Mac Pro RAID configuration advice needed to address photography workflow

I am a semi-professional photographer and I am moving off a Windows machine and over to a Mac Pro.
I am waiting for the new Mac Pro to arrive and have purchased (4) 500GB SATA drives to replace the 250GB drive the system will arrive with.
I am considering setting up drive #1 as a stand alone boot drive. The second and third drives would be set up in a RAID 0 config and the 4th drive set up as a RAID 1 drive which would mirror the content on my RAID 0 set of drives to automatically backup the content on drives 2 & 3.
I think it would be beneficial if I describe my image processing workflow briefly so that you can understand why I am considering this RAID configuration (I've never set up a RAID configuration in the past so this is all new to me).
Image Processing Workflow
It isn't uncommon for me to return from a photo shoot with an 8GB Compact Flash card full (approx 750 8mb RAW files).
1) I plan on uploading my card to the boot drive (#1) where I would hold them temporarily.
2) I would sort thru the images and trash 80% immediately in most cases.
3) Next I would open up the "keepers" and do the initial post processing in Adobe RAW and save them to drives 2 & 3 (the RAID 0 set).
4) Further post processing (the heavy lifting and the most taxing operations in Photoshop and associated filters) would take place as I access these files from the RAID 0 set of drives.
5) All of my files would be mirrored to drive 4 as I work them. Once post-processing is complete I would copy the files from drive #4 (RAID 1)to an additional external 500GB drive for archiving purposes and then eventually delete the files from drive #1 and the RAID 0 set.
6) Once drive #4 (and the external drive) is nearly filled I would pull both and archive them and replace both with fresh drives.
Is there anything wrong with taking this approach? Can a single drive be set up in a RAID 1 configuration to mirror a set of drives in a RAID 0 configuration?
Is there anything else I should be considering?
Thanks for any assistance you guys can provide! I appreciate it!!

For the purposes of 500GB drives in RAID, I would go with WD RE2. they format to 465GB and performance falls off @ 65% and beyond anyway.
I even "short-stroke" drives to just 60% and then stay within 1/3 full - if I want to insure the maximum I/O.
Memory: 4GB is pretty much minimum but using more than 8GB isn't efficient. Ideal: 4 x 2GB.
Shame that the Hitachi 1TB drive costs over $399 for now, fast and might be better than 10K Raptor. There are also 750GB drives for $249, but the RE2 isn't quite ready to ship.
Never want to get into using 75% or more usually, though large (8-20 drives) RAIDs can hold sustained I/O for video editing and multiple streams.
One 750GB or 1TB (930GB formatted, 800GB "usable") might make sense.
How about a SATA drive case w/ hot-swap. Think of 1TB "floppy" if you will :-)) Unlimited archiving of projects.
All you want is an inexpensive eSATA 1x 2-channel PM controller and any cases. Two drives that you can use drive trays as needed.
there are also 'spare' drive sleds if you want to have the option of popping a drive out, and use it internally. $29 each or $49 a pair.
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com - link to TransIntl site
Vista 64-bit can or does work quite well now on Mac Pro... if you ever get into a jam and just need to. SP1 by end of the year will even have more support for UEFI 2.0 (Apple uses Intel EFI 1.1).

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New Mac Pro Tower Configuration

Hi
I am currently looking at purchasing a new Mac Pro Desktop Tower to run CS 5.5. I am planning to use it for longer video projects with premier and AE. I would also be using audition to some extent.
I don't think that I can afford to go with a twelve core version of the Mac Pro, but I am wondering what is the best way to configure the ram/processor/video card?
Also are there any compatability issues with OSX Lion?
Any help will do.
Thanks

