Need Advice on Choosing a Fibre Channel Card

I have an Xserve G5 and will be adding an Xserve RAID. There seems to be a number of choices out there for Fibre Channel cards(i.e. model M8940G/D vs M8940G/B, PCI vs PCI-X) Any advice on the correect card to buy to stay out of trouble would be welcome.

Get the PCI-X card for the Xserve G5.
The previous post is wrong; the Intel Xserves use a PCI Express card.
NO system uses a standard PCI card anymore. That's old, slow technology. Apple doesn't sell PCI cards... only PCI-X (for Xserve G5) and PCI Express (for Intel Xeon Xserve). Actually the Intel one can use either card, IF you get a PCI-X riser card instead of 2 PCI Express ones.

Similar Messages

Problem with fibre channel card and raid system after upgrading to 10.4.7

Hello, I have a problem with our Xserve G4 DP. After the installation of 10.4.7 everything works fine exept our fibre channel card. This card is connected to a Hitachi Raid System which worked fine over a year. But after the update the volume was no longer mounted. I even reinstalled the server to 10.4.4 and no sign of our raid volume. Using the apple fibre channel utiltiy 2.0, I see that there is a connection - but still the raid volume is not mounted. When I restart the server the lights on the back of the card are shortly flickering and sending some packets to the raid system but that´s all. Has anybody an idea?
Greetings from Heidelberg
Klaus
Xserve G4 DP 1 GHz Mac OS X (10.4.6) Mac OSX Server 10.4.7

You could re-update, by downloading the 10.4.7 Combination Updater from Apple.

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

Apple Fibre Channel card & kernel panics

Hello
i've just installed a new Apple Fibre card 4gb 2port, in the top PCIe slot running at 8x - fine. once installed I am getting erratic and random - kernel panics. I've removed the card and the panics stop.
enclosed is a panic log -- any advice or noticeable incompatibility?
really need to get this connected to my fibre san - so any help appreciated (or any other card that might work?
Thu May 17 13:36:40 2007
panic(cpu 2 caller 0x001A429B): Unresolved kernel trap (CPU 2, Type 14=page fault), registers:
CR0: 0x80010033, CR2: 0x24748900, CR3: 0x00dad000, CR4: 0x000006e0
EAX: 0x0096714c, EBX: 0x24748900, ECX: 0x47c6bd68, EDX: 0x47c6bd68
CR2: 0x24748900, EBP: 0x47c6bcc8, ESI: 0x065c7b28, EDI: 0x06949a00
EFL: 0x00010206, EIP: 0x0015abfa, CS: 0x00000008, DS: 0x06820010
Backtrace, Format - Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x47c6baa8 : 0x128d08 (0x3cb134 0x47c6bacc 0x131de5 0x0)
0x47c6bae8 : 0x1a429b (0x3d0e4c 0x2 0xe 0x3d0670)
0x47c6bbf8 : 0x19ada4 (0x47c6bc10 0x206 0x47c6bc28 0x3be101)
0x47c6bcc8 : 0x15c7f4 (0x6949a00 0xff 0x9001c000 0x0)
0x47c6bd88 : 0x160505 (0x6949a00 0x430000 0x0 0x65c7b28)
0x47c6bdf8 : 0x160bd2 (0x9001c000 0x0 0x65c7b28 0x430000)
0x47c6bf48 : 0x1a450e (0x1377ce4 0x9001c000 0x0 0x5)
0x47c6bfc8 : 0x19acd4 (0x6914a00 0x0 0x19e0b5 0x6ed0340) No mapping exists for frame pointer
Backtrace terminated-invalid frame pointer 0xbfffea88
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 8.9.1: Thu Feb 22 20:55:00 PST 2007; root:xnu-792.18.15~1/RELEASE_I386

Welcome to Apple Discussions!
It is possible you got a faulty card, or that the card was not properly seated, or that it doesn't have enough space in the slot to stay cool with other items in the slots. Try eliminating the latter as a possibility if you have additional PCI cards. Also if you have no other PCI cards, try changing slots to see if the slot on the Mac Pro is damaged. If all yield bad results, did you happen to migrate your data from a PowerPC Mac with the Migration Assistant? That can cause bad drivers to get migrated, and if there was a fiber channel card driver for the old Mac, it might be causing problems.
If not, then I'd assume you have a bad card, and I'd replace it.

