Newbie lesson - xServe RAID boxes need 2 Controller modules to work well!

So I thought I'd share my experience with my xServe RAID box, because I built it from parts (via eBay) I thought I could run it with a single controller with up to 7 drives until I needed to expand it later, I had all sorts of strange problems:
- Could't build new RAID arrays
- Couldn't update firmware
- Restarting box often led to the array disappearing
- Existing array sometimes didn't show up in Disk Util.
I tried replacing cables and Fibre cards but no change until I added a second RAID controller and then suddenly everything worked great!
Thanks to everyone here for trying to help me out with my problems, the box now runs great
So the lesson here is that an xServe RAID box needs 2 controllers to function properly, with only 1 it runs in some kind of undocumented failsafe mode.

See my response to your crosspost in the Xserve RAID group.

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I'm trying to do a spanish lesson but my MacBook Air sound isn't working well. I can't hear anything from the sound system on this computer. Also When I try to Face Time, and someone 's connecting it quits.My battery charger isnt working it on zero all

Hello If Yal Reading This
My Macbook Air Ain't Working.
In Three Ways!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
1. My Sound
2. Face Time
3.Battery
Sound isnt working loudly when I do spanish lessons
My Face Time cancels when I connect to another person
And when I charge my MacBook Air it is always put on zero= 0%

Reset SMC. http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
Choose the method for:
"Resetting SMC on portables with a battery you should not remove on your own".
If this does not help, contact Apple.
Best.

Had to replace Xserve RAID controller and now I get Xsan Admin: ERROR: duplicate LUN label RAID1-Left1

I need some help, I had one of my five Xserve RAID boxes fail. The upper controller card needed to be replaced and so we replaced it. But now only one of my volumes is loading and I am seeing the following error in my Console.
7/18/12 9:23:18.550 AM Xsan Admin: ERROR: duplicate LUN label RAID1-Left1
This raid box holds three LUNs. the left is split into two with one being the metadata / Journal for the main volume and the 2nd being the same for my secondary volume. The right side of this box is the second volume while the remaining 4 RAID boxes are my main volume. Here is the rub, the main volume is using the left1 LUN and the secondary is left2. The left2 is the one that is not working and when I go into the LUN info the WWN number does not match the actual id on the raid box.
HELP!!!!
Thanks,
Kevin Rosenthal

Did you try turning it off and on again? I mean, the full SAN shutdown/startup: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4027
You're probably seeing "duplicate LUN labels" because the MDC has seen two LUNs with the same label but different serial numbers since it has been online. The serial number (which I think is based off the WWN) would have changed when the RAID controller changed. A reboot should fix that specific error message.
If the volume still doesn't start after rebooting, then you would want to check the cvlog for that volume.

XServe RAID disks not showing up in Disk Utility

I have a new (to me) xServe RAID box and I'm stuck, the stays lights are green the fiber link light is green on the RAID and not lit on the PCI card but shows up as green in the fiber link section of the settings tool but the RAID array doesn't show up in Disk Utility so I can't format the drives.
I set up the disks as Enhanced JBOD using RAIDadmin and I've deleted and created it a couple of times, I'm just not sure what else I should try, I've read the manual but. Can't find any suggestions of what's going wrong.
Thanks

Port 1: Link Established
2Gps
Point to point
Status light green
In the system Profiler I'm not sure what you're asking for, I'm running 10.5.8 standard not server.
the fibre channel shows link established 2Gps and cable type copper but nothing else, the disks & RAID controller don't show up anywhere I've looked.
RAID Admin shows the JBOD disks as online and lists the LUNs etc.
System looks fine, only error is missing second power supply.