While the case for building a PC is strong and valid, and while I would build a PC if I needed a new system right now, I also understand the needs of some institutions to build a Mac. Here is my advice in that regard:
1. You don't need dual processors. I have a single 6-core 3.33GHz chip in my 2009 Mac Pro (which I upgraded myself) and it handles heavy work in Premiere and After Effects CS5.
2. Don't buy any RAM from Apple. With the price of hard drives today, it isn't such a big deal to have Apple install extra drives for you, but if you're even slightly technically inclined, you can install more RAM and hard drives for less if you shop and buy from other vendors. There is a great Mac-specialty website where I buy my RAM from called OWC (Other World Computing link) that has excellent deals and service. I think 24GB is minimum ($322), and 32GB is better... only $425 right now.
3. If you have the budget, a proper third party RAID card is a much better deal and performer than Apple's Mac Pro RAID Card, so don't waste your money there unless you really want to limit yourself to an internal RAID 5 of no more than four disks. I got by with a 3-drive RAID (AID) 0 stripe of disks for a year before needing to expand to a proper RAID. With three Apple drives striped together, you'll get a sustained data throughput of 330MB/sec both read and write speed, which is good enough to edit some HD video. I edited a feature-length film shot on P2 at 108060i/24p using only three internal Apple 1TB disks, with backups to external drives holding a safety net for my data.
4. You don't need to buy an NVIDIA /CUDA card (Quadro 4000). I have the 5870 from Apple, and I can edit DSLR 5DMkII footage in smooth real-time, but that is helped by the 32GB of RAM and fast RAID. I have a CUDA card, an older GTX285, and while it was good for Premiere, I felt it was slower than the 5870 in After Effects, which is where I spend more time rendering anyway.
I'm not sure how much weight you'll be placing on student projects being safe from loss in the event of a drive failure, but you could either have them back their projects up themselves on their own external drives, or build a robust RAID. I have an Areca RAID card that runs eight 2TB disks in RAID6, which yields 12TB of very fast data that is also still safe if any two of the eight drives fails before being replaced. Depending on the number of students using the system, it could cost less to build a similar RAID than have each student buy their own drives. Question is, does the school eat that cost of security for the students, or let them shoulder that cost themselves?
I was a film school student myself, and I know what it's like to sign up for a four-hour block on a limited number of edit suites. You want the system to run faster than the students, so they can be creative without wasting their time slot waiting for the computer.
With your education discount from Apple, you should be able to get a 6-core 2010 Mac Pro, RAM, disks (and RAID if you go that route) from 3rd parties about $6000... much less if you skip the RAID system. If I can help in any way, let me know. I love my system, even if I could build it in a PC today at half the cost. Adobe works the same (or better) on a PC as it does on a Mac once you're in the software, but if you have to go Apple and can't wait for what may come out in the future, consider a system like mine.
2009 Mac Pro (updated to 2010 firmware... you'd buy a 2010 and not worry about that.)
3.33GHz 6-core CPU
ATI Radeon HD 5870 (still runs software acceleration very nicely)
32GB RAM @1333MHz
(4) internal hard disks (1=OS X, Adobe CS5, 2+3=RAID0 (stripe) for scratch files, 4=other backups and storage)
Areca 1880ix-12 RAID card
Sans Digital 8-bay tower
(8) 2TB WD RE-4 hard disks in RAID6 = 12TB parity array (sustained 816MB/sec write, 714MB/sec read speeds)
Various backups in external disks.
Good luck!

Mac Pro RAID 5 disk goes offline frequently in a random way. What can be causing this odd behavior?

Hi dudes,
I installed recently two Mac Pro RAID cards inside their corresponding Mac Pro systems. Four 2 TB Hitachi SATA disks are contained inside each system, and configured as RAID 5. Yes, the operating system is installed on this RAID 5 volume in order to get the highest performance of the array, taking advantage of the RAID 5 protection (Autodesk Smoke runs in each system; this application works only with uncompressed video in real time). I already had tested both systems keeping separated the boot disk just for the operating system, and making the RAID 5 volume just with three 2 TB disks, but the performance was slow on both systems.
The performance is now very good, but unfortunately, in both systems happens that sometimes one of the disks goes offline with no apparent reason. The RAID Utility immediately reports the failure and it is mandatory to declare as spare the disk that went offline. Then the rebuild process begins, but in the meantime, the performance goes down in a noticeable way. Sometimes it is even worse, because the disk disappears completely. Then, it is mandatory to turn off the system, and boot it up again, in order to see in the RAID Utility the missing disk, which needs to be declared as spare in order to be reintegrated into the RAID 5 volume in a slow rebuilding process.
Some important remarks: this very new Mac Pro systems do not have the iPass cable (at least apparently; I already disassembled completely one of these systems). This cable is mentioned in one Mac RAID card manual that I found over the internet. The diagrams do not match exactly with the Mac Pro nor the Mac Pro RAID board. I did not find a proper iPass connector in any of the Mac Pro RAID cards (?!). So, my guess is that currently the communication between the system and its Mac Pro RAID card is just by means of the internal bus. I think that if the iPass connection were mandatory, the RAID Utility would report it with a noticeable error message. Please advise.
I think that these Mac Pro RAID cards need a firmware upgrade, in order to be able to work fine with big SATA drives. Again, please advise.
Thanks in advance from Mexico.
Sincerely,
Martin Ponce de Leon