PCI Express fibre channel card: chipset/model

Hi all,
I'm attempting to repurpose a first-generation Xserve RAID (with HSSDC2 ports) on an Intel-based Sun machine. My problem is that I need to find a Fibre Channel HBA which has SFP ports.
The first-gen Apple PCI Express card seems to fit the bill:
http://store.apple.com/uk/product/MA900G/A?mco=MTIxODk3Mw
According to several reports online, all Apple FC HBAs are re-branded LSI cards.
My question is, what chipset does this card use? And what is the equivalent LSI model number?
If someone who has this card installed could hit Apple System Profiler and paste the output for the FC card here that would be great

Yes, it is an LSI card.
Check out AlienRAID. It's a web site dedicated to running the XServe RAID in non-Apple environments. I used their site to get an XServe RAID running on a Sun server a few years ago, although I don't remember the details now.

Need advice on choosing a video card.

I am in the process of assembling a newer PC for editing & rendering footage primarily from Nikon dslrs. I have a 5960X chip, Gigabyte GA-99 MB with 24 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD for C: drive. At NAB I talked with Adobe, Nvidia & AMD reps and I'm still confused on choosing a video card within reasonable cost and the BEST performance! My choices so far are the AMD 8100 for ~1000$ & Nvidia 2000 for ~350$, 4000 for ~790$, 4200 for ~890$ and can't afford the 6000. Of my choices which would be the better choice (or your suggestions)?

None of them. The only sensible choices would be the nVidia GTX 970 or 980.
See Tweakers Page
The AMD is twice the price of the 980 and delivers half the performance. The Quadro K4200 is also overpriced and performs no better than the old GTX 660Ti for around € 275.
Better increase memory to 32 or 64 GB. 24 causes slow performance because of not using the quad channel architecture.

Need Advice on Choosing a Soundc

Hi.
I need some advice on buying a Li've 5. or Audigy2 ZS soundcard.
I am currently using SoundMax onboard as my sound provider, but I am planning to upgrade to either a Soundblaster Li've 5. or the Audigy2 ZS. However, I am unsure as to which one to go for.
Is there a big difference between the 2 soundcards taking in consideration that I only use sound for playing games, and listening to music. The Audigy2 ZS is much more expensi've and if there are no real difference between the two cards, from my perspecti've, I would rather go for the Li've 5. card.
Your advice will be appreciated.
Thanks
Raven

Either one will be better than that soundmax. It sounds kinda like you already made up your mind.
here are some diffs:
The Li've card is good for you if you want high quality surround sound in your music and games (assuming you have the speakers to take advantage) it does great with dolby digital 5. it is overall not a bad card for what you are looking to do with it.
The Audigy 2 ZS has THX certification, EAX , Dolby Digital 5., 6., and 7. capabilities, it also has bass boost . In other words this is a Much more powerful card than the Li've. It will give you GREAT Sound in Movies and a better experience in games than the 5. li've.
To sum up. If you just want good sourround sound in games and music go with the LIVE card. If you want to take your gaming and Movie experience to a Higher level and have all of the mind blowing ultra realistic sound your games can giv you, then go with Audigy 2 ZS.
PLEASE NOTE IT WONT MATTER WHAT SOUND CARD YOU GET IF YOU DONT HAVE THE SPEAKER SYSTEM TO BACK IT UP. Your audio will still suck.
This is just a comarison between these 2 cards, the best card you can get right now is the Audigy 4 and get a 7. surround sound speaker system.

