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

Similar Messages

Xserve Raid Not Showing all Drives Empty - No Green Lights on Xserve Raid Drives

I have an Xserve Raid. I recently set it up with my Xserve server with fiber cables and now when the Xserve Raid system boots and starts all the drives show as empty in the Raid monitor. Not sure if I have something configured wrong and I think I shut it down incorrectly before I got it hooked up right. When I first got it I was able to see the lights on all the drives but now it boots but no drives show up at all. I have fiber cables to the host Xserve machine and the Xserve Raid plugged into the network with only 1x ethernet cables (not 2 if that makes a difference). When I try to manage the Xserve Raid all drives show as empty even though all the 500GB drives are plugged in. Not seeing any green lights when the Xserve raid boots indicates something is up. I reset the controller cards to stock with the paper clip to factory settings. Does anyone have any ideas on what to try. Anyone have this issue? I haven't found any discussions except one that had a single side of drives go down because of a bad controller card. My Xserve Raid shows no drives at all. Any help is appreciated.

Expansion is a 2 step process: First, you expand the array. Second, you merge the slices. The documentation is clear on step #2, but the GUI doesn't FORCE you to do it. However, it is necessary.
If you did both steps, try rebooting your host and see if it picks up the changed size. It does work... the usual issue though is growing the file system to recognize the additional size. On Linux, I can't help you.

Xserve 2006 RAID Controller

Hi Everyone,
I have an Intel Xserve 2006. Recently the RAID controller card failed so I popped back in the regular SATA controller (that it originally came with) and ordered a new RAID controller.
I am pretty sure I have the correct one for the 2006 model but it does not seem to work. I have no battery on it (thought one would come with it) the original expanded and I am pretty sure broke the other RAID controller.
Any ideas why this new one is not working also? Is it the battery?
Many thanks for any suggestions.
David Lee

Hi David,
Have you got the new RAID card in there now or the SATA backplane? I'm in London as well so will try and help you out as much as I can if you need it.
Contact details on my profile.
Thanks
Beatle

Hi all, i have problems to connect my mac (os x 10.8.1) to some projectors. Any idea? And i can not find in system preferences, the option to select the screens. Before my upgrade, the projector was recognized automatically. Any idea? Thank you.

Thank you

These instructions finally worked for me as well, but there are two things that are left off that I had to do in order to make it work. The first is I had to have an ethernet plugged from my wireless router into my mac in order to complete the steps. The second is that after restoring the defaults, I had to then click on "enable wireless" on my desket BEFORE connecting wirelessly to the "HP" network that popped up.
Once you finally get to the web page and click on the networks tab to install the printer on the network, you may lose internet service which will then inhibit you from completing the process (every time I connected to the "hp network" that kicked me off of my own home wifi network, but you have to be connected online in order to complete the process). After trying over and over again, I finally plugged the ethernet in and started all over again with the restoring degaults, then clicking the button the deskjet that says "enable wireless", then followed all of the steps above and I finally received the completed message. Then I unplugged the ethernet cord and all was well (it was a little slow at first like someone mentioned).
So if the steps are not working for you, try plugging the ethernet from the router to your mac first, then follow all of the steps (including the restoring defualts as step one), click on ebable wireless on the printer, then after all of the steps and the complete message, unplug the ethernet.
I also should mention that I have os x 10.9 of which there is no driver on hp's site, so I installed the driver for os x 10.8 first before doing the steps and that is also what helped this to work (I wasn't even able to click on the "webpage" tab on the printers page because it wasn't even finding the printer at first before downloading the 10.8 driver for the deskjet).

Do I need a domain controller onsite if I have a gig connection to datacenter

I know it used to be best practice to have a DC onsite at each site for your WAN...
However, with new bandwidth getting cheaper we have full gig connections between our datacenter and our hub sites.
Do you think it would be ok not have a DC / print server onsite and have then go over the gig pipe for authentication and print services etc??? If the connection goes down they can't work at the remote sites anyway because everything they need is at
the data center... (we use a hub and spoke topology.
TYIA!
-Matt

