Expand volume on Internal RAID

Hello,
I set up our new Xserve with three 1TB internal disks. I booted it up, and did all the initial setup. However, I made a booboo I think when migrating the volume to RAID....
Once it was up and running, I went into the RAID admin util, and told it to migrate to a RAID 5 volume.
Unfortunately, it just migrated the one disk size to the new volume, so I now have a 1.78TB RAID set, with a (slightly under) 1TB volume, and 800 odd gigs of free space.
Question is, is there any way to expand that volume out to use the entire space, or do I have to start from scratch?...

OK, well, for the benefit of others, heres how I solved it..
Got a 500G firewire disk, and used Carbon Copy Cloner to create a bootable volume on the fw disk.
Rebooted from the fw disk, and as a belts and braces approach, did a block level backup of the server disk to a .dmg file on the fw disk.
Once completed, I went into the raid utility, zapped the entire raid and recreated it with just one volume.
I then used CCC to restore the block level .dmg file back onto the newly configured raid and rebooted off the raid.
Job done. The entire process took about 45 minutes. Admittedly, there was only about 14 gig of data to move about, but was very quick all things considered.

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Expanding Volume Under RAID 5

How do I expand the size of a volume under a RAID 5 setup (2 volumes, one RAID Set) — there is spare space available, but I cannot locate anywhere in Disk Utility or RAID Utility where I can add the space to the existing volumes.
Selecting RAID SETS in RAID Utility allows me to add a new volume, but nowhere does it allow me to increase the size of one of the current volumes.

Reformat the RAID Array.
This is required to recompute parity.
Allan

Time Machine slow when backing up internal RAID

I've had some issues for some time now with Time Machine taking forever to backup information from my internal RAID in my MacPro. When I say forever, I don't think Time Machine is able to back up every hour, even if it's just doing the 44 mb backup. That can sometimes take 3 hours. I just determined today that it was specifically having trouble with the RAID. I copied a bunch of information to my OS drive, and WHAM, time machine was flying! I primarily work off of my RAID as this machine is used for video editing. The RAID is an 8tb RAID 0. The time machine volume is a GTech GSpeed 9TB RAID 5 connected via eSATA.

Bump for a monday, and hopeful for some replies.

How can I set up a Mac pro with internal Raid 5

I have a Mac pro running Leopard server. I would like to format 3 of the drives as an internal Raid 5.
Can this be done?
Can it be done without an internal Raid card?
or
Can it be done if I install a Mac Pro Raid card?
Thanks,
RT

RAID5 or RAID10 or such does require add-on software and / or add-on hardware, yes.
And I'd tend to go toward external RAID storage here, as that is what the most common packages offer and as that tends to have the greatest expansion. This would involve a PCIe RAID controller and external storage here, though Apple does offer the Mac Pro RAID card for use with the internal drives.
The integrated Apple software RAID has RAID0 and RAID1 capabilities. Not RAID5.
As for any additional questions, here's [the FAQ|http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1346] for the Mac Pro RAID card, and here is [the manual|images.apple.com/server/docs/RAIDUtility_UserGuide.pdf].
External RAID can involve Apple Xsan and Promise and related, or third-party FC SAN storage, or any of various third-party direct-attach storage (DAS) options.

Is it possible to create a Windows 7 Partition via Bootcamp while having an internal RAID 0 Setup ?

Is it possible to create a Windows 7 Partition via Bootcamp while having an internal RAID 0 Setup ?

Yes, just not on the RAID. Boot Camp Assistant will only partition a single drive containing OS X. You cannot partition a RAID array.

Advice on RAID Sets, Volume Sets, and RAID Levels of the Volume Sets using an Areca Controller

