Lion, trim & SSD on Apple RAID card

Hi, I have a MAc Pro 2x2.8 Ghz Quad-Core with an Apple RAID card and SO OS X 10.7.2.
It has 2x SSD in stripe o and others 2x500 GB also in stripe 0.
I'd like to know if is possible to enable TRIM support for SSD disks with this setting, and if I can have a real improvement to live their linked to RAID card or is better to keep out raid card and connect without it.
Tnk to all!!!

Apple Pro RAID card isn't perfect, has limitations, and it has made it harder.
http://www.softraid.com excellent software RAID
even Apple RAID (software) is fine but I would never use Apple for mirroring.
Use to be and may still be true that you risk using any drives but Apple's with Apple firmware, if you go Apple RAID route.
On PCs you have Intel motherboard RAID, can add controller, and software is shunned totally. Software RAID with Mac OS X seems more than fine.
I'd take a thorough look at this site:
http://macperformanceguide.com/index_topics.html
Other than RAID5 I would not touch Apple card, maybe if someone just HAD to use SAS, maybe.
http://www.barefeats.com/hard104.html
And yes drivers and support can be a pain. Some of the blame I see as how every OS and even minor updates break and require rework.
http://www.macgurus.com/store/ecom-prodshow/BurlyRAID.html
Checked out Sonnet to see what they offer? FirmTek 6G and NewerTech, but not hardware.

Similar Messages

Apple Raid Card panic on Mac Pro Early 2008 after installing SSD as an enhanced JBOD.