Need advice on choosing laser printer for use w/Illustrator

I know there are a few other threads out there on printers but I'm hoping to get answers specific to my situation. I need a laser printer that isn't astronomically priced and as big as a warehouse. Basically we send all our stuff to outside printers, but need a good printer for proofing our work. Currently using an HP 4200n supplied to us (4 artists) by our company. We'd like to get a printer just for the artists, which will give us better quality than this one which seems a basic office printer.
We're also printing on basic office paper - what type paper would you recommend for graphics to look clean and sharp?
Criteria are:
1 - higher resolution - up to 1200dpi
2 - color preferred but not necessary
3 - wysiwyg so it will match what we're doing on screen (95% of our work is grayscale graphics)
4 - not so costly the company will refuse to purchase for us (initial cost and supplies)
Thanks to all who reply - also like to hear what to stay away from.

To Jacob's advice, I would add...
1. If you have the choice between genuine Adobe PostScript and a third-party emulation, go for the former. Unfortunately, this will cost you more money.
2. Unless you are dealing only with small-sized printed pieces -- that is to say, smaller than letter-size -- you really need to consider a large-format (e.g., tabloid size) laser. If your laser maxes out at letter-size (or legal-size) and your printed piece trims to letter-size, you'll need to reduce output to print out things like spreads, bleeds, printer's marks, etc. And if you can't proof at 100 percent (i.e., actual size), that's a huge disadvantage. Yes, you could print things out in sections and tape them together, but that will get old fast. Unfortunately, a tabloid-size PostScript laser will really set you back some bucks... not to mention some serious desktop real estate.
If you are budget-constrained, you should probably not rule out inkjet options.

Need advice on choosing programs for laying out and editing books

I've been editing books in Microsoft Word but my clients are asking me to help do the layout and prep to take their books to a printer.
I am looking to find out what the least expensive (for now) but necessary programs I would need to purchase in order to take a book from a Word manuscript to print-ready.
Please let me know what programs I need (at a minimum) - someone mentioned InDesign and InCopy, would I need anything else?
I will also need to purchase a new laptop and need to know what the minimum requirements would be to run such programs i.e. how much hard drive space, speed and ram.
I currently have a Gateway, but it is dying.
Thank you.

As Daniel says, if you have InDesign and you're the only one working on the docuument, that's all you need. Think of InCopy as a hugely-stripped-down version with only the text editor in it, but you can do everything you need in InDesign (either writing the text directly into the document, or importing formatted text from Word). InDesign has great typography features and a basic spellchecker, Word has less-advanced typography but can check grammar.
The typical workflow in a newsroom will split copywriting from layout, as the journalists aren't allowed to format the page and the graphics dept can't write articles. So, the text is written in InCopy by a bunch of people, who then pass the content to someone with InDesign who imports it and lays out the issue. InCopy basically allows people to write a chunk of text that will fit in a certain space, but it doesn't care what the overall document looks like. It has some very powerful features for collaboration, but to put it bluntly, text is text - provided you get the styles mapping sorted, ID doesn't care where it comes from.
Unless you're working with this split-job-role system there's no reason you'd need to use InCopy.
OLIVE C. F. wrote:
Thank you for the tips. I will need InCopy then as that is a major part of what I do.
Sent via DroidX2 on Verizon Wireless™

Need advice on choosing an iPhone: 32 or 64 GB?

I will be getting an iPhone 4S soon, and wanted to get some advice on which GB capacity to get.
My main goal is to store music, photos, and a few small apps on the iPhone. I want to avoid installing movies, videos, books, magazines, and large games apps on it because I currently have an iPad 2 (64GB Wifi+3G) which I will use for those. However, I want to have my music and photos on the new iPhone. My iPad holds the music at the moment, which consists of about 2,100 songs taking up about 20GB of space on the iPad memory. The space used to hold photos on the iPad is less than 1 GB. The total used space on the iPad (counting music, video, books, apps, photos, and "other") amounts to 30GB. I envision adding additional music and photos in the future.
So, taking all that into consideration, should I get a 32GB iPhone or a 64GB iPhone?