Hi Grant,
Thank you for your prompt response. The manual is a PDF document issued by Apple and it seems OK, but no updated to the latest Mac Pro system and Mac Pro RAID. I do not find the link where I found this manual. The systems belong to one of our customers. As far as I remember, in the printed manual included with the boards, it is not mentioned anything about the iPass cable, just about the battery cable. Do you know where can I get a PDF manual of the latest Mac Pro RAID card and the latest Mac Pro system? This client is far from our offices. So, I would prefer a PDF copy of this manual.
The drives that have gone offline, once they are back, are reported in a good status in the RAID Utility. Besides that, I have tested them in another system in our facilites, and all of them work fine. So, my guess is that the high capacity drives are not yet supported by the Mac Pro RAID card, or it requires a firmware update.
They do need to have in the same volume OS and video storage because three disks do no provide a good performance (they need also RAID 5), but four disks work fine... excepting when one disk is missing. Please advise. Thank you.
Best Regards,
Martin

Is OCZ Vertex Turbo 60GB 2.5" SSD compatible with my Mac Pro, or do I need

Is OCZ Vertex Turbo 60GB 2.5" SSD compatible with my Mac Pro, or do I need the Vertex Mac Edition?
I have decided to purchase a SSD to use as a boot drive in the spare optical drive bay.
There are so many brands available, and Intel X25-M 'G2' seems generally to be the most highly rated overall. However, there is virtually no stock of 80GBs in the UK at present, except at extortionate prices, and I don't need 160GB.
Kingston SSDs are very reasonably priced, but seem to be a bit of an unknown quantity, although I rate their DDR3 memory very highly.
I have visited the websites of several manufacturers, and read various online reviews, and the recently introduced OCZ Vertex Turbo has had some good reviews, albeit on PC forums.
At the moment I can buy the 60GB Turbo for £170.66 inc.VAT from ebuyer.com, whereas their price for the standard Vertex 60GB is £193.99 inc. VAT, which seems very strange!
When I googled "OCZ Solid State Drives +UK", Amazon UK appeared on the listings, but there was a footnote which said " not suitable for use on Mac".
OCZ list a Vertex Series Mac Edition on their website, and that is why I am asking this question.
Unfortunately, there are no UK listings when I google the Mac Edition, and I am hoping that somebody of the ilk of "the hatter" or "samsara" will be able to answer my question.
If anybody else is using the Vertex Turbo in a Mac, I would be very grateful for your input. Likewise if you have had bad experiences with OCZ SSDs.
If I wait 3-4 weeks I should be able to buy an Intel X25-M G2 80GB for round about the same price as the Vertex Turbo 60GB, i.e. if prices remain the same as currently being quoted by vendors who are out of stock.
All input will be very gratefully received. If it is positive, I will go ahead and order a Vertex Turbo from ebuyer, in case they run out of stock (which is 16 at present).
Many thanks in anticipation, guys!

Hi Samsara,
Many thanks for your advices once again.
60GB will be more than adequate as my boot drive. At the moment I am using a VelociRaptor 300GB, and I have used less than 30GB of space. That is after reinstalling all my applications and software, and includes all my files, folders, and printer drivers etc.
I have utilised under 50GB of the original 640GB hard drive, but that includes a lot of photo images which I imported into both iPhoto and Aperture.
When I receive my Agility EX SSD I will clone from the VelociRaptor using Super Duper, and I will then set up a 4 drive RAID 0 using 4 VelociRaptor 300GB disks. That set up should suit my needs for many years to come, even when I eventually upgrade from Photoshop Elements 8 to CS5.
I will back up the Agility EX to the 640GB hard drive using Super Duper Smart Update, and that will be my spare boot drive.
The 4 drive RAID 0 will be backed up to the My Book Studio Edition II 2TB, using Time Machine.
In your experienced opinion, do you think that set up will be satisfactory?
The Agility EX is actually the latest generation of OCZ SSDs, and it is one of only 2 models in their "Maximum Performance" range, whereas the original Agility was only a "Mainstream" model.
The key factor is that the Agility EX uses single-level cells (SLC), instead of multi-level cells (MLC). It is second only to the Vertex EX Series in terms of performance per GB in the OCZ range of SATA 2.5" Solid State Drives.
In very recent reviews it has outperformed both the Vertex Turbo and Vertex 120GB models from the OCZ "Performance" range in most of the test benchmarks.
http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/24507-ocz-agility- ex-60gb-ssd-review.html
http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=article&item=oczagilityex&num=1
http://www.guru3d.com/article/ocz-agility-ex-ssd-60gb-review-test/3
The above are just a few of the very favourable reviews of the Agility EX SSD.
I preferred to buy a 60GB SLC, rather than a 120GB MLC, because SLCs reputedly have 10 times more life expectancy, and performance wise per GB there is no comparison.
Only time will tell if I have made the right decision!