I recently installed a SSD drive in my Mac Pro to replace an aging, original boot drive. I have an Apple raid card with 3 other hds attached - all in an enhanced JBOD configuration. After installing the SSD from OWC (3G Electra SATA II Compatible) everything appeared to work fine. But after 36 hours I received a apple raid card kernel panic alert. See below for diagnostic crash log. OWC support says that their drive should work fine - now I am not so sure. Anyone out there with suggestions/solutions is most welcomed.
Anonymous UUID:       83ADF2C8-4D41-D2EE-58C2-0CC4344DB0B4
Sun Jan 5 21:18:46 2014
panic(cpu 3 caller 0xffffff7f98b1441e): "AppleRAIDCard controller panic"@/SourceCache/AppleHWRaidDriver/AppleHWRaidDriver-401/Driver/Driver/Apple RAIDCard.cp:1018
Backtrace (CPU 3), Frame : Return Address
0xffffff8221563e30 : 0xffffff8017622f69
0xffffff8221563eb0 : 0xffffff7f98b1441e
0xffffff8221563ef0 : 0xffffff8017aada80
0xffffff8221563f30 : 0xffffff8017aac522
0xffffff8221563f80 : 0xffffff8017aac5f7
0xffffff8221563fb0 : 0xffffff80176d6aa7
      Kernel Extensions in backtrace:
         com.apple.driver.AppleRAIDCard(401.0)[06045EA1-0404-36C3-9BE6-FE217DCD420C]@0xf fffff7f98b11000->0xffffff7f98b26fff
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice(3.6.0)[657BB360-C3EA-3D01-934E-12DBD6 0BBBF5]@0xffffff7f97f80000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily(2.8)[447B4896-16FF-3616-95A2-1C516B2A1498]@0xffffff 7f97cba000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIParallelFamily(3.0.0)[B6D80E76-647D-3BAE-823A-85871E9BAC7 2]@0xffffff7f97ca9000
            dependency: com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily(3.6.0)[76253A22-A1DB-3BF4-A972-E6 94A37CD09A]@0xffffff7f97c78000
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task
Mac OS version:
13B42
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 13.0.0: Thu Sep 19 22:22:27 PDT 2013; root:xnu-2422.1.72~6/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 1D9369E3-D0A5-31B6-8D16-BFFBBB390393
Kernel slide:     0x0000000017400000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff8017600000
System model name: MacPro3,1 (Mac-F42C88C8)
System uptime in nanoseconds: 91308918786320
last loaded kext at 89490169308794: com.apple.filesystems.smbfs          2.0.0 (addr 0xffffff7f99714000, size 335872)
last unloaded kext at 1120636252260: com.apple.driver.StorageLynx          3.3.5 (addr 0xffffff7f99714000, size 8192)
loaded kexts:
com.apple.filesystems.smbfs          2.0.0
com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC          1.60
com.apple.filesystems.autofs          3.0
com.apple.driver.AppleBluetoothMultitouch          80.14
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothSerialManager          4.2.0f6
com.apple.driver.AppleUpstreamUserClient          3.5.13
com.apple.driver.AppleMCCSControl          1.1.12
com.apple.kext.AMDFramebuffer          1.1.4
com.apple.iokit.CSRBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport          4.2.0f6
com.apple.AMDRadeonX3000          1.1.4
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBDisplays          360.8.14
com.apple.driver.AppleHDA          2.5.3fc1
com.apple.driver.AppleMCEDriver          1.1.9
com.apple.kext.AMD5000Controller          1.1.4
com.apple.driver.AppleLPC          1.7.0
com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet          1.0.0d1
com.apple.Dont_Steal_Mac_OS_X          7.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHWAccess          1
com.apple.driver.ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin          1.0.0
com.apple.driver.XsanFilter          404
com.apple.driver.Oxford_Semi          3.3.5
com.apple.iokit.SCSITaskUserClient          3.6.0
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeDataless          1.0.0d1
com.apple.AppleFSCompression.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib          1.0.0d1
com.apple.BootCache          35
com.apple.driver.AppleIntel8254XEthernet          3.1.3b1
com.apple.driver.AppleRAIDCard          401
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHub          650.4.4
com.apple.driver.AppleAHCIPort          2.9.5
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelPIIXATA          2.5.1
com.apple.driver.AppleFWOHCI          4.9.9
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBEHCI          650.4.1
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBUHCI          650.4.0
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIButtons          2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleRTC          2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleHPET          1.8
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBIOS          2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIEC          2.0
com.apple.driver.AppleAPIC          1.7
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagementClient          216.0.0
com.apple.nke.applicationfirewall          153
com.apple.security.quarantine          3
com.apple.driver.AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement          216.0.0
com.apple.kext.triggers          1.0
com.apple.driver.IOBluetoothHIDDriver          4.2.0f6
com.apple.driver.AppleMultitouchDriver          245.13
com.apple.iokit.IOSerialFamily          10.0.7
com.apple.driver.AppleSMBusController          1.0.11d1
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothHostControllerUSBTransport          4.2.0f6
com.apple.iokit.IOAcceleratorFamily          98.7.1
com.apple.driver.DspFuncLib          2.5.3fc1
com.apple.vecLib.kext          1.0.0
com.apple.iokit.IOAudioFamily          1.9.4fc11
com.apple.kext.OSvKernDSPLib          1.14
com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport          2.3.6
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireIP          2.2.5
com.apple.kext.AMDSupport          1.1.4
com.apple.AppleGraphicsDeviceControl          3.4.12
com.apple.iokit.IOSurface          91
com.apple.iokit.IOBluetoothFamily          4.2.0f6
com.apple.driver.AppleHDAController          2.5.3fc1
com.apple.iokit.IOGraphicsFamily          2.3.6
com.apple.iokit.IOHDAFamily          2.5.3fc1
com.apple.driver.AppleSMC          3.1.6d1
com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginLegacy          1.0.0
com.apple.driver.IOPlatformPluginFamily          5.5.1d27
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHIDMouse          180.9
com.apple.driver.AppleHIDMouse          180.9
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBHIDKeyboard          170.15
com.apple.driver.AppleHIDKeyboard          170.15
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBHIDDriver          650.4.4
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBMergeNub          650.4.0
com.apple.driver.AppleUSBComposite          650.4.0
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireSerialBusProtocolTransport          2.5.1
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireSBP2          4.2.5
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIMultimediaCommandsDevice          3.6.0
com.apple.iokit.IOBDStorageFamily          1.7
com.apple.iokit.IODVDStorageFamily          1.7.1
com.apple.iokit.IOCDStorageFamily          1.7.1
com.apple.iokit.IOATAPIProtocolTransport          3.5.0
com.apple.iokit.IONetworkingFamily          3.2
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIParallelFamily          3.0.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice          3.6.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIArchitectureModelFamily          3.6.0
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBUserClient          650.4.4
com.apple.iokit.IOAHCIFamily          2.6.0
com.apple.iokit.IOATAFamily          2.5.2
com.apple.iokit.IOFireWireFamily          4.5.5
com.apple.iokit.IOUSBFamily          650.4.4
com.apple.driver.AppleEFINVRAM          2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOHIDFamily          2.0.0
com.apple.driver.AppleEFIRuntime          2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOSMBusFamily          1.1
com.apple.security.sandbox          278.10
com.apple.kext.AppleMatch          1.0.0d1
com.apple.security.TMSafetyNet          7
com.apple.driver.AppleKeyStore          2
com.apple.driver.DiskImages          371.1
com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily          1.9
com.apple.iokit.IOReportFamily          21
com.apple.driver.AppleFDEKeyStore          28.30
com.apple.driver.AppleACPIPlatform          2.0
com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily          2.8
com.apple.iokit.IOACPIFamily          1.4
com.apple.kec.corecrypto          1.0
com.apple.kec.pthread          1
System Profile:
Model: MacPro3,1, BootROM MP31.006C.B05, 8 processors, Quad-Core Intel Xeon, 2.8 GHz, 18 GB, SMC 1.25f4
Graphics: ATI Radeon HD 5870, ATI Radeon HD 5870, PCIe, 1024 MB
Memory Module: DIMM Riser B/DIMM 1, 2 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x0000, 0x000000463732353642363145353830304600
Memory Module: DIMM Riser B/DIMM 2, 2 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x0000, 0x000000463732353642363145353830304600
Memory Module: DIMM Riser A/DIMM 1, 1 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x80AD, 0x48594D5035313241373243503844332D5335
Memory Module: DIMM Riser A/DIMM 2, 1 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x80AD, 0x48594D5035313241373243503844332D5335
Memory Module: DIMM Riser B/DIMM 3, 4 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x0000, 0x000000463732353142363445363830304600
Memory Module: DIMM Riser B/DIMM 4, 4 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x0000, 0x000000463732353142363445363830304600
Memory Module: DIMM Riser A/DIMM 3, 2 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x0000, 0x000000463732353642363145353830304600
Memory Module: DIMM Riser A/DIMM 4, 2 GB, DDR2 FB-DIMM, 800 MHz, 0x0000, 0x000000463732353642363145353830304600
Bluetooth: Version 4.2.0f6 12982, 3 services, 22 devices, 1 incoming serial ports
Network Service: Ethernet 1, Ethernet, en0
PCI Card: ATI Radeon HD 5870, Display Controller, Slot-1
PCI Card: ATI Radeon HD 5870, ATY,LangurParent, Slot-1
PCI Card: Apple RAID Card, RAID Controller, Slot-4
Parallel ATA Device: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-112D
USB Device: Hub
USB Device: Keyboard Hub
USB Device: Apple Optical USB Mouse
USB Device: Apple Keyboard
USB Device: XD-0405-U
USB Device: Apple Cinema HD Display
USB Device: USB2.0 Printer (Hi-speed)
USB Device: Bluetooth USB Host Controller
FireWire Device: built-in_hub, Up to 800 Mb/sec
FireWire Device: unknown_device, Iomage HDD, Up to 800 Mb/sec
FireWire Device: unknown_device, Unknown
Thunderbolt Bus:

RE: Mac Pro Replacement Graphics cards
1) Apple brand cards,
2) "sold in the Apple store" cards, and
3) "Mac Edition" cards ...
... show all the screens, including Boot up screens, Safe Mode, Installer, Recovery, debug screens, and Alt/Option boot screens. At this writing, these choices include:
1) Apple brand cards:
• Apple-firmware 5770, about US$250** works near full speed in every model Mac Pro, Drivers in 10.6.5
• Apple-firmware 5870, about US$450
2) "sold in the Apple store" cards
• NVIDIA Quadro 4000, about US$1200
• NVIDIA Quadro 5000, about US$2500
3) "Mac Edition" cards -- REQUIRE 10.8.3 or later:
• SAPPHIRE HD 7950 3GB GDDR5 MAC Edition, about US$480** Vendor recommends Mac Pro 4,1
• EVGA GTX 680 Mac Edition, about US$600
The cards above require no more than the provided two 6-pin aux power connectors provided in the Mac Pro through 2012 model. Aux cables may not be provided for third-party cards, but are readily available.
If you are Meet ALL of these:
• running 10.8.3 or later AND
• don't care about "no boot screens" etc AND
• can re-wire or otherwise "work out" the power cabling, THEN:
You can use many more cards, even most "PC-only cards"