Just a followup and post concerning how I'm handling data on my new iPhone and iPad 2.
Basically, I've divided my content into Visual and Work items for the iPad, and Aural/Audio items for the iPhone.
The iPad will handle the visual and work items, things like videos, photos, books, documents, etc. For me, the larger screen is better suited for these types of things. The iPhone, by contrast, will handle the audio stuff, things like music, audiobooks, etc. Both handle email, although I've put all my email accounts on the iPad, but only work email on the iPhone. Both will also handle Photos since the iPhone 4S has such a wonderful camera. Photostream makes all the photos go everywhere, so it's easy to see them on the iPad.
With regards to music, I've downloaded all the music onto my iPhone. I prefer the iPhone's portability, and it is easy to connect it to my car audio system using Bluetooth or a USB interface. However, I'm also an iTunes Match subscriber, so made all my music available in iCloud on my iPad too, just in case I want to access it. Doing this freed up a whole bunch of space on the iPad. I'm now using only about 25% of my 64 GB capacity.
It seems to be all working well so far. This iPhone 4S is my first iPhone and it is an amazing piece of technology.
Many thanks to those who replied with advice. I'm glad I got the 64GB iPhone!

I need advice on choosing

Hi
I'm interested in getting Skype but don't know what plan is right for me.
I'd only want a plan that:
Has a number to receive and make calles anywhere anytime in US or worldwide.
And able to leave voicemail and use with my iphone3G from at&t.
Which plan do I get for these?

Hi Leo,
From 4451 datasheet you can go up to 2Gbps starting at 1Gbps of forwarding performance !!! this gives me some margin to grow
And how about the more than 150 BGP peers (1000+ routes total) and per GRE tunnel QoS service-policy (150+ grew tunnels) ? Can the 4451 handle this numbers ? I don't see this limits anywhere :(
I do prefer the ASR-1002 because it's truly a Edge router .... but this is a small infrastructure (150+ spokes) and I do feel looking only at forwarding performance it 4451 could be sufficient, question marks on the BGP and QoS+GRE stuff...but the price between both platforms is different !!!!
Thank's for your help,
Kind regards,
Bruno Fernandes
Thank's for the help

Need Advice on Choosing Reference Monitors / Amp'd Speakers

I'm a guitarist, have a G5 with Garageband, and an M-Audio USB interface. I don't play in a band, just scew around with Garageband at home in my office. I would like to be able to sell my amp and just use Garageband and my Mac as my "amp". The powered speaker system that I currently have, Altec Lansing with two satellite speakers and a sub in a wooden cabinet, sounds wonderful and is very loud when playing music through iTunes etc... but they just don't have the balls for guitar work. I'd like to replace them with some type of powered studio / reference monitors so that my guitar playing sounds good and I can really crank it up and get LOUD - like if I had say a Line6, or similar amp modeling box running through a small PA system. I don't want to spend alot of money, and I'd like something that will kill both birds (playing my guitar, and just general music listening) with one stone. I don't want to buy a seperate amp to power the monitors either. Does anyone make something like this, does anyone else here do this at home? I'm not up on this stuff, and don't know what the differences are (if any) between studio monitors, reference monitors, and the like. I just want to be able to use Garageband as my guitar amp and get loud.
One major factor that I notice in sound quality, is that the powered computer speaker systems that have the speakers mounted in wooden cabinets sound considerably better than those with plastic enclosures. Much fuller and warmer... I'd prefer speakers in wooden cabs vs. plastic if possible.
Thanks for taking the time to read / respond!
Bill
iMac G5, Powerbook G4 17in Mac OS X (10.4.1) Garageband 3.x, M-Audio USB Midi Interface, Yamaha SG-2000
Mac OS X (10.4.1)

hey there,
ther are lots of options for studio monitors. how much do you plan to spend? "project-studio" type monitors start around $300.00/pr. & go up to about $1200.00/pr. Pro monitors start around $1600.00/pr. & go to $3,000.00+/pr.
i have a pr. of Alesis M-one MKii. i wouldn't use monitors w/ less than a 6.5 inch woofer & 60 watt amp to drive it. check out your local pro audio/music store.
good luck.

Clarification on how to use Xserve Raid and Fibre Channel without xsan.

