Software Raid Inconsistent on a mac pro

My software raid 0 array is sometimes slow, sometimes fast. Using the Blackmagic disk speed test utility, it sometimes gets 97MB/s read speed, and sometimes 150MB/s read speed. I ensure nothing else is running in the background between tests. Another test I do is to duplicate a folder containing 1 gig of files. Sometimes it takes twice as long to duplicate it. Early 2008 Mac Pro, 8 cores, 8 gig mem, raid 0 is two 750gig Caviars (using the 4th internal bay for time machine) Disk utility reports all is clean. Lion 10.7.1. Rebuild array? ideas?

Mac OS X runs with main memory massively over-committed. Because of this, it often has to return to the Boot Drive to get a few pages of this or that. This activity moves the read/write heads ways from the data area on the data drive and kills RAID performance.
If you have not done so already, you should consider creating a separate Boot Drive containing System, Library, Applications, and the hidden unix files including Paging/Swap. Move all User files off that drive, except one Admin User used only for Administration, not daily work.

Similar Messages

I have some questions regarding setting up a software RAID 0 on a Mac Pro

I have some questions regarding setting up a software RAID 0 on a Mac pro (early 2009).
These questions might seem stupid to many of you, but, as my last, in fact my one and only, computer before the Mac Pro was a IICX/4/80 running System 7.5, I am a complete novice regarding this particular matter.
A few days ago I installed a WD3000HLFS VelociRaptor 300GB in bay 1, and moved the original 640GB HD to bay 2. I now have 2 bootable internal drives, and currently I am using the VR300 as my startup disk. Instead of cloning from the original drive, I have reinstalled the Mac OS, and all my applications & software onto the VR300. Everything is backed up onto a WD SE II 2TB external drive, using Time Machine. The original 640GB has an eDrive partition, which was created some time ago using TechTool Pro 5.
The system will be used primarily for photo editing, digital imaging, and to produce colour prints up to A2 size. Some of the image files, from scanned imports of film negatives & transparencies, will be 40MB or larger. Next year I hope to buy a high resolution full frame digital SLR, which will also generate large files.
Currently I am using Apple's bundled iPhoto, Aperture 2, Photoshop Elements 8, Silverfast Ai, ColorMunki Photo, EZcolor and other applications/software. I will also be using Photoshop CS5, when it becomes available, and I will probably change over to Lightroom 3, which is currently in Beta, because I have had problems with Aperture, which, until recent upgrades (HD, RAM & graphics card) to my system, would not even load images for print. All I had was a blank preview page, and a constant, frozen "loading" message - the symbol underneath remained static, instead of revolving!
It is now possible to print images from within Aperture 2, but I am not happy with the colour fidelity, whereas it is possible to produce excellent, natural colour prints using its "minnow" sibling, iPhoto!
My intention is to buy another 3 VR300s to form a 4 drive Raid 0 array for optimum performance, and to store the original 640GB drive as an emergency bootable back-up. I would have ordered the additional VR300s already, but for the fact that there appears to have been a run on them, and currently they are out of stock at all, but the more expensive, UK resellers.
I should be most grateful to receive advice regarding the following questions:
QUESTION 1:
I have had a look at the RAID setting up facility in Disk Utility and it states: "To create a RAID set, drag disks or partitions into the list below".
If I install another 3 VR300s, can I drag all 4 of them into the "list below" box, without any risk of losing everything I have already installed on the existing VR300?
Or would I have to reinstall the OS, applications and software again?
I mention this, because one of the applications, Personal accountz, has a label on its CD wallet stating that the Licence Key can only be used once, and I have already used it when I installed it on the existing VR300.
QUESTION 2:
I understand that the failure of just one drive will result in all the data in a Raid 0 array being lost.
Does this mean that I would not be able to boot up from the 4 drive array in that scenario?
Even so, it would be worth the risk to gain the optimum performance provide by Raid 0 over the other RAID setup options, and, in addition to the SE II, I will probably back up all my image files onto a portable drive as an additional precaution.
QUESTION 3:
Is it possible to create an eDrive partition, using TechTool Pro 5, on the VR300 in bay !?
Or would this not be of any use anyway, in the event of a single drive failure?
QUESTION 4:
Would there be a significant increase in performance using a 4 x VR300 drive RAID 0 array, compared to only 2 or 3 drives?
QUESTION 5:
If I used a 3 x VR300 RAID 0 array, and installed either a cloned VR300 or the original 640GB HD in bay 4, and I left the Startup Disk in System Preferences unlocked, would the system boot up automatically from the 4th. drive in the event of a single drive failure in the 3 drive RAID 0 array which had been selected for startup?
Apologies if these seem stupid questions, but I am trying to determine the best option without foregoing optimum performance.

