Problems with Xserve RAID

I have been having problems with Xserve RAID, which happened in a close time span, but may not be related. The Xserve RAID is set up with 7 disks with RAID 5, totaling to 1.3TB in storage capacity.
First, the first disk failed and the RAID system was degraded. Since I got a very similar 250GB harddisk (but without "Apple Firmware") I tried putting it as a replacement. It was recognized but it became a hot spare disk, even though I did not set the system to use hot spare.
Later Mac OS X reported that the Xserve RAID's 1.3TB volume was unmounted. I check with Disk Utility, and it reported a lot of errors. I ended up with about 70GB of files in lost+found, and I confirmed that many files were missing. Disk Utility could not really fixed it.
I put back the failed disk, and Xserve RAID successfully rebuilt the array. I did "Background Array Conditioning" to perform surface scan and mapping of bad blocks. It completed without error. I then did "Verify Parity Data", and it completed but with error, as follows:
Event:
Disk 5 Reported An Error. COMMAND:0x37 ERROR:0x64 STATUS:0x81 LBA:0x119E6880
Description:
The drive reported ATA error. This is a failure in the communication from the RAID Controller to the drive.
Any idea what is happening with this Xserve RAID? Bad disk? Bad controller? Or what? Any help is appreciated.
Thanks,
Xserve RAID Dual G5 2.0GHz Mac OS X (10.3.9)

After reading here and there on the net (including this forum), yes I realized that the "Apple Firmware" thing may be significant after all. But since I set the Xserve RAID to use RAID 5, a failure of one disk should not affect data integrity. And surface scan was successful, implyingthat all disks are now free from defects. So why did it lost 70GB worth of data? I experienced disk hardware failure often with Windows system but never experienced losing data while the hardware seems to be fine. Without knowing why this happened, I feel scared to put data on Xserve RAID, and this is ironic since this 1.7TB Xserve RAID is meant for storing data safely...

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Super Slow Performance with Xserve RAID / Promise Fibre

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We have the fibre channel card and the storage attaches to there and they appear mounted on the desktop.
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Slow/poor RAID performance can be down to a number of things. Some of which are easier to check than others.
Some easy things to check are:
How much data is stored on the RAIDs?
Performance really drops off alarmingly once the RAID gets to 85% full. For a 1TB RAID this means you need to keep at least 250GB of free disk space at all times otherwise you will get the poor performance you're seeing. Once it gets to 86/87/88% full performance can drop alarmingly. Yes those few percent points can make a big difference.
How is the data stored on the RAIDs?
Having thousands and thousands of single files stored loosely on the RAID or within one single folder is not a good idea. The Finder can be and is fairly inefficient at drawing the icons for those files that are presented to network users accessing the share point(s). This can/and is perceived as very slow performance as you're viewing the files over a network connection. One way to overcome this 'feature' is to organise the data into logical folders/sub-folders and/or shares.
Are there problems with the file/directory structure of the RAIDs themselves?
Use DiskUtility (or better still DiskWarrior) to repair any issues (generally built up over a period of time) with the storage disks you have. You can't repair permissions using DiskUtility or anything else on a non-OS bearing drive. Don't forget to do this also for your System Drive (which can have its permissions repaired) as well. This will mean the server being off-line for a time whilst the system (OS) drive is being repaired. Before doing this step I would make sure you have a current and effective backup of your System/Server OS as well as all data stored on the RAIDs themselves. Hopefully you should be doing this for your data already?
To understand Disk Utility's repair permissions feature please read Apple's support document here:
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HUGE Troubles with xServe RAID formatted 10.4 and using it with SLS 10.6

Hi All,
We met today a huge trouble using an Apple xServe RAID (formatted HFS+ with a Mac OS 10.4 Server PowerPC G5).
This RAID has been plugged with a new xServe Intel Xeon (Model xServe 3.1), MacOS X 10.6.2, Apple FiberChannel card 4 GB, the link is at 2 GB.
There is also an Infortrend RAID FiberChannel 4 GB Fiber to SATA RAID attached to this new Intel Xeon server : this RAID drive mounts correctly, no troubles.
BUT the "old" xServe RAID is not able to mount at all while plugged with this new Intel Xeon, DiskUtility claims the volume needs repair !!! We try a repair = failed !!!
The xServe RAID has been formated under 10.4.6, HFS+ Journaled.
The Infortrend has been formated under 10.6.2, HFS+
Does anyone met a such case ??? We tried using SFP to SFP Copper cable or Optical Fiber + SFP/LC Transceiver = same results
Many thanks a lot for your opinion !!!
Regards.