First let me apologize for not responding earlier to your response, I tend to get busy and then forget to check back here.
Tod, the answer to your question is No, only one computer is accessing the xserve raid files at any one time and that is via Fibre Channel. However I do have the xserve raids set up as share points via ethernet.
Maybe I should turn that off and only access the files with the one computer that can connect via fibre channel.
I never thought of that. I will try that while I await for your answer, thanks again.
Todd Buhmiller
I have the following setup:
Xserve: 2x2Ghz Dual Core Intel Xeon, 5Gb of Ram, Running 10.5.8 Leopard Server
Xserve Raid with firmware version 1.5.1/1.51c on both controllers, and
Qlogic Sanbox 5600
Apple Fibre Channel Cards in Xserve, and Mac Pro Tower; Apple 2 Port 4Gbs Fibre Channel Card
Mac Pro Tower-Quad Core Intel Xeon 2.8Ghz, 16Gb of Ram, Running Snow Leopard 10.6.4
Here is the problem.
The directory for the xserve raids keep getting corrup, and I use disc warrior to rebuild them. Is there a way to keep the directories from getting corrupt? I am a few pieces of equipment before I can build an Xsan as that is the ultimate goal, but until then, I just need to be able to have the raids funciton as storage without having to rebuild the directories all of the time.
Anybody have any suggestions?
Thanks
Todd Buhmiller
Widescreen Media
Calgary, Alberta Canada
Tod Kuykendall
Posts: 1,237
From: San Diego
Registered: Oct 11, 2000
Re: Xserve Raid Mounts, Corrupt Directory tired of rebuilding directory
Posted: Jun 27, 2010 1:25 PM in response to: Todd Buhmiller
Are multiple computers accessing the same data on the RAID at the same time?
If so then NO. This is the source of your data corruption and I'm surprised if you were able to get all your data back every time if this is how you've been running your system. Each fibre channel assumes it has full and sole control of every volume it has mounted, no data arbitration is practiced and data corruption will occur if this assumption is wrong.
The only way this set-up will work is to use partitions or LUN masks so the volumes are accessed by one computer at any time. As long as one computer relinquishes control before another mounts it you will dodge arbitration issues but this is a dangerous game. If you screw up and mount an already mounted volume - and there is no easy way to tell if a volume is mounted - corruption will then occur. Sharing data simultaneous at fibre speeds is what XSAN does and to do this you need it.
HTH,
=Tod
Intel Xserve, G5 XServes, XRAID, Promise

+The xserve raids will mount automatically to any computer that I connect the qlogic fc switch to+
This is source of the corruption to your data. Any computer that attaches to a drive/partition via fibre channel assumes that it alone is in control of the drive and data corruption is inevitable.
+Is that the issue, should I disconnect the xserve from the fc switch and leave it connected via ethernet?+
Short answer: YES. The ethernet connections are fine because the server is controlling the file arbitration through the sharing protocol. Fibre channel connections assumes complete control over the partition and no arbitration of the file access is performed. It's like two people independently driving trying to drive the same car to different locations.
Depending on your set-up it is possible for the two machines to see and use different parts of the Xserve RAID storage but they cannot access the same areas without SAN doing the arbitration.
Hope that's clear,
=Tod