Apple RAID Card Panic with Lion

Since upgrading my MacPro to Lion, I've have numerous RAID Card panic attacks leading to a crash (the log indicates a RAID Card panic). Anyone else having this problem? I have the most recent MacPro with 64 GB, 12 Core, ATI 5870, MacPro RAID Card with 4 3TB Hitachi drives (show up as 2.2 TB due to RAID Card limitations), RAID 5 on bays 2-4 and stand-alone JBOD used as system Mac HD in bay 1. Previously had the Apple-supplied 2 TB Hitachi drives, but these are the same model, just a larger capacity, so I don't think there's a problem with the disk cache interfering with the RAID Card cache.
I'm also experiencing intermittent sync problems with a 30" Apple Cinema Display as monitor has numerous vertical lines (anyone having this problem?). I can always fix this by unplugging the monitor cable and reconnecting it (that's why I think it's a sync problem).
I would appreciate any feedback - I'm concerned that the RAID Card drivers which are built into Lion may have an issue...
Thank you

I would say you jumped on new OS pre-maturely. Let the consumers play with it, test it if you want, yes as long as it doesn't impact your work or pleasure, if it is possible to setup Lion on a test drive somehow.
I'm surprised you have been using it with 3TB drives, seemed like everyone else either ditched the card or moved the drives to run off a 2nd external controller.
Lion probaby once again changed how network services and devices like NAS talk to each other. The Lion Community is still scrolling so fast I doubt anyone can read more than a fraction of the threads.
There should never ever really be a need to reinstall.
Using Cloning as a Backup Strategy
ditto to doing a Lion install/upgrade over older OS, take the time to read and explore how to setup a clean install of Lion; create a Lion installer (FireWire 800 is perfect place to store it on a small 15GB volume).
OS X Lion Install to Different Drive
Macintosh Performance Guide: Apple OS X 'Lion' Comments
Macintosh Performance Guide: Protocol for Upgrading to Mac OS X Lion

Apple raid card with Sonnet Tempo SSD problem?

I am currently using Mac Pro 5.1 (2010)
My configuration is
1) Apple Raid Card in PCIe slot 4
2TB bootable HDD and 3x 1TB HDDs configured to RAID 0
2) Apple Radeon 5770 card in PCIe slot 1
3) Sonnet Tempo SSD with Apple OEM 512GB SSD in PCIe slot 2
4) Caldigit Fasta-6GU3pro USB3 + eSATA card in PCIe slot 3
When I boot from 2TB bootable HDD in main slot #1, everything works well.
But, when I install Mavericks to 512GB SSD in PCIe slot, installation finishes without problem, but the system NEVER boot up with that drive.
(The drive appears in boot disc selection in system preference, but nothing changed even select it and reboot.)
(I did a lot of PRAM reset too...)
The SSD works well when I put it to 2nd ODD slot with spare SATA2 connectors in there. (boot properly, etc).
But when I put it back to TEMPO card, It never appears during boot process (even I press option key).
Maybe problem is due to
1) Issue with APPLE raid card
2) problem due to two additional SATA controllers in PCIe rains.
3) Issue with card configuration (I have to test change the position of cards except APPLE RAID which requires slot 4)
Does anybody experienced similar problems?

This:
> But, when I install Mavericks to 512GB SSD in PCIe slot, installation finishes without problem, but the system NEVER boot up with that drive.
It is not uncommon to have trouble installing, cloning, or booting from a PCIe card - though the Sonnet Tempo Pro SSD is one of the reliable ones, still, you should install the OS first on SATA II normally, then move the SSD to its new home.
The fact the SSD works on the ODD port - have you asked or looked for firmware update or anything from Sonnet and what they have to say?
With three PCIe cards to contend with, they may interact - not unheard of - and the USB3 may need drivers first to work?