Mac Pro RAID 0 setup with bootcamp

I'm about to take the plunge and buy a Mac Pro as soon as I get the money (or credit) to. There have been things here and there that have turned me off but I found ways around some concerns, but this one I haven't been able to find.
I am a musician and want to utilize raw power that Mac does so well with. But unfortunately my DAW of choice doesn't support OS X. I hate Vista, I never upgraded, I stayed with XP but have been willing to change to OS X with XP as well, to get the best of both worlds. Then i find my DAW doesn't support XP 64 bit so i am going to have to use Vista 64-bit (bummer).
What I haven't been able to figure out is if it is possible to run a RAID 0 of the windows OS and all its data. The Mac Pro RAID card doesn't support any Windows OS so i am wondering if there is anyway possible to get the Windows OS in RAID, any good hardware or software that will accomplish this. Like if i get the Mac Pro RAID cad, is there a good software or hardware RAID that will allow me to install windows in a RAID 0 configuration?
If its possible I would have no reasons to not move over, but I really need to have my RAID setup in windows since I am using latency sensitive disk streaming programs that need to stream files in the GBs
Also could I just opt out for the Mac Pro Card and get a generic RAID card that supports both Windows and OS X? And if so any recommendations?
Message was edited by: jmoss211

I'm glad you are in the planning stages!
The question I didn't know to ask is always the one that bites the worst.
One of the best options might be the RR 4320
http://www.hptmac.com/US/product.php?_index=50&viewtype=details
http://www.barefeats.com/hard109.html
http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Highpoint%20Technologies/RRAID4320/
One of the first Mac Pro RAID and Boot Camp work?
Games, hence the whole gaming graphics area, has and is not high on the list of features, which had been a large reason for people installing Windows on Mac.
I didn't want to see you invest in SAS and not get performance level you want.
StorageReview Performance SCSI/SAS vs VelociRaptor
Here is the card Barefeats felt was the card that Apple has to beat, and points to some of the limitations of SAS on the Mac Pro. http://www.barefeats.com/hard104.html
MacWorld SanFran in a couple weeks is when Apple traditionally would use to announce some of the new products for the next year (Snow, Mac Pro '09, new iMac, etc).
Apple is not very upgradeable. It would cost me more to upgrade the cpu than buy new (though can get a good $$ on my system - in part because it runs the prior version of OS X 10.4 "Tiger". New systems will only run the current/latest OS, you won't be able to run Leopard if a system comes with Snow. The graphic choices and upgrades can be lame. It is almost a closed box.)
I've talked to people that were into audio that used Fibre Channel in part due to low latency, increased queue depth (which is one area SATA has never implemented, 32 vs 256 I/O per sec).
+Forget trying to use the Apple search to find threads, it is 'busted' if I can't find the thread mbean and I had with someone only last week on RAID5/6. I turned to Google to find this thread +
Multi-core compiler optimization is big on Santa Intel's wish list to get into the hands of developers and vendors.
*3 GHz Nehalem outperforms the latest Opteron by a margin as high as 80% and more.*
Intel has apparently allowed HP and Fujitsu-Siemens to break the NDA on the Xeon 5570 processor for PR reasons as both companies have published SAP numbers on a Dual Xeon 5570. The Xeon 5570 is based on the same architecture as the Core i7. It is a 2.93 GHz quad-core CPU with 4 times a 256 KB L2-cache and one huge shared 8 MB L3.
http://anandtech.com/weblog/showpost.aspx?i=532
And AMD just gave Intel a new run for the money.
AnandTech’s Johan de Gelas has taken a look at AMD and Intel quad-socket servers. The quad-socket six-core Intel Xeon X7460 at 2.66 GHz is compared to the quad-socket four-core Shanghai-based Opteron 8384 at 2.7 GHz. And what were the results of a test using VMware’s ESX Server 3.5?
Shanghai’s 16 cores outperformed Dunnington’s 24 cores (or 48 if Hyper-Threading was used) by 6.5% or 8.8% depending on whether or not IBM or Dell’s chipset was used. But if we normalize that out per core, Shanghai outperforms by 59.8% (per core) or 63.2%. That is unbelievable!
http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/amd-cleans-up-in-high-end-server-virtualizati on-20081223/