Mounting xserver raid

Folks,
We have a xserve raid box set up and connected via fibre channel to a xserve box. What steps we need to do to mount the drives? What's the osx equivalent to vfstab and what device names reference them?
Powermac G5

That's exactly what you need to do. At this point they could be UFS, HFS or whatever you want. You need to partition and format them to your liking. Once they are formatted they will mount automatically on boot.
If you have more than one connected computer (or you use a fibre switch) you can use fstab to control mounting at boot time as per Unix regular usage. I have never been able to get an authoritative answer on whether Disk Utility honors fstab. I have a feeling it doesn't - or can be forced to override those settings - but I have tried it to see. Next time I take the servers down for back-up or maintenance I'll try it and see. I have 500GB of my 6 disk RAID5 carved out for my webserver - the rest of the side and the other side are for the fileserver - and I control their mounting with fstab settings. But I've never tried to forcibly mount the webserver volume on the fileserver.
Don't worry - the formatting is faster than than the initialization.
Good luck,
=Tod
G5/2.0x2, Dual XServes x2, XRAID, beige G3 501Mhz

HD Capture into Xserve raid dropped frames

Any body know how to set up an xserve raid to capture uncompressed 1080/24p footage. I striped it to a raid 5 got dropped frmes detected, redid the stripe in raid 3 got the same thing, please help!
I'm shooting on the Canon XL H1 at 1080/24p sending the feed from the cameras HD/SDI output to a Panasonic AJ-1200A DVCPRO HD deck. after capture I want to import the footage into FCP thru the blackmagic multibridge extreme onto a 7 terabyte xserve raid.
g5 Mac OS X (10.4.4)

You may check your cache settings on Xserve RAID via RAID Admin tool.
Here is the settings I believe should work for most video captuer cases.
RAID ADMIN 1.5, with 1.5 firmware on Xserve RAID
1) Use controller write cache checked
2) Use Drive cache checked
Read Prefetch:
8 stripes

Dumb?? How do I tell if an XServe Raid is a G4 or a G5??

I've looked all over the RAID Admin.... Is there any way to do a "Get Info"??
It's NOT listed in the "Info" screen.
Thanks

>So any Apple Drive Module will work??
With the latest XServe RAID firmware and ATA drive modules, yes.
The 'original' XServe RAID came with 180GB drives. Then they added support for 250GB drives, then 400GB and now 500GB.
With each new drive size there's been a corresponding firmware update. The updates add support for the new drive size plus new features.
So if your XServe RAID is running the latest firmware you can use any of those drive sizes. The only other consideration is SATA vs. ATA. The XServe RAID uses ATA Drive Modules, unlike the SATA Drive Modules employed by the XServe G5 - you can't take a drive module from a G5 and put it in an XServe RAID.

Multiple Xserve RAID's presented to one XServe

Can more than one Xserve RAID box be presented to a single XServe computer? The XServe user manual indicates only the upper PCI slot may be used for a FC HBA. A dual port FC HBA allows me to connect to one Xserve RAID- both controllers. If I want to connect to additional XServe RAID boxes, what are my options (other than XSAN)?
Thank you in advance.
XServe Mac OS X (10.4.7)

It has always been my understanding that this is possible, but I haven't actually configured such a system. If you want "real world" confirmation you may have to check with Camelot or DaddyPayCheck about this exact set-up. I have experience plugging multiple Xserves into single RAIDs but not the other way around yet.
I have done the logical equivalent and hooked up an Xserve to a switch with only one cable (the other routed to a backup device) and had two RAID sides attached to the switch which worked fine.To me this demonstrates the "sides > connector" set-up as functional but I understand if you want more proof.
Apple assumes you're going to switched fabric set-up once you pass 1 to 1 connections and multiple RAIDs attached to the fabric are not a problem. You do, of course, loose the ability to push the edge of performance so something HD video in this environment is not feasible.
HTH,
=Tod

Disk utility doesn't show xServe RAID Array

I have a new (to me) xServe RAID box and I'm stuck, the stays lights are green the fiber link light is green on the RAID and not lit on the PCI card but shows up as green in the fiber link section of the settings tool but the RAID array doesn't show up in Disk Utility so I can't format the drives.
I set up the disks as Enhanced JBOD using RAIDadmin and I've deleted and created it a couple of times, I'm just not sure what else I should try, I've read the manual but. Can't find any suggestions of what's going wrong.
Thanks

If you have tried restarting a few times and it still doesn't show up I'm afraid you are gonna have to go back in and check the connections. I know they just slot into the carriage, but possibly it is not in tight. I can only suggest you open it up and check everything thoroughly. If after a thorough check, if it still does not mount you may want to take the hard drive back and swap it. Are you sure it was only a hard drive failure in the first place? I only ask this because WD hard drives have quite a solid reputation.

XServe RAID on GenToo server?