Well said.
Steps to set up RAID
Setting up a RAID array in Mac OS X is part of the installation process. This procedure assumes that you have already installed Mac OS 10.1 and the hard drive subsystem (two hard drives and a PCI controller card, for example) that RAID will be implemented on. Follow these steps:
1. Open Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities).
2. When the disks appear in the pane on the left, select the disks you wish to be in the array and drag them to the disk panel.
3. Choose Stripe or Mirror from the RAID Scheme pop-up menu.
4. Name the RAID set.
5. Choose a volume format. The size of the array will be automatically determined based on what you selected.
6. Click Create.
Recovering from a hard drive failure on a mirrored array
1. Open Disk Utility in (/Applications/Utilities).
2. Click the RAID tab. If an issue has occurred, a dialog box will appear that describes it.
3. If an issue with the disk is indicated, click Rebuild.
4. If Rebuild does not work, shut down the computer and replace the damaged hard disk.
5. Repeat steps 1 and 2.
6. Drag the icon of the new disk on top of that of the removed disk.
7. Click Rebuild.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT2559
Drive A + B = VOLUME ONE
Drive C + D = VOLUME TWO
What you put on those volumes is of course up to you and easy to do.
A system really only needs to be backed up "as needed" like before you add or update or install anything.
/Users can be backed up hourly, daily, weekly schedule
Media files as needed.
Things that hurt performance:
Page outs
Spotlight - disable this for boot drive and 'scratch'
SCRATCH: Temporary space; erased between projects and steps.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StandardRAIDlevels
(normally I'd link to Wikipedia but I can't load right now)
Disk drives are the slowest component, so tackling that has always made sense. Easy way to make a difference. More RAM only if it will be of value and used. Same with more/faster processors, or graphic card.
To help understand and configure your 2009 Nehalem Mac Pro:
http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews/2009/04/266ghz-8-core-mac-pro-review.ars/1
http://macperformanceguide.com/
http://www.macgurus.com/guides/storageaccelguide.php
http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/harddrives/index.html
http://macperformanceguide.com/OptimizingPhotoshop-Configuration.html
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/404/kb404440.html

10.6.2 upgrade killed software RAID 0 for my Mac Pro - can it be recovered?

I have 4 internal SATA drives in my Mac Pro, one is the boot device, one is the time machine device, the remaining two drives are set up as striped disks (RAID0).
When upgrading from 10.6.1 to 10.6.2, my RAID set was killed by the upgrade process.
I now have very strange output in disk utility, I can see:
1. 750 GB (disk icon) with one volume called "RAID Slice for "RAID""
2. My Time Machine disk (750 GB)
3. My startup disk (750 GB)
Selecting disk "1.", I get the tabs Erase and RAID, selecting RAID shows strange things, see screenshot:
http://files.me.com/joj/fk64zx
(the password is "x", could not get it to work without a password).
Of course, my latest Aperture library was located there which is a bit painful.....
Any ideas?
Joakim

You have to enter the password "x" twice as well... Something strange with mobileme there.

What is the best software for home office for mac pro ?

What is the best software for home office for mac pro ?

Mac-HaBu X 12.2.0.3.841
Gnucash 2.4.11
QuickBooks Pro 2013 14.0.3 R4
MoneyWorks Gold 6.1r5
MoneyWorks Express 6.1.r1

Set up RAID 0 on new Mac Pro

I should have the machine by Friday, Nov 2. Two 500g drives. Apparently, Apple won't be configuring the RAID 0 (mirroring) for me. Are there instructions online that I can read now so I know what I'm getting into before hand?
Also, in the event of a drive failure, should the system just keep on chugging along, just giving me a message that one drive has failed? On my Windows system, that's what is supposed to happen. But having had two failures over the years, I only got the friendly helpful message once. The other time, the entire system shut down, even though only one drive failed. What should I expect with the Mac Pro?
Thanks!

Thanks to both. And thanks for pointing out my error. It's mirroring that's important to me, not the added speed from striping. I'm hoping that a drive failure won't cause the machine to stop "dead in its tracks", as I've had happen before, even on a high end Windows machine with RAID 1 enabled via an Adaptec RAID card.
What still isn't clear to me is whether with Apple's RAID 1 the system will continue functioning if one drive fails, or if instead I'll have some work to do to get back up and running.
The reason for my question is that too many times in the past I've bought into something that turns out not to be quite what I expected. And since Apple sells a separate RAID card for the Mac Pro, I'm wondering if the built in RAID function, without the add-on $1,000 card, will allow the system to keep working when one drive fails in a mirrored setup.
Thanks!