I have read through a lot of information on disk usage, storage rules for an editing rig, users inquiries/member responses in this forum and I thank each and every one of you – especially Harm.
In building my new workstation, I purchased five (5) WD 1T, 7k, 64M SATAIII hard drives and an Areca RAID card, ARC-1880ix-16-4G, which I plan to use primarily as my media/data disk array. The workstation will use a 128GB SATAIII SSD as the OS/program drive and I will transfer two (2) WD Raptor/10k SATA 70GB drives from my current system for pagefile/scratch/render use. I tentatively plan on using a mobo SATAIII port for the SSD and mobo SATA ports with a software RAID (level 0) for the 10k Raptors.
In reading the Areca Instruction manual, I am now considering exactly how I should configure the 5 physical 1TB drives in terms of RAID Level(s), Volume Sets, and RAID Sets. I must admit that I like the opportunity of allowing for a Dedicated Hot Spare as I am generally distrustful of the MTBF data that drive vendors tout and have the bad experience in the past of losing data from a mal-configured RAID array and a single drive hardware failure (admittedly, my fault!).
In line with the logic that one doesn’t want to perform disk reading while trying to write at the same time (or vice-versa), I am thinking the approach above should work OK in using the mobo disk interface and both software and external hardware RAID controllers without having to create separate RAID level configurations within a Volume Set or further dividing up the physical drives into separate RAID sets. I know in forum messages that Harm noted that he had 17 drives and I could envision a benefit to having separate RAID sets in that situation, but I am not at that point yet.
To some degree I think it might be best to just create one RAID Level on one Volume Set on one RAID Set, but want to solicit thoughts from veteran controller users on their workflows/thoughts in these regards.
Anyone care to share thoughts/perspectives? Thanks
Bill

Thanks for the speedy feedback Harm - I appreciate it.
I was thinking RAID level 3 as well.
Of course, it's always something! I purchased the Caviar Blacks by mistake - which are non-TLER. I will work with EggHead to return the ones I purchased and replace them with RE4 versions as I'm not thrilled about the possibility of the controller declaring the volume/disks degraded unnecessarily and although I have the DOS utility WDTLER where one is supposed to be able to enable/disable TLER on WD drives - I suspect WD is way beyond that now anyway with current builds.
I agree with you about just testing the performance of the options for the raptors - on the mobo and then on the controller. When I benchmark them I'll post the results in case others are curious.
Thanks again....off to EggHead!

Internal RAID Drives Disappeared from Desktop & Finder

A few days ago, one of my two internal mirrored RAID sets no longer showed on the desktop or in the Finder Sidebar. A day later, the other internal RAID set disappeared from desktop and sidebar. The two remaining internal non-RAID drives show up as do two external drives. All internal and external hard drives still show under Disk Utility and Photoshop Bridge CS3.
I checked Finder Preferences and boxes are checked to show internal and external drives on the desktop and sidebar. I looked at the drive detail under Disk Utility and nothing looks wrong with the two RAID sets ON-LINE. I unmounted one RAID set and re-mounted without any change. I tried unchecking the two preference boxes to not show the drives and rebooted, rechecking the boxes and rebooting and nothing changed on the desktop or sidebar.
Does anyone have any suggestions to resolve this?

Well our invisible drives problem is resolved but it's not the solution that I'd hoped for.
We visited the Genius Bar at a local Apple store and they denied any knowledge of problems with invisible drives in Macs and discounted my reports from Mac forums.
I went home and ordered a new 1tb Seagate drive. When it arrived, I installed it in bay 2, copied each invisible drive to the new drive one-at-a-time, broke my two sets of internal mirrored drives, erased all the affected drives and reloaded them. Now all drives are visible on the Desktop and Finder again.
I'm hoping that the disappearing drive problem doesn't surface again but view this as an unresolved Apple issue. Now I can look at other mass storage options for future growth.

ML110 G6 Internal RAID issues

Heads Up:
Doing a manual install of NOWS SBE using the standard SLES 10 SP3 and OES 2 SP3 Media.
The internal raid (RAID 1+0) which is called
Smart Array B110i SATA RAID is not working.
SLES 10 SP3 with out using a driver disks, see each disk as a device /sda1 and /sdb1 and not the one logical drive.
Done
Fireware Updates etc
Found a USB floppy drive and used the only disk image HP have during the install this makes it worst and gives you a "No hard disk storage error"
Got a SR open with Novell.
HP at present are being unhelpful, the server is listed on the
Novell support on HP Proliant Servers
Will keep you posted.
Adam