What if you connect your "old" xServe RAID to a non SLS server if you have one available? Preferably one running 10.4.x server to match your HFS format. If the data on the old RAID is so critical that you can't afford to lose it, you could always pickup a used PPC w/ a fibre channel card and install 10.4 server on it just so you can transfer the data. Curious to see what you end up doing.

Mac Pro compatibility with Xserve Raid

Are the two compatible? In other words, can I connect an Xserve Raid to my Mac Pro (asuming that I have a Fiber Chanel card)?
If above answer is yes, asume that the Mac Pro is connected to a WLAN at home via Ethernet or airport. This WLAN also hosts one more computer (PC). Will this PC have access to the Xserve raid data?
Finally (and asuming that cost is not a big issue-I know how much the Raid solution costs, even at minimum config), Do you think that the Xserve Raid solution (with the minimum configuration) is better/more reliable/faster/ than the Mac Pro internal solution? Take into consideration that I am a photographer (shooting digital and raw format ONLY) and I consume about 50-60Gb of disk space per month
Mac Pro 2.66 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

You might want to look at what some other photographers use, Port Multiplier controller and drive enclosures. Up to 5 drives per channel for a total of 20 drives.
XRAID would offer FC and more levels of RAID support, and concurrent access, especially with Xsan.
Take a look at the AMUG reviews:
Mac Pro 2GHz 2GB WD Raptor/ RE 320/160 Mac OS X (10.4.8) APC RS1500

LSI cards with Xserve raid

I just got a xserve raid for my photography archive, and it included a LSI raid card, which the previous owner said might be faster than apple's card. Does anyone have any experience with LSI fiberchannel cards? Somewhere I heard that LSI was the OEM for Apple's card. Thanks!
Richard Blair

I'll answer my own question. The LSI card works fine.

Xserve with Xserve raid...

I have a Xserve G4 connected to a Xserve Raid. Up to 2 weeks ago, everything was running fine. On my 2.2 TB Xserve Raid I have 2 partitions. Both partitions have afp file sharing on them. For some reasons, partition 1 is running really slow. Users that are working off that partition are experiencing lots of lag. The 2nd partition seems fine. Locally on that machine, I copy files back and forth, and that seems fine aswell. Something on the networking side is bottle necking partition 1. Has anyone had a similar problem, or might see something that I am overseeing? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
Kawal

How full is the partition?
My guess it it's full - more than 90%, at least.
All drives will slow as they fill up because the controller has to do a lot more work to find available space for new data. It's worse in a RAID setup since the available space is spread out across multiple drives.

10.4 X with Xserve Raid - Have Reboot Daily

We have a Mac server 10.4 with Raid. Every day it seems that we have to reboot it. The reason for the reboot is because the server develops very slow response times to attached users. There has to be a setting some where that will help us. Any one have any ideas? Thanks a ton in advance.

OK, let's go with this. Several others are reporting the same problem:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=428639&tstart=0
and
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=409444&tstart=0
And I've seen it, too. I originally reported this bug to Apple several months ago when 10.4.2 was released and here's my original posting: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?messageID=647624
So far, all I can say is the following:
1. The error message is not related to permissions being set incorrectly. As you've found out (or seen in the previous postings), you can use POSIX permissions or Tiger's Effective Permissions model, which incorporates ACLs.
2. The problem is specific to the Mac OS X 10.4.x Finder. Earlier Finders do not exhibit this problem. Attempting a copy (move or rename) via Terminal with cp, ditto, or mv is always successful.
3. I believe that the problem is related to the client's checking of permissions against stored directory information (checking for masked AFP permissions). You're more likely to get this error with a client that's bound to the server's Open Directory domain than one that's not.
4. I'm quite surprised that it's taken almost a year for this bug to really become discovered. I've noticed it right away and I think Apple has known about it for some time. I do think that the problem has gotten a little bit better with Mac OS X 10.4.4 and 10.4.5, but your mileage may vary.
I encourage you to keep posting details and filing Mac OS X Feedback reports (http://www.apple.com/feedback/server.html). Maybe we can find a solution or Apple will take notice.
--Gerrit

Problems with sata raid

Hey :-)
have a major problem and u guys maybe can help me ?
i have 655 Max-FISR mainboard ,P4 2.66ghz with 512ram
im runing 2 WD Raptors36gbx2 Raid 0 on the onboard raid sata controller
but every 3-4 weeks the raid array gets offline..nothing i can do about so i format c:\ and install win again and its running again
this has happend 4 times now..and i dont like it at all
is there anything i can do to fix this problem??
im thinking if skipping the raid if i dont find a way to work this out :-/
plz help me !