Just to add, you can keep with what you have, which should work fine. Just to share past experiences, I worked as an Exchange admin for a pharma that had a fast and fat MPLS across the US and into Europe. Everything was under one AD Site, but they were wondering
why the Exchange servers were picking DCs in Europe. I explained that's because of the site design.
Sites do two things: localize logon/authentication traffic, and control replication traffic between DCs. If you want a client to use a local DC in its own subnet, and not go across the pipe to authenticate, etc, no matter how fast the pipe, you'll still
need to setup sites just to take advantage of authentication localization.
More on it here:
AD Site Design, DNS & the DC Locator Process, and Auto Site Link Bridging, or Bridge All Site Links (BASL)
http://blogs.msmvps.com/acefekay/2013/02/24/ad-site-design-and-auto-site-link-bridging-or-bridge-all-site-links-basl/
The DC Locator Process, The Logon Process, Controlling Which DC Responds in an AD Site, and SRV Records
http://msmvps.com/blogs/acefekay/archive/2010/01/03/the-dc-locator-process-the-logon-process-controlling-which-dc-responds-in-an-ad-site-and-srv-records.aspx
Ace Fekay
MVP, MCT, MCSE 2012, MCITP EA & MCTS Windows 2008/R2, Exchange 2013, 2010 EA & 2007, MCSE & MCSA 2003/2000, MCSA Messaging 2003
Microsoft Certified Trainer
Microsoft MVP - Directory Services
Complete List of Technical Blogs: http://www.delawarecountycomputerconsulting.com/technicalblogs.php
This posting is provided AS-IS with no warranties or guarantees and confers no rights.

Promise T3 SATA RAID controller Vista x64 driver OK for W7 x64?

Before I walk down the path of tears again, or at least roll the dice, has anyone used the Vista 64bit drivers for the Promise T3 controller that comes with the K9A2 Platinum on W7 64 bit? And if so, did they work?
From here: http://www.msi.com/index.php?func=downloaddetail&type=driver&maincat_no=1&prod_no=1332
Thanks,
Anthony
Specs:
Operating System
MS Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit
CPU
AMD Phenom X4 9550 28 °C
Agena 65nm Technology
RAM
8.0GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 333MHz 5-5-5-13
Motherboard
MICRO-STAR INTERNATIONAL CO.,LTD MS-7376 (CPU 1)
Graphics
Generic PnP Monitor on ATI Radeon HD 3870
ATI Radeon HD 3870 (VISIONTEK) 47 °C
ATI Radeon HD 3870 (VISIONTEK) 47 °C
Hard Drives
1000GB MICRONET FANTOM DRIVE IEEE 1394 SBP2 Device (1394)
749GB ATI 1X2 Mirror/RAID1 SCSI Disk Device (SCSI)
Optical Drives
ATAPI DVD A DH20A4P ATA Device
Audio
High Definition Audio Device

executivetechnology, if you have a problem please start you're own new topic instead or resurrecting an old one from 1 1/2 years ago.
>> Please read and comply with the Forum Rules <<
>> Posting Guide <<

All drives copying in 67 MB chunks - why?

I recently tried using an Areca 1880ix-12 RAID controller card in my Mac Pro 1,1 and during its file copy tests would stop at exactly 67 MB and just die. It would hard lock the OS and force me to hit the power button for five seconds to shut down the computer so I could reboot. Even though I now no longer have the Areca card, my drives are copying in 67 MB chunks, one of which (an OWC SSD sent in for RMA due to this issue) copies at 67 MB per second, which is unacceptable for an SF-1200 based SSD.
Does anybody have any clue as to why the OS is using 67 MB chunks in its file copying? It seems REALLY odd that this could be a coincidence. I've already done a fresh reinstall of the OS and redone all my settings (a royal PITA when redoing preferences for every last program/utility addon) and it still copies in 67 MB chunks, with the exception of the first two copy chunks, which are either 25->125 MB and then 67 MB each jump thereafter, or 58/125 MB, then 67 MB each jump thereafter.
This is on the internal drive bays of the Mac Pro, and also for my Vertex 3 SSD which resides on the ODD_SATA port (kept there in a 5.25" enclosure in the optical bay for SSDs for when I get a real RAID controller).
My drives can read at 150-250 MB/sec, but they write in only 67 MB chunks. Even SATA1 should fare better than that. It seems almost as if the SATA ports are operating in PIO mode even in OS X.

So was this resolved? I'm having the exact same issues... G-Drive 2tb to another g-drive 2tb via firewire 800... They are daisy chained. Transfer speed is very slow... transfering 700gb from drive A to drive B.
The daisy chain goes as followes: MBP to drive A, drive A to drive B. This configuration seemed to be faster than MBP to drive B, drive B to drive A...
Any suggestions/tips are appreciated!