Apple RAID Card error in Mac Pro Tower

Hi, not sure where to post this, but we're getting an error using the Apple RAID card in a Mac Pro Intel Tower. It is "Controller reports RAID system 72-hour battery reserve unavailable - System is configured to run without battery."
Also the status: "Write caches disabled"
System seems to run OK. Is there a way to correct this and have the errors not appear?
Thanks in advanced.

Hello Tim
If this is a recent purchase then its quite normal see:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1346
Tony

Can you move a software raid 1 from one mac to another

I have a 2 disc software raid 1 on my powermac and I want to move it to my mac pro. Does anyone know if I can do this?

It appears that in Mac OS X 10.4, and again in the transition to 10.7, RAID format may have undergone dramatic changes. If you are trying to move a RAID array across those boundaries, you may not have the best results moving the drives directly.

RAID card in 2009 Mac Pro & EMC Retrospect 8.x: Experience

I spent the last few days in the often bizarre world of trying to figure the best way to utilize the 2009 RAID card with the newly released version 8 Retrospect from EMC (Iomega). Here's my warning: From my experience version 8 and the RAID card do not get along at all and often result in that dreaded black screen stating that you have to press the power button and restart in multiple languages, meaning the computer has crashed really badly.
But let me start from the beginning:
we recently got 2 new Western Dig RE4GP 2TB drives which were installed in slot 2 and 4 and then RAIDed together (RAID 0 I think). I then tried to backup 700GB from a Seagate ES2 drive to the new RAID volume using Retro8. After a few minutes I got the black multilanguage crash sign, forcing a manual power off. Not good. A few more similar bad experiences and I gave up on version 8 and went back to version 6.1x. This version seemed to work much better and I was able to backup the 700GB data to the RAID volume. The next test was restoring the 700GB data on the RAID volume. So I wanted to restore the data to the same RAID volume, so the computer would be reading the Retrospect dataset and then writing the data back to the same drive. Maybe not optimal in drive throughput performance but surely technical feasible (yes, ideally you would backup the data to one/another drive and then restore the data to a third target drive, in my case the RAID volume). Turns out this too is a no go. After restoring 300GB the dreaded multilanguage sign appears and again, after inspecting the error logs, it seems the RAID card has just freaked out. At this point I am getting very mad at Apple as I can hardly find any really usable information on the RAID card anywhere on the web plus making a $6k computer perform in a rather delicate way which is not the usual way I experience Macs. Questions in my mind: Do the drives need to be in adjacent slots, is there a problem with the 2 TB drives, why can't the card read and restore to the same RAID volume, why does the RAID card crash the system so badly, isthe computer being damaged by crashing like this etc. I am getting the impression that this expensive RAID card's performance is kind of flaky and there might be some software issues. Also I have a suspicion (I have no way of proving it) that the RAID card might be using more PCI bandwidth than it should thus causing other problems I won't get into here. So after this rant my questions would be:
-anybody else had any success with Retrospect 8 and the RAID card?
-might my crashes not really stem from the RAID card but from some other thing I am doing?
-any pointers on things I might be missing?
There just seems to be so little user feedback on the RAID card here or elsewhere which I think might be because relatively few people have the RAID card.
Any advice would be great.

You realize that not all disk drives are certified to work with Apple's
RAID card?
Is the ES2 also controlled by the RAID card?
Those RE4s are very very new. Does Apple or WD list them as certified to work on that card? you know, the way they often use to in the case of SCSI controllers and disk drives.
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306231
http://www.apple.com/macpro/technology/storage.html
http://www.apple.com/support/macpro/ - links to articles pertinent to Mac Pro such as Pro RAID card.

RAID 5 on a Mac Pro

Before I begin, please go easy on me - I haven't been on a Mac in years (at least 10 but am so very happy to be back) and I am a RAID newbie. I do not have XServe, so I am not even sure if I am posting this in the correct forum, but again ask for leniency in light of my naivete.
I had a Mac RAID card installed by Apple and have since installed 3 new 1 Tb drives in addition to the 1 Tb drive that came with my system. I ran the Mac RAID utility to create RAID 5 and it did its thing. But I am not sure exactly what has happened. For one thing, my total RAID space is no where near the collected 4 Tbs HD space I have, it is something closer to 1.78 Tb. I knew I would lose some space in setting this up but is this normal or did the initialization not work properly?
In addition, the RAID utility operation took several hours to complete during which time I had assumed backup copies of my primary 1 Tb drive was generated. However, when I check my newly created RAID 5 under Devices, there is no content visible (unlike when I check the primary drive that shipped with my system - I can see all the contents of that drive without any problem). So was the initialization just a matter of formatting the new disks? If so, how do I get my data onto all drives? Is there software that came with my Mac that will allow me to do this or will I require software such as Retrospect to accomplish this? And finally, I noticed there are some nice tutorials available on the Apple website (such as for Aperture) but I could not find any wrt setting RAID 5. Is there such a tutorial available?
Thanks in advance for the help.
Regards,
Martin