Hello,
We are using multiple FC and SCSI RAID-subsystems at work and we need a bigger one by the end of the year.
By now we are using an Infortrend FC>FC RAID.
Regards
Nicolas

I know of many people using Xserve RAID on Linux, so it should work on Gentoo.
What kernel version will you be using? I do know of a number of cases previously where Xserve RAIDs didn't appear as LUNs to Linux, because Linux has this lame "feature" where a storage device must be explicitly listed in a kernel header file . If your kernel lists the storage, it will see the RAID, without issue. If it does NOT have the Xserve RAID lists, then the Xserve RAID will show up only if you do not use sparse LUNs. Basically meaning you shouldn't slice the volumes. Which could be an issue if your kernel version doesn't understand LUNs > 2 GB.
I've also seen some Linux versions which had poor performance with the RAID, again due to kernel tuning issues. 2.6 is a lot better than 2.4 was... but you should ensure you have a pretty recent build of the Linux kernel. With Gentoo, that shouldn't be much of an issue... just recompile world, lol.

URGENT: XSERVE RAID, FCP 5.04, and IT KEEPS FREEZING

Let me lay it out:
I have Xserve Raid and I am attempting to work with Final Cut Pro 5.04, whenever I run the programs w/o the XSR on it runs smoothly, but as soon as the XSR is turned on, I run into a slew of issues I can't figure out how to resolve. First, when it is just on, and I try to get into the Raid via the Finder, it usually freezes. Second, if I run FCP it will eventually freeze when I want to do anything. Third, if I don't really do anything but run programs with the XSR on it will give me the SPinning Wheel of Death, WHat am I to do???? PLEASE HELP, I have a big project coming up next week.
Thanks

See my reply in the fcp forum.

Newbie here...Need help for XServe RAID w/ XSAN in Vid Editing environment

We're establishing an XSAN environment for video editing work flow. We're not new to SAN technology or video editing, but we are new to Xserve RAIDs, XSAN technology, and marrying them together in a production environment.
We have an XServe RAID at 14x750GB configuration. 1 Xserve metadata server, 1 Xserve Quicktime server, and 4 editing stations (2 MacPro's, 2 G5's) that are in the fiber channel fabric. Each machine has dual channel 4GB cards.
My PLEA for help concerns any advice this community can offer on RAID configuration, and XSAN configuration to achieve maximum performance. Settings, configurations, etc.
XServe, XServe RAID, XSAN, MacPro, G5 Mac OS X (10.4.9)

Were on the same boat but more like a life jacket
We only need the Fibre for back-up.
We have a single Avid Adrenaline on MacPro.
One Xserve that basically acts as a server for fonts, audioclips, photocatalog and minor back-up via gigabit ethernet.
Three G5s/MacPro/PC with 2/4GB FC installed.
One 10.5 TB Xserve RAID.
Last but not least a QLogic 1400 SAN box for Fibre.
Nothing is installed yet as were waiting on our Apple rep for some answers with Xsan.
Were not serving anything as far as external network and everything stays within the confines of our studio.
My question is that are we missing anything other than maybe getting more ports on the SAN.
We can live with a few workstations in the fabric.
Thanks in advance
XServe Mac OS X (10.4.6) OSX Server