Cannot boot with Perc /2 raid controller

I have just built a system with K7D + 2 2400 MP, and the system hangs when I try to boot with my Perc/2 raid controller in. I have stripped down to just the following components;
2 2400 MP
Perc 2
1GB ECC ram
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9000
When I try to boot the machine it gets as far as trying to load the Perc /2 Bios and hangs.
The Perc works fine in my old system Tyan Tiger 133 with dual 733 PIII, it also seems to boot up fine in a Tyan Tiger S2460.
Any ideas on the cause or a work around?
Thanks.

Yeah, all the firmware & bios is up to date, have stripped things down to just the motherboard, graphics card & Perc. Tried PCI graphics to elliminate any conflicts there. I have disabled all the on-board controllers too.

C-220M3 RAID controller

Hello,
Cisco people has told me C-220M3 has to mandatory bring a RAID controller in it if you configure one HDD...actually Dynamic Configuration Tool doesn't let me configure a C220M3 server with one HDD if I don't add a RAID controller. I'm trying to find a technical explanation for that...as I recall, the old C-200M2 can be configured with one HDD and without any RAID controller at all, and that doesn't pose any problems.
Any inputs on that?
Thanks,

Hi Dani,
the C200 server has a in-build RAID controller which you could use. However on a C220 there are no similar integrated modules available and you need to choose either a mezz or a PCI (LSI) RAID controller for RAID configuration.
here is the chapter from the configuration guide:
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/docs/unified_computing/ucs/c/hw/C220/install/raid.html
Thanks!
./abhinav

Onboard promise raid-controller and promise add-on sata-controller

Can anybody help me with the following problem.
I have 4 SATA hard disks.
2 Western Digital Raptors and 2 Seagate Barracuda V of 80 gig.
I would like to do the following:
I would like to put the 2 raptors in raid-striping for my OS on my onboard raid-controller and use the 2 barracuda's for data and connect them the promise add-on card (promise ultra150 tx2).
I have the following with this config: the raid-controller is no problem but when i connect a hard-drive to the add-on card, windows won't boot anymore and i have no possibility in the bios to choose to boot from the raid-controller.
I'm using an MSI K7N2G-ILSR motherboard with the latest MSI-bios.

I'm having the same problem but I can't switch my drives. I have my 2 200 gig maxtors full of data that i can't let go of. I've installed a new silicon images pci card with 2 sata channels. if i hook up the drives both bios recognize the drives correctly but it tell me invalid system disk. pretty sure that it's reading the pci card, not seeing a os installed and not even looking at my onboard controller. I was told that i can change irq priority, but i can't get it right or it doesn't work. I can install os on pci card but would really rather not. I'm very happy with the setup i have for once.
msi k7n2 delta promise 376 onboard controller

Dropped frames on Xserve RAID upgraded w/750GB drives.

I'm capturing in 10-bit uncompressed standard definition 720x480. I just upgraded one side of my Apple XRAID, (connected directly via fibre channel) with seven, 750GB hard drives from Apple, drives designed for the XRAID, (came with there own sleds.)
Current Xserve RAID firmware version is at version 1.5.1/1.51c
Before the upgraded drives, no issues with dropped frames, (drives 1-7) the other side of the same RAID has no problems, (currently running 250GB drives, drives 8-14.) All sleds are populated with drives of the same capacity, (respective to each side.)
The drives were formated using the Xserve RAID Admin software and mounted using Apples Disk Utilities, Journaling turned off. The final formated capacity of the RAID on drives 1-7 is 4.1TB.
When I capture to the drives on the upgrade side, I get dropped frames. When capturing to the other side, no issues, works great. I checked the settings for performance and they are the same for both sides, as follows:
Use Controller Write Cashe - ON
Allow Host Cashe Flushing - OFF
Use Drive Write Cashe - ON
Use Steady Streaming Mode - OFF
Read Prefetch: 128 stripes (8 MB/disk)
My capture box is an AJA I/o and has never given me dropped frames till now, but only on the side of the RAID that has the new 750GB drives. I also have another RAID that uses 500GB drives on both sides and it work just fine as well, (no dropped frames) using the same performance settings in XRAID utilities.
Any suggestion on why these new Apple drives modules are dropping frame would be very much appreciate. Again 7 new 750GB drives from Apple w/sleds having dropped frame issues.