Apple RAID card w/SSD in Optical Bay

If I've got this right, you cannot use the Apple RAID card in the new Mac Pro if you have even one SSD drive in any of the four HD bays. What I'm trying to determine is if you can use the Apple RAID card if the four HD bays all have 'normal' drives installed, but still want to use an SSD as a 5th drive, and locate it in the lower optical bay.
Hope the question makes sense, and I hope someone knows the answer!
Thanks.

Hi rlhinc,
If you have not already purchased an Apple RAID card, and you only want to set up a RAID 0, as your post on another thread suggests, why not set up a software RAID 0 using Disk Utility:
http://macperformanceguide.com/Storage-HowToSetupRAID.html
With any RAID configuration the drives should all be identical, whether you are using 2, 3 or 4 drives.
I have 4 WD VelociRaptor 300GB drives in a striped (Scratch + Data) RAID 0 configuration in the 4 hard drive bays of my 2009 Nehalem Mac Pro, and set this up with Disk Utility.
The OS and my applications are on an SSD which is installed in the lower optical drive bay, and this set up works fine:
http://macperformanceguide.com/Mac-InstallingSSD.html
Regards,
Bill

New drives help for APPLE RAID Card RAID Redo

Hi,
I've been happily using an Apple 3,1 MacPro with Apple RAID Card installed and connected to 4-500 GB Apple OEM drives. I'd like to redo my setup and replace the Apple drives with bigger drives. Someone said I could only use up to 2 TB drives - is this correct?
Has anyone done this or anything like it using Seagate Drives that are not Apple OEM. Will that work OK or will the Apple RAID Card want to see Apple OEM drives? Apple sells 2TB Seagates, but they cost a lot compared to non-OEM drives, but will cheaper generic Seagate Barracuddas work OK in every way?
Also, after accomplishing this upgrade, I'd like to upgrade this machine to the latest Lion and possibly even Moutain Lion System Software. Any issues perceived?
To reiterate, I'd like to increase my storage to the max in my Early 2008 MacPro3,1 which has the Apple RAID Card utilizing a RAID5. This is spec'd at "4 - 3.0 Gbps Serial ATA (SATA) controllers" but no mention is made of what the MAX Size drives that will be addressed by the RAID Card.
Thanks, and so long for now, TOM

I thought it was an oxymoron to be using Apple RAID card, and to be happy.
It does not support drives larger than 2.2TB
Seagate's just seem to be more trouble. Any enterprise drive should do.
If you really really need RAID5 then maybe this card is useful, otherwise, no.,
There is much less than 300MB/sec x 4 in bandwith, they are shared and not independent, but the total is more like 800MB/sec maximum. Less overhead and other factors comes in more like 700MB/sec total max. \
SSDs have come a long way.
Use a PCIe cards to manage 2 x SSDs of 500GB up to 1TB
Use Disk Utility or SoftRAID 4 to manage 2-4 drive mirror or stripe arrays
10.8.4 has a bug that interferes with using 3TB and larger drives, just introduced bug.
This is the FIRST time there have been limits on drive size. And Apple RAID card. Seems the card is not getting updated firmware to address the need for larger drives. For those using SAS it is also a viable candidate.
SSD on its own to hold the system. 4 x 2TB WD Black for data and media storage. 4 x SSDs for scratch and graphic catalogues and media... all depends what your goal and use and type of programs.
No you do not need to use Apple's.
I cannot vouche for or seen someone doing so but I would hope that WD RED series would be suitable.

MacPro2009-Apple Raid Card-2.2TB limit

Hello,
I have a MacPro (early 2009) with an Apple Raid Card. Lion 10.7.4
I just bought a 4 Tb Sata hard drive and there is no way to make it work on the Apple Raid Card. When it mount , it only show a capacity of 2,2 TB and Apple disk Utility is of no utility with it on the Raid Card.
So I managed to hook it in the Optical Drive bay and I have now a 4 TB volume available for Network backup.
Can you confirm the limit on the Apple raid card
Version Matériel: 2,00
Version du programme interne: E-1.3.2.0
Thanks,
Marc LE BRET

I have this same issue with a mid 2010 MacPro Server running 10.8.2/OS X Server (10.8) and the Apple RAID Card with 3 - 1TB drives and an added 4TB drive (in Bay 4) that is only being seen with the 2.2TB limit. I even initialized it and tested it a bit with my MacPro1,1 and a NewerTech toaster on eSata. Very nice to see a workaround with the optical bay... thank you for that suggestion! I was going to go to another enclosure or hard drive "toaster" / dock that allows 4TB drives and use eSata or FW800 as a connection... the 2nd optical drive bay sounds great and will give it a try.
The only thing I can figure from all this and talking to Tier 2 AppleCare is that the RAID card is only 32 Bit addressing O.o ... which seems crazy but makes the most sense. They will more than likely respond with "The drive is unsupported, since it isnt an "Apple" HD."