OSX 10.5.6 doesn't see Fibre Channel Disk array, neither does Disk Utility

My system is a Power Mac G5 Quad, 6gb Ram, 1Tb internal hard drives, 1Tb external and several portable drives as needed.
The Drive array in question is a Fujitsu GR710 which contains 12 Seagate Cheeta ST336605FC drives which are around 35gb each.
OK, I have been given a Fibre Channel system, that at one time worked with OSX. I had to move it and now it doesn't show up on Disk Utility anymore. I can totally reformat it if possible, but I have to be able to see it first.
System Profiler sees the setup as:
Fibre Channel Domain 0:
Vendor: LSILogic
Product: LSI7202EP
Revision: Firmware 1.2.18.0, Fcode 1.00.37
Bus: PCI
Slot: SLOT-2
Initiator Identifier: 126
Node World Wide Name: 20:00:00:06:2B:12:C4:C4
Port World Wide Name: 10:00:00:06:2B:12:C4:C4
Address Identifier: 00:00:E8
Description: Port 0
Speed: Automatic (1 Gigabit)
Topology: Automatic (Arbitrated Loop)
Status: Link Established
Cable Type: Fiber Optic
SCSI Target Device @ 0:
Node World Wide Name: 20:00:00:E0:00:41:04:6D
Port World Wide Name: 21:00:00:E0:00:41:04:6D
Address Identifier: 00:00:EF
SCSI Target Identifier: 0
SCSI Peripheral Device Type: 0
Manufacturer: FUJITSU
Model: GR710
Revision: 0000
SCSI Logical Unit @ 0:
SCSI Logical Unit Number: 0
Manufacturer: FUJITSU
Model: GR710
Revision: 0000
Fiber Channel Preferences shows that a link is established.
Hardware RAID says that there is no hardware present.
I am using the Apple MA900A/G Fibre Channel Card to hook into the Drive array. It is hooked up with both ethernet and fiber optic cables.
I have used an IP scanner to search for the IP of the array and only find one that I can't identify at 224.0.0.251 another scan reports an IP of 0.0.0.0, neither worked when I tried to use Safari to access it.
I have tried several programs to try and get into this array and nothing sees it. All my experts tell me that I will need to use the Terminal program and use command lines to access the drives, but I can't find any information about what to do there. I've been told I need the driver for the array, naturally there isn't a driver for Mac to be had, but there are drivers for solaris, Unix, and windows. The last expert said to use the Unix driver, but I don't know where to put it in the system.
So I need help, Terminal commands to talk to the drive and revive it hopefully, or a system program that will do something similar. None of my diagnostic programs sees the array. The Card came with no software or instructions. Neither did the array. I haven't been able to find any hardware information about the drive from FuJitsu at all, it's too old for them to bother with anymore.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Doc

I have to go with William on this one - if it's shows up over fibre then it should be okay. Have you gotten the admin module to see the device over ether? I have a feeling that is you can get the software to see it you might be able to configure the device into something the computer could mount.
The Promise that way - you can configure the device entire from the web interface and you don't need fibre communication working for any of the configuration of what RAID you want and which disks are attached with what set etc. Once the RAIDs are configured into volumes then the Xserve sees they exist and you can use Disk Utility to format them. If you don't need fibre communication I don't see how SCSI drivers would matter over ethernet. But maybe the box is a strange beast - odder things have been made.
Barring that - can you attach the device to an older machine with the drivers and configure the device into raw volumes and then an HFS+ (or whatever you want) system? If you did that and then switched the box back to Xserve it should be able to pick up the configured volumes drivers or no.
My $.02,
=Tod

Fibre Channel Link light off on Xserve

I noticed a few days ago that the lower Fibre Channel link light and Activity lights are no longer working on the lower unit on my Xserve. So far I tried unplugging and replugging the Fibre cable but that didn't help.
THere are no warning lights lit on the Fibre card on the back of my G5, and from flipping through the Xserve manual, it looks like all those lights are correct also.
We recently had the network rewired and since then I haven't been able to access the RAID Admin to see what's up. I may have to reset the controller though.
If you have any advice on where to start troubleshooting, or settings to check once I get the RAID Admin working I'd appreciate the advice, thanks!
PS: I have installed the Xserve Driver Update 1.0

Everything seems to be working normally. I'm mastering off the few projects I just finished, and I'm able to play back to streams of Uncompressed 10 bit SD so far so good. Although the one working channel seems to be working a bit harder than usual
The Xserve RAID is hooked directly to my powermac G5 via Apple's Fibre Channel Card. I talked to my boss who has been working wit the network people and said the IP address should be the same, and it should be picking up DHCP. From your post it sounded like there may be a setting in RAID Admin for this? I'll check after I finish Edit to Tape
Think of my calmness this way: If the front of your car is hanging off the edge of a cliff, the last thing you'd want to do is make any sudden moves!

Need Advice on Choosing a Fibre Channel Card

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