4 drives and Apple's Hardware RAID Card installed. It's been working great, but we first received notification via RAID Utility of the following error: 5/23/09:Battery failed (code 0x#0 = 18). We ignored it because we have a project in the works. Computer is degraded in performance, and we can tell. Restarted and got the notification: 5/24/09: Controller reports RAID System 72-hour battery reserve unavailable. System is configured to run without battery.
What shall we do to get this working again.
I reallly appreciate any and all pointers. Apples online help didn't appear to be operating correctly today, Sunday, May 25.
Thanks, and so long for now, TOMUnfortunately, this is a widely known issue with Apple's raid card. I would get in touch with Apple as soon as possible; not online help, but actually call them.
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=439873
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1405187&start=0&tstart=0 -
Macpro raid card(Battery is Missing)
MacPro 2010
I bought a raid card a month ago.
But I got a message "But Battery is missing".
My Raid Card is Corrupt?
Could you teach me the reason?google translate says:
My macpro 2010 have the same problem, replace the battery to repair the same problem after the new battery Month 3 Months generated. -
On my Mac Pro, early 2008 2 x 2.8GHz Quad Core 10.7.5, replaced 4 x 500ghds with 4 x 3Tb. The Raid card Raid 5ed them OK but can not load time machine back up as it does not see any of the 4 drives, neither does disc utilities, any thoughts?
You don't see drives when using a hardware RAID only the volumes.
WD Green are not suitable for hardware RAID (or software RAID for that matter).
USB2 and TimeMachine are a disaster waiting to happen. I've used SATA (internal) and eSATA (using SATA PCIe cards) trouble-free.
I can't say I begin to understand your use or "choosing the install drive for the backup"
Install what?
You don't load TimeMachine. Maybe seems minor but that is not how to describe the behavior of software.
You read FAQ and How To http://www.apple.com/support/timemachine
Time Machine’s Gory Details:
https://www.apple.com/support/timemachine/
TimeMachine 101
https://support.apple.com/kb/HT1427
Lion Recovry & TimeMachine
http://www.apple.com/support/lion/installrecovery/
http://www.apple.com/support/lion/
How To Restore Your System
http://pondini.org/TM/14.htmlMac OS X v10.7 Lion
Pondini's Blog: Time Machine - Troubleshooting -- B5. Would you like to inherit (or re-use) the backup . . . ?
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