Apple RAID Card and 3TB Drives only show 2.2 TB

I tried a 3TB Seagate Barracuda XT drive in the July 2010 Mac Pro (and a Jan 2008 Mac Pro) on the RAID Card that came with the machines (so one is the RAID Card now shipping) and both show a maximum of 2.2 TB with a 3TB drive.
I'm curious if anyone else has tried this with different results. Any luck in getting the RAID Card to see the full 3TB in the drives?
By the way, without the RAID Card, the Mac (OS 10.6.4) sees the full 3TB, but not with it.
Anyone else seeing this?

Okay. Seems Apple didn't plan for or certify 3TB.
However, Apple doesn't support using 3rd party drives. Some do, and in some situations, drives you would think work don't, or they work but only briefly.
When I said read FAQ I was thinking of all the points like this:
Question: *Which drives does Apple support for the Mac Pro RAID Card and the Xserve RAID Card?*
Answer: Only Apple SATA drives and Promise 450GB SAS Drive modules sold through the Apple Store are supported for use with the Mac Pro RAID Card (Early 2009) and the Xserve RAID Card (Early 2009).
Apple 300GB SAS Drive modules are supported with the Mac Pro RAID Card (Late 2007) and Xserve RAID Card (Early 2007).
Drives must be either all Serial ATA (SATA) or all Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) drives. SSD drive modules are not recommended for the Apple RAID Card because these drives use their own on-disk cache and cannot take advantage of the protection provided by the battery-backed cache on the RAID card.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1346#faq8
http://www.apple.com/support/macpro/
Apple Knowledge Base: recent changes:
http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=articles

Access MP motherboard SATA ports when using Apple RAID card

I asked this question in another topic and thought I'd have better luck in a separate topic.
I will soon be the proud owner of an early 2008 3.2 G Mac Pro with the Apple RAID card. I have been given a lot of great advice by the regulars to this topic area who gave me an idea that I wanted to confirm would work.
Since the internal HDs are connected through the RAID card, that leaves the iPass connector free to connect 4 more SATA drives to the motherboard. The suggestion was made to use an iPass to 4 x SATA cable to gain access. But where to attach and mount the drives? If not the optical bay, the only alternative is outboard, but what to do with the cable? I also learned here that there are two more SATA ports on the motherboard, and Newer Technology makes a cable that attaches to both and mounts in an empty PCI slot hole. Very neat.
So why not combine the two? I am not certain, but it appears that the connector genders are such that you could combine an iPass to 3 x SATA cable attached to the motherboard to a pair of the Newer Tech cables, then mount them to the PCI doors enabling the user to attach 4 more SATA drives with suitable for another RAID, boot Camp or whatever. Does this seem a reasonable solution? Would love some feedcak on this. Thanks.

This:
> But, when I install Mavericks to 512GB SSD in PCIe slot, installation finishes without problem, but the system NEVER boot up with that drive.
It is not uncommon to have trouble installing, cloning, or booting from a PCIe card - though the Sonnet Tempo Pro SSD is one of the reliable ones, still, you should install the OS first on SATA II normally, then move the SSD to its new home.
The fact the SSD works on the ODD port - have you asked or looked for firmware update or anything from Sonnet and what they have to say?
With three PCIe cards to contend with, they may interact - not unheard of - and the USB3 may need drivers first to work?

Windows and Mac Pro w/ Apple RAID card

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

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

How do I determine what needs attention on my Apple RAID card?