Mac Pro RAID Card and Western Digital drives

I'm having huge troubles with these items.
I first installed four WD7500AYYS (Raid Edition) to build a RAID 5 and install Leopard on it. At this point, one of the drives was probably DOA and didn't show up in the bay. I then reinstalled the Seagate that shipped with the machine, then proceeded to create another enhanced JBOD raid with one of the WD drives. After a couple of seconds, RAID utility reported an error (disk about to fail and such). I then tried with another one. The process ended with a kernel panic after two hours, while RAID utility was still marking the drive for enhanced JBOD. That disk never show up again, in any bay.
At this point, I'm left with two WD drives. I can't get past the creation of a RAID set with them, no matter what. Either RAID utility reports an error, or it says the disk has been ejected, or it keeps create the RAID for hours... The later usually ends with a "force quit", or a force shutdown. During these attemps, the RAID card went missing once, then it appeared again on the following reboot. The RAID battery, which was fully charged at first, is now being "repaired" (charging ?).
I then ran AHT to see whether there was something wrong. No errors reported.
Because all four drives were Raid Edition, I thought this could be the root of the problems. So I bought a Caviar SE16 (WD5000AAKS). To no avail. It fails too, in the very same way. And now it no longer appears in any bay.
The last step I took was to remove the RAID card (connecting the iPass connector to the motherboard). Out of the five WD drives, only two RE2 (the two that still show up with the RAID card) do appear in disk utility. But disk utility never ends "writing the partition map" or "preparing for initialization".
By now, I end up with five WD drives that appear to be just dead, as if they were killed by the RAID card trying to RAID them. The only drive that works, with or without the RAID card, in any bay, is the Seagate. I didn't try to fiddle with it though (I'm reluctant to format it just to see whether I can create an enhanced JBOD raid with it).
So the question is, are Western Digital drives compatible with this RAID card ? If they do, then how a RAID card can kill them in such a way while keeping the Seagate alive ?
I'm lost in conjectures. I don't even know if/how I can bring all the WD drives back to life. I'm not sure the RAID card is faulty, I've already lost a lot of time and money, I'm not willing to buy yet another drive to see it fail too, and my Mac Pro is kind of useless as I don't want to spend time on installing/configuring everything I need on a drive that is bound to be replaced by a larger RAID 5 array.
Any help is appreciated. Thank you.

Someone yesterday or Friday, had a system with 4 x 1TB drives and Pro RAID, but in their case, it was determined later Saturday that drive bay #1 was not functioning.
Hopefully these fully retail drives, not OEMs, and I would think they are fine. They are what I would use (Sonnet Tempo only supports RE of the WD drives). Someone else, Danish?, had 3 out of 4 WD drives were DOA.
I've never had trouble buying over a dozen from OWC, so it does seem odd.
If you have SoftRAID 3.6.6 I would use that to zero the first and last 100 sectors, or you can begin to zero the whole drive and cancel at any time, just to check the health of the drive and that it can zero and not produce I/O errors.
There are two other methods for accessing and managing Mac Pro RAID, ARD and CLI
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306231
Originally, only Apple drives were supported. My understanding was that this changed. But the only article I found in KB dates back to Aug '07:
Question: What drives does Apple support with the Mac Pro RAID Card and the Xserve RAID Card?
Answer: +Only Apple drives are supported with the Mac Pro RAID Card and the Xserve RAID Card.+
My understanding that 3rd party retail drives such as WD RE2 750GB, Seagate, Hitachi were supported as well since the article was written - and I can't find where I read that, but sure that I did, as this was discussed in the past.
I'd like to find an official article. Even my friend Google was helpless