Originally Posted by itec
Heads Up:
Doing a manual install of NOWS SBE using the standard SLES 10 SP3 and OES 2 SP3 Media.
The internal raid (RAID 1+0) which is called
Smart Array B110i SATA RAID is not working.
SLES 10 SP3 with out using a driver disks, see each disk as a device /sda1 and /sdb1 and not the one logical drive.
Done
Fireware Updates etc
Found a USB floppy drive and used the only disk image HP have during the install this makes it worst and gives you a "No hard disk storage error"
Got a SR open with Novell.
HP at present are being unhelpful, the server is listed on the
Novell support on HP Proliant Servers
Will keep you posted.
Adam
Hi Adam,
Thanks for the Heads-up.
You said you're doing a manual install from the SLES10-SP3 media so this is not really a NOWS SBE issue, although it would certainly affect NOWS SBE customers.
Have you checked to see if there is any info related to this issue in the SLES: Install-Boot forum? I seem to remember seeing some posts that reference the ML110 G6 but I can't be sure.
There are a lot of knowledgeable folks who watch that forum. They may have some experience with that machine or be able to offer some suggestions.

Shutting down Mac Pro with an internal RAID

Hi,
Since I got my new machine a month ago I have never had cause to turn it off except when the power failed once! Everything was OK on that occasion. It has the Apple RAID card controlling four apple 1TB drives in RAID 0 for speed importing HD footage. My system is on a separate drive fitted in the second optical drive bay. It all works fine but I just want to check that I will not lose my RAID if I shut the computer down for a prolonged period, in this case about two weeks whilst I am away. I know that this length of time would allow the the RAID Cache battery to run down. I am not sure exactly what this battery is doing perhaps someone would explain it to me in words of not more than two syllables (I make films, I am not an IT expert)! If the computer remains attached to the power socket will the battery still keep charged even though the computer is off? Whatam I likely to find when I power up again?
Any advice would be much appreciated as I can't seem to find an answer to this on the forums.
Thanks,
David

Thanks for the quick replies. I take the point about the UPS. I am doing some research still on that one. We rarely have power failures but when we do they generally last longer than most affordable UPS units can last. The last one which I referred to lasted three hours and then went of a second time (fortunately before I got around to restarting the computer)! I thought that it was possible to get units that will initiate a proper shutdown of the computer? Is this so?
Just to clarify your point Malcolm, I bought the RAID card because it is my intention to reformat the internal RAID in RAID5 for some safety when I eventually get a larger external unit which can handle HD data rates in RAID5. If I do that though are you saying that I would never be able to turn the computer off for longer than the cache battery will last or will a proper shutdown still write everything properly to disc?
It does sound like a UPS is a must before any external RAID array is added to allow some form of shutdown procedure.
Thanks again

Internal RAID moved to External enclosures... will it work?

i currently have an internal RAID in my macpro using a pair of 320GB drives... I'm about to purchase a pair of 500GB drives that i would like to replace the 320's with. my question is, can i buy 2 external (e)sata enclosures, or even usb enclosures, pop out the 2 internal drives, hook them up to the enclosures and have the RAID still function as it should, so i can then put the new 500's into the machine, format them to a RAID and then transfer all the stuff on the old one off. or i guess the other option is to format the 2 500's using the external enclosures into a RAID, make the file transfers and then do the drive swap...
and again is this possible using a usb interface? i don't have a sata card (yet) and was hoping to add that later after i get the drives swapped...
much thanks

Yes, but I would only use a Firewire enclosure (you'll want a two drive enclosure.) USB is much too slow. FW800 would be much much faster.
Sources for enclosures:
CoolDrives.com
WiebeTech.com
MacSales.com
CalDrives.com
FirewireDirect.com

Internal RAID 0 with 3 or 2 Drives

Hello, iv been snooping around the forums looking for info on various internal RAID set ups...
I do a lot of editing with FCP but a do a lot of complicated After Effects stuff too.
I am considering the following...
set up 1
3x 1TB drives, RAID 0
vs.
set up 2
2x 1TB drives, in a RAID 0
with the other bay used as a render drive.
my question is, with a three drive RAID 0 would my read and write times be faster or slower than a 2 drive Media drive and one drive dedicated to writing for rendering...
any shared experience would greatly be appreciated, or suggestions...
thanks
also i was considering the WD caviar Black drives, any good or bad expeirence with those?