Every time I turn on the computer, I get a message that says," The Apple RAID Card installed in your system requires your attention."
This is what I have: RAID 065-7214 Mac Pro RAID Card
Why do I keep getting this message? I am not sure what needs to be done to rectify any error. If there is no error and the warning is just due to battery charging, then I would like the warning to stop appearing--or do I just have to continuously click "Ignore"? Any insight into this?
When I open RAID Utility it says: RAID set R0-1 has been mounted with indeterminate data loss. ( Is this just due to improper shutdown?)
Also: Controller reports RAID system 72-hour battery reserve unavailable-System is configured to run without battery.
Message was edited by: Darlyne

I have had the exact same error message. When you open Raid Utility (that is where you can read what "attention" is needed you will see under the "Status" section what happened, and under the "Tasks" you will see the raid card "initializing" your RAID set. The first time I saw this I freaked, thinking that my drives were being reformatted, and my data would be lost. This is not the case. If you look down on the left side, you will (hopefully) see green lights next to your drives. The initialization seems to be a verification of the raid structure -- basically checking to make sure everything is redundant.
So, back to the original question: it seems from my poking around that you SHOULD NEVER TURN OFF your Mac Pro with an Apple Raid Card installed. The firmware is not able to spin down the drives correctly, so when you turn your machine back on, you get the error message we have been discussing.
I would recommend you get a good battery backup (UPS, like an APC) and just power off your monitor when not using your machine. I did not see this in the documentation, I am not 100% sure, but this is what I will be doing. In my case it takes many hours for the Raid Util to initialize my Raid again.
Hope this helps.
Theo

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:          No

As 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.

Apple RAID card II - will it work in single CPU Mac Pro 4,1?

Will the Apple RAID card work in a quad core 2009 Mac Pro? I'm refurbing a used Mac Pro I got at a great price and just wondering if I can put in this card (which was "thrown in" with a used 8 core I also bought) with the idea of doing a RAID 10 to experiment with getting top disk read/write performance. I know most do not like the Apple RAID card II but it might be a cost effective way to max out performance on the single CPU, quad core Mac Pro. Ultimately I want to falsh the firmware to 5,1 and upgrade the CPU to a W3690 hex core. I plan to use this box for photography, light video and possibly sound editing. If my plan will result in high benchmarks and provide some fault tolerance I'm comfortable with using the card. I have heard from other users that the new card is much better than the first version and that it actually works pretty well. Any insights appreciated.

Heck!
Im about to win an eBay auction for a blue Apple RAID card together with a pair or SAS 300gb cheetah 15.5k discs for 75 bucks *happy*. Would have been healthy fast upgrade for small investment I thought?!
Guess it probably would have been if the thing worked!?
Why doesnt it work? iPass cable or something like that?
Suppose I still want to go the SAS route with those drives for performance. Any other cards not too expensive that will enable SAS in the Pro?
I use my MP 4,1 as a photo edit workstation but I also keep it on 24/7 for home server, web server, nas, backup etc. So i like to use items that are made for round the clock usage.
Or i just get inexpensive SATA drives and SoftRAID them. So RAID 0+1 is no problem in software RAID?
Thank you guy for quick informed response

Suggestions for removing Apple RAID Card?

After a year of dealing with problematic Apple RAID cards, and replacement batteries – we are ready to move on, without the RAID card.
We have not yet used it as a RAID – all drives operate discretely, non-RAIDed.
We propose to remove the RAID card to eliminate that point of common failure. Has anyone else faced this, done this? Any suggestions, warnings?
TIA for your kind attention.

Hi Michael,
What issues are you having? I had an issue with a faulty battery on a new xserve but once that was swapped out it's been as good as gold. If the drives you have installed have not been raided then you could buy the SATA backplane for the Xserve and swap it out.. Takes about 10 mins to do.
All the best
Beatle

Is there a firmware update for the Apple RAID Card [early 2009 Xserve] that will take it beyond the E-1.3.2.0 version and allow it to see 4TB drives?

Is there a firmware update for the Apple RAID Card [early 2009 Xserve] that will take it beyond the E-1.3.2.0 version and allow it to see 4TB drives?

I have a few of these RAID cards in a couple servers, and then I have an earlier version of the RAID card in a few different servers.
The earlier servers are running non-apple 1.5 TB drives. It will be interesting to learn if this firmware update will indeed allow me to boost the capacity by installing non-apple drives, as the firmware previously has not.
Ohh I'm excited to update and try! This will greatly help out if it does!

Lion, trim & SSD on Apple RAID card

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