Leopard/Bootcamp/Mac pro RAID Card

The last two bullets in the "More Info" section of Apple's Mac Pro RAID card read as follows:
• The Mac Pro RAID Card is required when selecting 15,000-rpm SAS drives.
• The Mac Pro RAID Card supports Mac OS X only.
Five Apple tech reps have told me I can run Leopard on a striped array of three 300GB SAS drives and then, via Bootcamp, use the fourth independent 300GB SAS drive to run Windows XP. I ordered a $10,000 G5 tower on this premise and now, today, a sixth Apple tech rep tells me it cannot be done. Each time I've called, I get a somewhat different answer. Does anyone have actual experience with a G5 such as this? Is there a third party RAID card that will work? If necessary, I still have time to cancel my order. Why would Apple build a RAID card that is not compatible with a most important feature of Leopard--Bootcamp? I don't understand their philosophy. They seem to work at biting the hand that feeds them.

Kappy, thanks for taking time to try to answer my question. I'll state it more clearly.
At this moment I'm typing on a 3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon machine with four 500Gb drives. Three drives are configured as a RAID 0 Volume running Leopard. The fourth INDEPENDENT drive is partitioned via Bootcamp into two bootable volumes--one with Leopard and other with Windows XP Professional. For the new machine I would like to purchase, I never intend to run Windows from a RAID volume. My beef with Apple is that their high performance 15,000 rpm SCSI drives require their RAID card to function, whether it be in a RAID set or independently. Their interface to the motherboard is through the RAID card. Apple has not written Windows drivers for their RAID card. Consequently, if I intend to run Windows on their latest Mac Pro, I cannot install the high performance 15,000 rpm drives. I simply would like to configure the new machine the same as the one I have now, which is three drives combined in a RAID 0 array running Leopard, and the fourth drive remaining a stand alone for Bootcamp to partition into two bootable volumes--one with Leopard and one with Windows XP.
In summary, there is no way to use Apple's highest performance Mac Pro in a Windows environment. I think that's inconsiderate of Apple. I would like the performance of 15,000 rpm SCSI drives (RAID or not) but I also need Windows XP. I'm sure many others will face the same dilemma. Apple should give this matter a high priority and churn out the sorely needed drivers. So back to my original question--five Apple tech reps said I can configure the machine as described above and it will work fine--the sixth rep said there is no way it can work, because their card cannot run Windows. Who should I believe. I don't want to make a ten-thousand dollar mistake.
P.S. The configuration shown below is for the machine I hope to purchase, not the one I'm using now. This one is a 3GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Mac Pro.

Mac Pro RAID Rechargeable Lithium Battery

I am trying to purchase a replacement Apple Mac Pro RAID Rechargeable Lithium Battery for a Mac Pro tower. It is an oblong battery about 3"x2"x0.25" (8.0 cms x 5 cms x 0.5 cms).
Mine no longer accepts a charge so the cache won't back up. The Mac Pro is less than 18 months old.
I have tried the Apple online store, the Apple Store in Covent Garden, Albion (an Apple Premium Reseller on the Strand in London) and even CTS (an Apple Premium Reseller in Paris while there this weekend).
No-one seems to know of it let alone stock it.
Can anyone tell me where I can find it?
I have to say Apple's support on this is useless.
All help appreciated.
Mike

Is there an "official" policy regarding the way one should treat a machine with a raid card. Some say never to switch off the machine, others say this is nonsense, as even if the MacPro is switched off, the battery should still be able to maintain it's charge. I have heard various Apple representatives say different things, but as far as I recall, I have never seen something in writing. Besides, my Raid Card lasted exactly one week before it needed replacement. I have now been sent a battery replacement after 4 months, and it failed (again) while keeping the machine on...so I am really confused.
Thanks in advance.

Mac Pro RAID

I'm thinking of purchasing a Mac Pro RAID card, install 4 x 3TB disks in my Mac Pro and use it as a file server.
I want to configure these 4 as a RAID 5.
Is this possible to do? Can this be done in the setup process of OS X server?