oki
the system is not overclocked
when i setup the raid i use the autosetup
2.66ghz
512 ram Corsair pc3200
GeForce 3 ti500 128ram
IDE 2 80GB maxtor / 80GB WD
IDE 1 NEC1300A / 60gb maxtor
SATA RAID 0 36x2 GB
Enermax 430w
Soundblaster Audigy
4x80mm fans
2x120mm fans

Xserve RAID volume maintenance

A new client has an Xserve RAID (firmware 1.5) in which the first 7 drive modules are populated, and configured into a 1.01 TB Level 5 array. This array has been in use for (estimated) 2.5 to 3 years (based on the power-on hours of the component hard drives). As far as my client knows, no maintenance has been performed on the RAID volume. Should we be using the First Aid feature of Disk Utiliity or something like Disk Warrior on this volume? The Xserve RAID is connected (via Fiber) to a Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors) running Mac OS X Server 10.3.9. Please advise.

Are they having problems with the RAID that you think requires maintenance?
FWIW I've got several XServe RAIDs in my network, some of them the same age as this one, and I've never done anything to it in terms of maintenance or housekeeping.
If you're not having problems with it, I wouldn't worry.

Dropped frames only on xserve raid

dropped frames only on xserve raid
i'm not able to capture on xserve raid without dropped frames. tihis was a working sytem bud one morning it dosn't work. i capture on mac pro internal drives or external fw drives without problems.
the xserve raid is new formated in raid level5 [mac os extended journaled and striped in raid 0 extended] and the risult of kona system test are 178mb/sec write and 167mb/sec read.
must bee enought for 8bit uncompressed pal, no? also if i divide the stripe set the system dosn't work on both controler. i tried also to change the fibrechannel cables!
i checked also the fibrechannel card with expansion slot utility and the message is that runns at maximum speed.
there are no error message on raid admin, the xserve raid appears ok.
i'm shure that the fcp settings are ok, i know the list that regard dropped frames from apple.
i'm desperate, can you help?
thanks jochen
system:
mac pro 2x3ghz-5gb ram(from apple and the hardware test on the system dvd is ok)
osx 10.4.10
fibre channel card: lsilogic firmware 1.2.18.0 in slot 4
xserve raid 15x250gb firmware 1.5.1/ 151c
aja io (driver 3.0)
raid admin 1.5.1 (diver 1.0)
fcp 5.1.4

I'm guessing conditioning is the same as optimization, but I can't find anything about it in the help documentation. I ran another capture test today with no problems.
An interesting side event is that when I started experiencing dropped frames I ran the Kona System Test utility to verify write and read speeds. It wouldn't run (no write or read) on my RAID. I tried it on my Firewire drives with no problems. I discovered that in the Kona System Test preferences there is a choice of I/O API for Macintosh or Unix. When switching to the Unix I/O API the test ran fine with expected read and write speeds reported. I've used the Kona utility in the past without having to change that setting. I sent an inquiry to AJA.

XServe RAID email notifications

Hello All,
I'm a bit stumped on this one. I've never had trouble sending email notifications from an XServe RAID before. But, despite several different attempts to several different SMTP servers both internal and external, I just can't get it to send a notification message. Has anyone come across something like this?

We are having the same problem.
XServe RAID should send mails, but NOT with a local account (it's not allowed to have an additional mail server in our company).
We tried various mail accounts (google, yahoo etc.) without any success. Unfortunately there are no seetings in RAID admin available how to configure SMTP server authentication, no port etc. Additional, there is no information about the sending process, not even a log file...
So, is there any solution?
Best,
tom

XSERVE RAID - copying to array causes "error -50"

I am a n00b when it comes to administering an XSERVE RAID, so this may be something you can easily answer...
I have a brand new XServe with XSERVE RAID attached using a fibre channel card. The upper controller is connected to the left-side of the array, array 1, while the right-side of the controller is connected to the lower controller, array 2. Each array is 4.08 TB, the entire array is stocked with 750GB HDDs.
Array 1 has no problems copying, deleting, etc. Array 2 times out after I try to copy files, either across the network or using an external FW800 drive (2TB) from LaCie. I am trying to dump a lot of video data, and it blows up giving me an error -50. After that, I can't delete or do anything. Initially I thought this was due to ownership/file permissions but that doesn't make a difference. The external drive copies to Array 1 with no issues either. Any advice?