Hello, Martin 095, and welcome (back) to the Apple boards,
This is actually not the right place for your question. The Xserve RAID is a (now discontinued) mass storage device.
There are a bunch or boards supporting the Mac Pro that I suggest you look into and if you can't find your answer post in whichever board you think is best: http://discussions.apple.com/category.jspa?categoryID=194
That aside - if you just created a brand new RAID 5 it is probably sitting as a blank volume. Try opening Disk Utilities > Disk Utility and see if there is a large blank volume waiting for a format. It might be as simple as partitioning and formatting the volume. If this is it and you format it (probably HFS+ journaled) it will probably then appear on your desktop automatically.
Good luck,
=Tod

How do I migrate the data on a RAID on my old Mac Pro to a new RAID array on my new Mac Pro?

We have an older Mac Pro (no Thunderbolt) with four drives (2 of which are configured RAID 0). The new machine has a LaCie RAID on it with 2 drives RAID 1 and 2 drives RAID 0. What's the best way to migrate the data from the old system to the new system? Do I use Migration asst to get the data and settings from the old main to the new main and then xfer the data from the ancillary drives over?

Read my post in this discussion.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3445538?start=0&tstart=0

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

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

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

Does anyone know how to access the sound software on a Mid 2010 Mac Pro? I have a Logitech Z906 5.1 surround system with fiber optic in and out, I only seem to be able to get stereo and simulated 5.1 sound .

A mid 2010 Mac Pro, trying to get 5.1 surround out of the onboard sound software using fiber optic out connected to a Logitech Z906 5.1 speaker sys. with fiber optic in and out, all I get is stereo and simulated 5.1 sound out of the speakers. In utilities, Audio Midi Setup I can't get the Mac to see the Logitech speakers for 5.1 speaker configuration. Without being made to feel like a dummy, does anyone have a solution? Thanks, Carl

Hello John, I figured it was a signal issue. All the speakers fire and the sound is great. I was running the speakers thru a Dell PC with a Creative X-Fi Elite Pro, THX Certified, 7.1 soundcard using a fiber optic from the Mac Pro to the Z906's, it worked great until the Dell died!!! When I bought the soundcard from Creative I also bought the GigaWorks S750, THX Certified, 700 watt, 7.1 speaker system, used the speakers for 11 years and then the woofer/amp said "I QUIT" Creative quit making the speaker system and the sound card. The satellite speakers from the Creative GigaWorks speaker system still sound great (rated at 78 watt each) and are a little better speaker than the one's that came with the Z906 and the wattage from the 906 is sufficient to drive the satellites without any distortion. Thank you for addressing my issue, you confirmed what I suspected all along, just needed to hear it from someone with the same setup.
One last question, I purchased a Diamond Multimedia USB Soundcard, can't use the fiber optic(not supported by Mac) but the green, tan and black RCA's plug in and produces adequetly. When you plug your 906's into the Mac Pro using the fiber optic how do you set your speaker configuration? When I plug into the mac pro with fiber optic the 'Audio Midi Setup' does not seem to see the 5.1 configuration. Any thoughts there?
Carl

Adding Internal RAID 1 to Configured Mac Pro

I'm trying to add a disk to my existing and configured mac pro to mirror what is currently on the OEM drive. I've already purchased and installed the second drive (identical brand and model). I seem to be stuck on a few details and hoping I can get some assistance.
I've opened up disk utility and I can see the new unpartitioned drive along with the previous existing drive. When I click on the RAID tab it says to drag disks to the list box, but the existing drive won't go into the box, only the new one.
I would appreciate if anyone knows the steps to make this happen or if I'm missing something. Do I simply need to restore (even though I haven't set up a RAID set before)? Can I not create a RAID set with an existing drive? Thanks for the help.