The Apple Pro RAID card is the problem.
There is excellent software RAID for Mac OS; there are 3rd party external hardware RAID controllers.
You asked about RAID card.
the rest, there are any number of ways to go about it.
Guide Which Mac Pro
Mac Performance Guide Reviews

Sleep or Shut Down with Mac Pro RAID Card?

I'll be gone for a four-day weekend trip, which is longer than the 72 hours claimed for the Mac Pro RAID Card battery. If I shut down and come back four days later, the battery will presumably be discharged. What will happen when I restart?
Asked another way ... is 72 hours the maximum amount of time that the computer should be shut down or do I simply restart and wait for the battery to recharge and the write caches to be re-enabled?
The FAQ for the Mac Pro RAID Card http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1346 talks around this issue, but doesn't say whether it is a good or bad idea to allow the battery to discharge for "... any length of time." Please review the appended excerpt from the FAQ and advise on whether I should sleep or shut down.
Regards,
iPhoton
Question: Why does RAID Utility show a yellow light and report the status "Write cache disabled"?
Answer: The write cache is disabled automatically so data cannot be written to RAID volumes when the battery charge is not sufficient to back up cached data for 72 hours. This message is normally encountered when a RAID Card is used for the first time, when the battery enters a conditioning cycle once every three months, or when a computer with a RAID Card installed is shut down for any length of time.
If your RAID card's firmware is M-2.0.3.3 or later, or E-1.2.2.4 or later, you can use RAID Utility to force-enable the write cache while the battery conditions itself. Warning: If you enable the write caches before the battery is fully charged, you might lose some data if the power to your computer is interrupted.

Thanks to everyone who replied to my message. I did a proper backup and normal shut down on Wednesday night and restarted on Monday morning. That was over 100 hours later and certainly more than the battery is specified (72 hours).
When I restarted on Monday morning I noticed ... no change! The battery was fully charged according to the RAID Utility, I received no warning messages, there were no new events in the RAID Utility log ... it's as if the extended shutdown never occurred.
So, an extended shutdown appears not to be a problem and I won't worry about it again, not even on my next extended shutdown for three weeks at the end of the year.
Regards,
iPhoton

Updating to Mac Pro - do I still need a soundcard?

I'm updating my old G4 Powermac to a Mac Pro. As a front end I have a Focusrite ISA 428 with the optional ADC which gives 8 digital outputs.
Do I still need my old MOTU 2408 (Motu will sell me a PCI-424x adaptor to fit the Mac Pro) when I can lightpipe straight into the Mac Pro optical ins from the optical out of the Focusrite?
I guess I'm wondering whether I need a soundcard at all?

Not being funny!
But you're post does sound funny!
At first i though you were asking a Question <Updating to Mac Pro - do I still need a soundcard? >
Awaiting to answer, it later reads
<Do I still need my old MOTU 2408 (Motu will sell me a PCI-424x adaptor to fit the Mac Pro) when I can lightpipe straight into the Mac Pro optical ins from the optical out of the Focusrite?>
Then you gave you're answer
Then i realy seems to now conclude, are you talking to yourself, Eg. asking a Question, then Quickly answer ing it.
Cool-Game!
Fr.BlayZay.

My Mac Pro shows all hyperlinks as full addresses how can i stop this

when i add a hyperlink to a document my Mac Pro shows it as a full address, not the underlined hyperlink title!
I have used the 'edit hyperlink option' to changed the 'display' but nothing happens
how can i stop the full url showing?
thanks

Just as an FYI, upsate to 14.3.7... now to your problem:
In Word, I'm assuming that you're highlighting the text that you want to link to and using command-K to insert the hyperlink:
The hyperlink dialog box should look like this:
Is that what you're seeing?
Clinton

Raid 1 advice needed...