I'm capturing in 10-bit to avoid loss of quality from analog sources like BetaCam SP as well as line 21 must be part of the captured file, because it contains line 21 for captioning. Eight bit has a banding issue that I can't have in the final product and 10-bit doesn't have this issue.
Source quality is maintained completely when working in 10-bit uncompressed, as well as the captioning data that I need, which is stripped out of the captured video latter. Captioning software can read line 21 of the raster area, of the captured file.
Source video is from BetaCam SP, DVC Pro and DVCam.
The RAID is an Apple Xserve RAID, connected via Fibre channel directly, (no xsan.)
I also create high quality QuickTime Streaming files from these source files, the higher the quality of the source video the the better the streaming files look when created.
I have never had any problem capturing till I installed these new drives from Apple.
The RAID is as stated above, is an Apple Xserve RAID, connect via a fibre channel card in a Mac Pro 3.0GHz tower, (no xsan is used, due to connecting directly to the XRAID.)

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

XServe Raid Controller Replacement

My XRaid runs fine, then shows a fault on one of the two RAID controllers. The other takes over, and everything works as far as serving files, but the array attached to the RAID controller with the fault will not allow files to be written or created. Reading is fine.
If I reset the controller, shut down the XServe (intel), then reboot the XRaid, all functionality is restored. I'm figuring that I need a replacement RAID controller. Anyone have a good source for the RAID controller? Or a better long-term solution?
Thanks!

Hi
You should still be able to order replacement/exchange parts for the XServe RAID via Apple Service or GSX. If you go to your nearest Apple Repair Centre/Specialist with the XServe RAID's Serial Number they should be able to quote for a replacement/exchange?
Are you sure it's not the FC Cable itself? Have you tried swopping the cables? Do you have another cable you can try instead? Have you tried re-seating the Controllers? Shutdown the RAID, remove the kettle leads, remove the affected controller. If you have a can of air give the inside a good blast and insert the controller.
Tony

Cache drive & Raid Controller?

HI all,
Ok so it's time for me to buy my media drives for my 6TB project.
I am going with (3) 4TB 7200 rpm seagate drives (Raid0)
Hopefully that will give me enough data rate to edit it realtime (c300-MXF files), intel 6 core, 16 gig ram, 760 gtx 2g mem
I have 2 final questions:
1. After testing my current drive performance, I noticed that while playing/scrubbing my timeline (premiere cc) I noticed that my cache drive had 0-1 % activity and my Media drive was at 100%
So just how important is the cache drive for "performace"???
2. Can I use my onboard Bios Raid controller for my (3) raid0?
Or should I buy a controller?
if yes, Why?
If yes, can someone reccomend a "reasonable" priced controller?
Thanks So Much,
Lou

Lou
The answer to #2 depends on your motherboard . What is it?
Your RAID 0 configuration has no parity so it requires very regular backups maybe even several times a day after each editing session. I call it the "poor man's choice" as I also use it. It just so happens that my good friend Harm just alerted me to this new Western Digital (the Hitachi acquistion) for a new 6 GB drive the Ultrastar He6 which might be perfect for your backups. Interesting it is filled with Helium.
http://www.hgst.com/hard-drives/enterprise-hard-drives/enterprise-sas-drives/ultrastar-he6
Message was edited by: Bill Gehrke
I just now remember you picked the GA-Z68XP-UD4 after my suggestion, yes you can put three drives in RAID 0 by using the (4) Intel SATA 3GB/s ports. It might limit the maximum performance slightly as opposed to using the same devices on three 6GB/s ports but I do not think the limitation will be serious.

Hi, we have a G5 Blade server running OS X 10.5.8 with a dual Fibre Channel card. The OS does not read the card and cannot establish connection to the RAID controller. I have tried to move the card to another port with no luck. Ran all the updated softwar

Hi, we have a G5 Blade server running OS X 10.5.8 with adual Fibre Channel card. The OS does not read the card and cannot establishconnection to the RAID controller.
I have tried to move the card to another port with no luck.Ran all the updated software possible. Please can someone advice

Hi,
Was the card previously working in that machine? If it was and you have a G5 tower you could try the card in there. Here is a list of Apple fibre cards and cables which show what's compatible with what. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1769
The card should appear in the System Profiler under Fibre Channel and PCI Cards.
All the best
Beatle

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

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for