Thanks for the links. i am considering this option...
sdd in the lower drive bay.
and some kind of raid with the other 4 bays... id like to do a raid 5 internally. is that possible without a controller, or how would i go about doing that?
i also had one other question...
i was thinking about getting this external LaCie 1 Tb rugged drive for my itunes, iphoto, you know things that do not have to do with current work, maybe finished projects(not project files but final renders), other private stuff.
my question is, would a 5400 rpm drive be fast enough for such tasks. like playing an uncompressed quicktime... the drive is only like 120 euros with esata and usb 2, but its only 5400 rpm. i like the OWC drives from the links you gave me, but i live in Berlin germany, and it would kind of be a hassel to ship all these drives... but i am going to the USA in like 3 months so i could wait if i need to...
any suggestions?

Mac RAID card - expanding volume

Hello - I have a Mac Pro with the Apple RAID card and a three disks RAID-0 (striped) volume (which is also the boot volume).
Can I increase the volume capacity adding a disk to the volume, without having to format the raid set and start from a backup? In other words, can the raid card increase the volume capacity dinamically (and is there a guide for this?)
thanks

No. If you think of your RAID Array as three people playing cards, each gets dealt a card in turn. That is what happens with the RAID Array, data is written to each disk in turn.
If you add another player to the game, in order to be fair you must deal again. That is exactly what happens with the RAID Array, you must reformat and start over again.
Allan
Message was edited by: Allan Eckert

Unable to expand volume on array

I've got a Mac Pro (Early 2008, 8x2.8Ghz, 6GB memory) with a Highpoint RocketRaid 3522 card in it. I started out with a raid 5 array of 3 1TB WD GreenPower drives in a SuperMicro CSE-M35T-1B sata cage. Partitioned it as GUID HFS+ (1.8TB) and it works great.
However, I added two more disks and expanded the raid array to a 2.7TB Raid 6 array. Mac OS sees that I have a 2.7TB drive with a 1.8TB partition on it, but when I try to expand the partition I get the error "MediaKit reports partition (map) too small".
When I try to resize it on the command line using diskutil it complains that the volume size is too large. running "diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk4s2 limits" tells me I can only expand the volume up to 2TB. But even running "diskutil resizeVolume /dev/disk4s2 1.9TB" fails
Apple states that the maximum volume size is 8 Exabytes as of 10.4 and later and i'm running 10.5.2.
Any suggestions? I'm trying to avoid having to back up all the data and reformatting the drive. I plan to eventually expand the array to a full 8 1TB drives, i.e. 5.4TB and backup up 1.5TB of data is rough - but backing up more than that is nearly impossible.
And yes, I do know that RAID is not a substitute for backing up. I'm comfortable with the level of protection that RAID 6 gives me given the files that I store on this drive.
Message was edited by: Scott_DC

Have you tried a PRAM reset?
http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1379
Ciao.

Expand volume on mac mini

Can I expand and contract the volume at will using a combination of the internal and external drive on a mac mini? For example, I'm considering purchasing a mac mini with a 500GB HD and later add contiguous volume space by adding an external USB or Thunderbolt drive. Is this possible?

It is, but "involved", 2012 Mini same as 2011 Mini...
http://eshop.macsales.com/installvideos/mac_mini2011_hd/
But I wouldn't waste my time, especially since you mentioned thunderbolt in your forst post, just boot off a bigger/faster external drive.

Time to Initialize Volume in a RAID 5 Set?

On a brand new Mac Pro 12 Core machine with an Apple RAID card, I created a new RAID 5 set with 4 2 TB drives for a total of 5.23 TB using the RAID Utility after booting from the Install DVD. However, when I then create one volume (Macintosh HD), it gets created just fine, but stays on Initializing forever. Task says it's running the Initialization, but the blue on the progress bar is barely moving. How long should this Initialization step take? Someone please help! Thanks!

I am in the same boat with same hardware. Raid Migration took 8 hours. Initialization step still going at 30+ hours. I actually have called support on this and am waiting for a full explanation to resolve. I have tried canceling the process and starting over. However, Disk Utility will not respond. I have tried rebooting and when I open the RAID Utility it still shows 2 percent remaining in initialization. I am curious "CJM53BIWA", you posted your message on March 2nd, were you able to resolve the issue?

Expand volume on Internal RAID

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