Hi
I am planning on purchasing a new Mac Pro. With the purchase I am also considering of a neat way of cloning the main drive.
Currently I am using Lacie drive and PSynchX do do regular bootable backups on a regular basis.
Going forward I would like to be a little more up-to-date with backup's. So here is what I am considering:
1. Purchase the Mac Pro Raid card and a 2nd internal drive and go for RAID 1 config.
2. Purchase a G-Drive Safe (RAID 1 backup) and then continue to use something like PSynchX but now I am storing the backup on 2 drives. http://www.g-technology.com/Products/G-SAFE.cfm Yes this is not the same as #1 above but better than just backing to a single Lacie drive!
So far this is all I have for ideas. Please provide your recommendations/suggestions as to the #1 and #2 and well as any other solution.
Primary reason is to have a backup plan of action in case the main drive fails. As I have important work on the machine (Images, Code etc etc). Cost is a consideration so I am not looking for a solution that will cost me $1000's
Thanks in advance.
Message was edited by: Max Shafiq

I thought my using a RAID 1 mirror if one of the drives failed then the other would continue as if nothing happened
When all works as it should then yes, you should be able to simply keep on going. You'll get this if you have a straight hardware failure of one drive although it doesn't always work out that way. If directory, or other, damage also occurs during the failure it may also damage the other drive which would bring down the set.
What do you mean by rebuild?
Restoring or adding one or more drives into the RAID 1 set.
I know this may sound stupid but why would someone want to run a RAID config then?
Because RAID 1 should pretect you against what it was intended, a hardware failure in one or more members in the RAID set.
I recently had a client that decided to let their Mac OS X server run off its UPS until the power from the UPS went out during an extended power outage. Well, if it weren't for RAID 1 they would have been royally screwed as not only did the RAID controller kick a drive off the set but there was substantial directory damage to the other drive. If there was a single drive it may not have been recoverable.
By the way, when you use RAID 1 you don't have a "master" drive and then copies. What you have is two or more original drives. It's a subtle but very important distinction. They are ALL the same. So when the RAID controller get told to write data to the drives it send identical commands to all drives so that all drive command are queued at exactly the same time and in exactly the same way. When it reads it should split the reads between the drive to improve performance although Apple software doesn't do that very well (which is beside the point here). This is why it's important to have identical drives in any RAID set to ensure the same performance properties.

Is the Apple Mac Pro RAID card (v 2.0) compatible with the Mac Pro (v. 1.1)?

Hello,
Just wondering if any of you experts know if the Apple Mac Pro RAID card (v 2.0) is functional with the Mac Pro (v 1.1)?
I have an original Mac Pro and a new (black) Mac Pro RAID card. I would like to know if I can get any functionality.
I initially thought that the only difference was that the later RAID card did not have the same limitations on the HDs. I am aware that my original Mac Pro has a SATA II bus rather than a SATA III bus- but I am hoping this will not present any issues other than speed.
I am currently using Disk Utility for a striped software RAID (0) but would like to move to a parity hardware RAID (5); hence the purchase. If this isn't possible I'm not overly concerned as I managed to get hold of the RAID card for next to nothing so thought I would take the chance.
Any feedback would be appreciated as everything I've dug up online over the past few days has been a little inconclusive.
Julius.

The black-substrate card requires a 2009 or later model, and works only in slot 4, which has a special connector for it there.
The blue-substrate card requires the ipass cable and connector feature in the 2008 and older models.
These cards are both showing their age, and limit drive size to 2.2TB each. Their data-backup batteries have been extremely troublesome. You should probably look at other alternatives as well.
Mac Pro RAID Card: Identification and compatibility

Graphics card crash on Mac Pro RAID

I've had a very odd issue with a Mac Pro RAID running SL client.
The Mac Pro serves files to a small network of Macs and is usually very reliable, however I was archiving and moving around a lot of files (over 100gb) overnight and when I returned next day, the monitor that the Mac pros connected to wouldn't show the desktop screen.
The monitor had power, and the Mac was turned on, still serving files as normal and had not crashed in any way.
I VNC'ed into this Mac and the desktop appeared, and looking in system profiler the video card wasn't there.
A restart sorted it out.
This has happened a few times and it's always when a large file copy is in progress overnight. The screen is switched off overnight by default.
I've thought the graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 5870) maybe overheated, so I cleaned the inside of the Mac of dust (it was a bit dusty but not much), but the problem remains, always when a large file copy takes place.
The past couple of times this has happened I couldn't even VNC into the Mac and had to restart it remotely using the terminal.
I've seen this article from Apple, but the video card cables are connected as normal:
Mac Pro (Mid 2010): Black screen after installing ATI Radeon HD 5870
My next steps are a hardware test, but would that test the video card?
Any help much appreciated.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4208248?tstart=0
Want to play safe w/ Apple ATI 5770 or play with PC flash/injector just to save $$

Mac Pro RAID configuration advice needed to address photography workflow

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