Any updates on this? I think I am experiencing something similar.
We have a Xserve RAID that has 1 array for our file server and we have just added 5 750GB drives to the right side of the RAID for a 2nd array. I spent most of the Thanksgiving break dealing with crashes and corrupt drives in Array 2 trying to migrate the files from the original array to the new array.
Array 1 works just fine, but if I try to copy large files to the 2nd array things go haywire and the server usually "crashes". If I use Carbon Copy Cloner to copy Array 1 to our Wiebetech RAID box things are fine, however if I use the same process to copy Array 1 to Array 2 and even the Wiebetch box to Array 2, then the server "crashes". I say crashes since I don't really know what is going on. When I come back to check on things the server has locked up and isn't responding to anything or has restarted and I am back at the login screen. Array 2 will have been "corrupted" and won't mount unless I reformat via disk utility.
In the RAID Admin events the only thing I get is that both controller 1 and 2 have gone down and are back up. The system log on the sever looks fine.
Just trying to see if it was a cable or some other hardware issue.
Thanks
Carl

Looking for some ideas for setting up and xServe RAID

Everyone,
Here is what I would to do. I have a new xServe and 7TB RAID. I would like to set all of my end users up with Portable Home Directories. They all have laptops and I would like to use their PHD as my backup source. I would set them to sync in the background a couple of times per day and then write to tape at night.I have about 60 end users. I would also like to use the same xServe and RAID as my Kerio mail server and mail store. What I am looking for is some ideas of how to go about setting up the RAID. I was orginially thinking of setting up as one big RAID 5 using all 14 drives. What I would like to know is what is the number of drives that would need to fail that would render the RAID unrebuildable? I am now thinking about splitting the RAID into two 7 drives in RAID set up as RAID 1+0.
I am not sure if I phrased a lot of this currently, but here is quick recap of what I would like to know. What would be the best way to set up a 7TB RAID to store PHD and my Kerio mail store that provides me the most redudant and fastest acccess.
Thanks in advance.
Sincerely,
Daniel Krajc

Daniel,
I'd suggest a 6 disk RAID 5 plus a hot spare for each side. It will give you about 2.4 TB capacity per side (4.8 total), and it can tolerate 2 drive failures per side without losing data, provided there is sufficient time between failures for the RAID set to automatically rebuild on the hot spare. This window is 8-12 hours.
Note with Xserve RAID the two sides are totally independent in the data path -- it will look like 2 separate LUNs. If you want to combine these at the host level, as RAID 0 or RAID 1 to look like a single volume, you can. But the Xserve RAID will not combine them itself... the RAID controllers are independent... it might as well be two separate RAID volumes in the same chassis.
I assume you'll plug this into an Xserve that is serving as an Open Directory server and a file server?

Xserve Raid and Windows Machines

Hi All,
I need some help, first and foremost I am not familiar with Xserve Raid units. We have one in a remote office that is connected to all our macs via Fiber. I need to connect a windows box with a fiber card to this SAN also to backup the SAN. How do I go about mounting the volume within windows and what software do I need to connect?
Thanks,
Greg

Are the computers using the RAID as directly attached storage or are they using XSAN (or another product) to access the storage as a SAN?
If they are using XSAN then I'm afraid you're out of luck as we there is no Windows client for XSAN. If they are using a different SAN product then perhaps you'll have more luck with finding a windows client.
HTH,
=Tod

Problem with video playback on Ipod

I am having a problem I hope someone can help me with. I was given a 30GB Ipod for my birthday. I am running Windows Vista on a 3GHZ machine with 3GB of ram. I downloaded and installed the latest Itunes and Quicktime. I have no problem syncing all my music files, those synced and play properly. When I had Itunes convert some videos I had and sync them, the Ipod does not playback the video correctly. I get about 1 frame every 5-10 seconds. The audio on the video is fine and sounds normal, just the video is freezing. I loaded itunes on my XP notebook and converted and synced the exact same video and it plays great on the ipod. It appears that itunes is corrupting the video during the conversion on my Vista machine. Has anyone else ran into this and if so what is the fix?? I called support and the gentleman told me he had heard of the problem before but said their database was down and he could not access the article. He was supposed to email me the article but I never received it. Thanks for your help in advance.
Gary

Just an update, I think I may have found the problem, but not a permanent fix. I failed to mention I am running a raid striped array. I tried inserting a 2gb usb drive with my video file into the computer. I then went into itunes and changed the itunes directory to the USB drive. I then proceeded to have Itunes convert the file for ipod, synced the file and then it played properly on the ipod. I do not have a external drive large enough to hold all my videos. It is either a problem with the raid array or the fact the files are on the boot drive. Anyone have a fix so I can you my computers hard drives??????????
Gary
P.S. Support still has not emailed me the article they were suppose to send. I have 7 days to return the ipod and if I do not get a answer back by then I guess I will return it for something else.

Problems with Xserve RAID

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