Xserve RAID lost RAID 5 array on right/bottom controller

I cleanly shut down an Xserve G5 with an Xserve RAID attached and then powered off the Xserve RAID this morning. I replaced a failing memory module in the Xserve and moved the rack 6". I then powered on the Xserve RAID, waited for a couple minutes until it was fully booted, and then booted the Xserve. When it came up, my RAID 50 volume failed to mount. Upon further investigation, it appears that the RAID 5 array on the right hand disks is "gone". In RAID Admin (Disks and Drives tab), the left side array is visible, but all disks on the right side list status as "OK" and Type: as "Spare".
Configuration: Xserve RAID with 14 250 GB disks. Each side was configured with 6 disks in a RAID 5 array and one spare. These were striped using Software RAID on the Xserve into RAID 50 and mounted as a single volume. The RAID firmware is currently 1.5 and the Xserve is running OS X Server 10.4.3.
To summarize today's activities: under Apple's guidance (as this entire system is covered under a Premium Support contract), I swapped the (bottom) controller for the right side, updated firmware (from v1.3/1.20a to 1.5/1.50), multiple resets of both controllers, repeated forced firmware updates, etc.
Also, I swapped the left set of disks for the right set, and the array from the left set now shows up on the right side, and the missing array from the right is still missing with the disks on the left side. I replaced the disks to their original positions with the same results.
RAID Admin's Utility "Recognize Array" will not perform any operations on the rigth side disks and Apple tells me that there's nothing further that I can do with it.
None of this has solved the problem or substantially changed the issue, and the disks on the right side are still missing their associated array. Apple is unable/unwilling to offer any further help except to refer me to 3rd party data recovery services.
Does anyone have any suggestion at all that might possibly recover the missing array? Is anyone aware of any tools that I might use to recreate the RAID 5 array on the right controller? I was hoping that there might exist some low-level tools with which the disks could be recreated into an array by hand? Are there any commercial products that would work on this? Any other ideas?
Many thanks for any suggestions.
- Martin
Xserve RAID (14 250GB disks) on Xserve G5 Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Not sure why you swapped the controllers back and forth
William, I don't think I was clear on this. I swapped the controller with a new controller that I had in a spare parts kit. This was at Apple's request.
really, RAID is not a backup...
I'm well aware, but despite my incessant warnings, users will become lulled in to a false sense of security when something "just works" for a very long time. This array wasn't intended to store valuable data that couldn't be lost, but...
It may be possible for Apple to re-create the RAID set, did you ask AppleCare about the possibility?
Apple has told me more than once that there's nothing else that they can do for me...and yet I keep calling back.
I was surprised that this array was lost when there were absolutely no prior signs of a problem and the system was merely shutdown and restarted cleanly. I'm more surprised and quite disappointed to learn that Apple will do nothing else for me (under a Premium Support contract) to attempt to repair a damaged array. When I asked questions about where the RAID information is stored, I received the answers: "I can't tell you that" and "Apple doesn't release that information". I did not get the feeling that they were working with me, but rather holding my hand while they walked me through published documentation.
I expected that there would be utilities (analagous to filesystem repair utilities) such as RAID Admin's "Recognize Array" that could help repair and recover damaged array data. I think that the lesson that I've leanred today is that I was naive to have expected such a thing without actually having investigated it ahead of time.
Anyway, thanks for your input, William.

Maximum size for Xserve RAID modules

What is the maximum storage size for an Xserve RAID module?
Years ago, an Xserve RAID was out of my price range. Now, I'm looking into getting one on eBay and playing around with it.
I have been making Mirrored RAIDS with Western Digital 3 TB My Books.
Can I put 3 TB drives in an Xserve RAID? It probably depends on the controller firmware or something.
Thanks for thinking about this.
Doc

Short answer is no, you can't.
The XServe RAID has IDE drives mounted in a carrier. The maximum size drive shipped by Apple, supported under 1.5.1 firmware on the controllers is 750GB, though finding these on the used market is farily difficult. Aside from that, any IDE drive can be put in the carriers. If your unit has 'blank' slots, these are indeed just blank slots - you will need to get carriers / drive modules if you want disks in the slot if that makes sense.
People on the Internet, myself included, have experimented down the route of using IDE to SATA bridges in the carriers with 2.5" SATA drives which are more freely available. This way you can utilise cheap drives in your drive modules, or even SSDs (which offer little benefit I have found). Some users have had success with 1TB 2.5" SATA drives in this method, but not with anything bigger it seems. Myself, I've had suceess with 500GB SATA and 256GB SSD with this hacky method.
Hope that helps.

Need some help with a controller module

i have a controller module with a model # of CA1009. i've been trying to track down a configuration manual online but haven't had any luck. what i'm trying to determine is whether or not this particular model supports a fiber connection.
here are some other specs:
part #: 603-6332
number above part #: KC62706LS9UA
thanks for the help!

Not sure what you're looking for here; supports a fibre connection? The 603-4406 CA1009 is the Apple Xserve RAID Controller Module, a component of the [Xserve RAID|http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/xserveraid_userguide.pdf]; it's the drive-facing part of the "whole show" within the SAN controller, and not part of the side "facing" the FC SAN.

Newbie lesson - xServe RAID boxes need 2 Controller modules to work well!

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