Hi Robert j. Carr;
I think a much more basic question is why do you want to do this? Exactly what do you hope to gain?
If all you are looking for is protection from disk failure then RAID 1 can do that.
If on the other hand you are thinking this will give you a real time backup, I think you are sadly mistaken. Any data on a RAID 1 array must be backed up.
Think about this, say you have an application open and it had a dozen files opened. The application aborts and takes the files with it. How can you recover with RAID ! array?
You can't because as soon as the application had aborted, the files were removed from all of the disks in the RAID 1 array.
Allan

Moving Thunderbold DAS with software RAID 1 to different Mac

Background: I am preparing to wipe my iMac (currently Mavericks) to then do a clean install of Yosemite. Attached to my iMac is a "WD MyBook Thunderbolt Duo". This external "DAS" drive model is a single enclosure that contains two, 2TB physical drives, and attaches to the iMac with a single Thunderbolt cable. I am not using any WesternDigital software on my iMac! Instead, I have used Disk Utility to manage the drive and have created a single 2TB software RAID 1 array (HFS+Journaled) incorporating both of the 2 physical drives as slices. The RAID 1 volume mounts as "DAS" on my Desktop and currently contains the majority of my media files.
Before beginning the repartitioning, formatting, and doing a clean install of Yosemite on the iMac's internal HDD, I plan on disconnecting the DAS's thunderbolt cable so it's safe from the install process.
Question: What I need to know is what to expect when I eventually reconnect the DAS to the new Yosemite installation. Will my RAID 1 volume "DAS" simply mount on the desktop as expected?
What I don't understand is where software RAID slice and volume configurations are stored. Is the software RAID 1 configuration stored as part of the partition table on the drives themselves or is it stored on the Mac? I am hoping to hear that the software RAID configuration is all on the drives themselves and therefore the drive can be reattached to a new Mac and it will just recognize the configuration and mount the volume normally with no additional effort. Can someone please confirm this to ease my mind (or save me before I go ahead with this).
Sorry to put this in the OS X Server forum but I thought that a software RAID question using Disk Utility would be best answered from the expertise here.
I appreciate any info you can provide.

Yes the software RAID configuration is stored on the drives themselves so it will be safe to disconnect from one Mac and reconnect to a second Mac.
Note to others. Any Mac that supports Thunderbolt is going to be running a new enough version of OS X so as to not cause a problem.

Raid 5 Card for Mac Pro

Hello all!
I am a video editor and am currently building my own system out.. I am on my last step of upgrades now and I need to build a RAID. At work we have the huge fiber channel RAID 5's, but this is for my personal use. So what I want to do is get the High-Point Rocket 2310 card and create and internal RAID 5. I just hate having backup procedures so I think this will offer me exactly what I need. But I just can't figure out how people hook these things up????? I have all 4 drive bays maxed out with 1TB drives. I want to put 3 of them on the card but I don't see how I can connect them to the back of the card via a sata cable if they "plug" into the slots on the mac pro. How do I connect these 3 drives to the card?? I just can't find out anywhere online Does the Raid card access the drives through the PCI slot?? any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks all!

Hi,
I cannot recommend using an internal RAID 5. The reason is that it will provide slow performance and limit the expansion capability of the RAID 5 volume and the Mac Pro.
While RAID 5 adds redundancy, there is no guarantee that the volume can be rebuilt. You still will need to backup any important data. If you thought that RAID 5 eliminates the need for a backup you will not be happy when the RAID 5 volume cannot be rebuilt and all of your data is lost.
The problem with a three drive RAID 5 is that one disk is used for parity data. This only leaves the space of two disks for creating the volume. Even if three 1TB HDs are used you are limited to approx. 1.8TB with a three disk RAID 5 and the performance is limited to a dual drive RAID 0. If your requirements are this meager you will be better off with a dual drive RAID 0 and a SuperDuper Backup disk in bay three. This will provide higher redundancy and is much cheaper.
If you really want a RAID 5 configuration, I would use an external solution which can provide room for expansion and much higher performance. This setup allows the internal Mac Pro bays to be used for Mac OS X, Boot Camp, importing data and backing up data. While the external enclosure supports the RAID 5 volume.
The setup I like for an external RAID 5 solution is the FirmTek SeriTek/5PM enclosure used with the HighPoint RR2314. This provides a five disk RAID 5 solution that has a small foot print, quiet operation and a high quality enclosure. You can read more about it here:
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/firmtek/5pm/
http://www.firmtek.com/seritek/seritek-5pm/
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/highpoint/2314/
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000NAXGIU/arizomacinusergr
If you do not mind spending more you could configure a RAID 6 ARC-1680ix-12 configuration using the information found in this AMUG article:
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/areca/1680ix12/
However, if you are looking for a high quality RAID 5 solution that is reasonably priced I find the SeriTek/5PM and the RR2314 are an excellent choice.
Have fun!

Software Raid Inconsistent on a mac pro

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