This is a RAID
Final Cut Pro (badge number 5.1.4) busted me. The charge: dropped frames in a 40-minute sequence while trying to smuggle edited footage back to tape (via Print to Video). Needing some advice to bail me out of this project's arrested development ...
In all seriousness, I'm looking for a reference/tutorial on how to configure my external hard drives into a RAID. Plus the mechanics (the whys) behind this set-up. I have a work-around that has seen me through the current project in which the errors cropped up. So I'm basically looking ahead with this post to enjoy a future of smoother workflows.
Right now, the three LaCie drives I'm using – a pair of 160s that have been daisy-chained and a 300 GB connected straight into the G5 – have been OK (and I'm down with the fact – now at last – that the original meaning of OK is: so-so, passable, not bad, not great ...) for the 10-minute or shorter productions I've been cranking out.
But a little reading lately (following the bust) is telling me that I'm destined for nightmares under this arrangement as I venture into bigger projects. Error message noted drive speed as the cause of the dropped frames. Hence, the quest for some best-practices advice and further reading.
Also, any advice on brands of drives. I've not had any real trouble with LaCie, but have read about other folks being pushed to the brink.
Thanks in advance,
Jeff
If you are going RAID, you might look at the Western Digital RE2 drives, compared to Seagates here (there's a full review somewhere if you search storagereview)
http://www.storagereview.com/ST3750640NS.sr?page=0%2C1 (search in that site for more specifics by RE2)
The neat thing about them is that they will time out after 7 seconds for errors. Bad if using them as single drives, but great for RAID as I've had a lot of Seagate drives taken off-line by the RAID controllers when they took a very long time to respond (due to trying to correct errors).
You might also consider the 3Ware Sidecar:
http://3ware.com/products/Extserialata2-9000.asp
They just had a price reduction to $895 list. A much larger company than probably any Mac controller company.
The neat thing about them is that you can add a BBU (battery backup unit) to the controller for about $100.
This can save you during a power supply failure or a Mac OS crash. It deals with the hard drive's cache memory journaling on a very low level (data isn't really written until its moved to the hard drive from the cache, so you have to worry about that).
I've been using them on the Windows platform for years with zero data loss. Great on the Mac, especially for video use where you need very high data rates.
Similar Messages
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Hello (hopefully someone can shed some light on my issue)
I own as above a MAC PRO (Early 2008) this has a RAID card installed along with two 15k.7 cheetah hdd (320gb) and a spare drive, (which i made a regular drive)
a while ago i had to replace the RAID card battery, so i did this, over a year later the same thing happened again, but as previous just left it and the system seemed fine for ages, until last night i was working in PHOTOSHOP and everything just froze and the screen kind of appeared GREEN, could not do a single thing. So restarted the mac, this time grey screen for ages and a message appeared, (macs version of blue screen) (see attached).
I restarted the machine and this time a flashing question mark folder!
could not do a thing.
so i found my copy of snow leopard and got the computer to run this and at least launch the DISK UTILITY and (Interestingly in the drop down menu RAID UTILITY was also in the menu) but it did not matter which utility i used the (RAID or DISK) neither could see any of drives, just the dvd drive.
so looked around on you tube and various forums and discovered if i take out the RAID CARD and re-plug the main lead from the RAID card back in to the LOGIC BOARD I would be reverting the MAC to a normal regular non-RAID computer.
After performing this HARDWARE task and inserting all three HDD, and running the DISK utility from the drop down menu via the SNOW LEOPARD disc.
(interestingly since the RAID card had been removed the RAID UTILITY from the drop down menu no longer appeared). running disk utility I can now only see the regular (spare) hdd and DVD Drive, but the two RAID HDD , again, still do not show up DISK UTILITY?
O.K. so i could chuck out the RAID card (AND RAID HDD) and just go with a regular set-up, and run a back restore from Time Machine on a NEW hdd purchased.
but what is wrong with the RAID, is the card at fault or are both HDD used for the RAID knackered? can i perform any tests, to see whats what?
thanks for your help in advanced.hello people, the issue was in fact the GRAPHICS card nothing to do with the HDD or RAID system ( although this did cause issues with the RAID system it basically lost its way) below is my replay to another similar problem some one else had!
working in photoshop and then everything stopped working and the lot froze! only option was to force shutdown (via button).
and try to restart, hoping all was fine, this was not the case :-(
I had the added issue of the RAID card system, that i have, this was confused to say the lease and would not behave or work, causing the start up to hang.
so i thought the HDD must be bust and the root cause. ( but soon learnt it was not the cause )
...bought a new HDD removed the RAID card and replugged the cable from RAID card into LOGIC board, ( making the computer act like any normal non-RAID system). I managed to install the OSX, using the snow leopard disk way. once the mac was running, i started to notice the screen would flicker and started to see 'artefacts'. so i started to reveal my symptoms to the web and forums and soon discovered that my graphics card could be the issue all along?.
(nvidia geforce 8800gt 2x dvi).
I read up on that a fix, could be either A. reply the thermal paste, as the card could be over heating or B. stick the card in the oven trick.
Tried option A. first and nothing still issues, so last night took the plunge carried out option B. and ta da it worked! i even managed to run
from my new HDD my lasted install OS X, absolutely fine. I then thought, maybe i could repair my RAID so replugged all the HARDWARD back in and
carried out a disk repair and disk permissions on drives( took a small amount of time), via the SNOW LEOPARD disc - (Disk utilities) and this worked and now have my system working as it was just over 6 days ago.
what was the cost to get this? bought a new hdd so 40.00gbp and thermal paste and cleaner kit ( your still need to do this ) search video card trick on you tube.
and renew thermal paste, approx 15.00gbp, technically i don't need the new HDD, but it was all part of the trial and error way i went. ( i do have extra storage as a result!)" -
Any reason I shouldn't do it this way? RAID backup question
I'm using three 1TB drives torn out of Western Digital external hard drives (hard to find internal drives in Italy) as a RAID 0 for 3TB internal storage in the three extra internal bays. I'd like to mirror that, or something close to it, for a reasonable price. Is there any reason I shouldn't just buy three more external 1TB drives (around €110 for USB2 each) and combine them into a RAID 0 using Disk Utility? Since I'll be using it as a backup for my internal raid, speed isn't really an issue. I'd like to be able to just use Synchronize Pro or Super Duper to regularly schedule backups.
I'm asking because it seems like the cheapest alternative is 4TB RAID boxes like Jobo, Lacie or WD that run about €1000.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated...Hi,
The only draw back that I can see with mounting three more hard disks internally in the Mac Pro is that you may need to remove the DVD, the Mac Pro will run warmer and of course it will be louder. You will need to decide if this is what you want.
I find that the SeriTek/5PM is a better solution.
http://firmtek.stores.yahoo.net/sata5pm2se2.html
http://www.amug.org/amug-web/html/amug/reviews/articles/firmtek/5pm/
The SeriTek/5PM is quiet, provides great HD cooling, and allows the user to easily turn off or remove hard disks that are not currently needed. This reduces energy usage, helps backup disks last longer, keeps the Mac Pro cool and quiet and provides virtually unlimited hard disk capability as hard disks can be hot swapped as needed. It will cost more for this configuration but it provides much more flexibility.
Have fun! -
I am going to have three disks, one 10000 for OS and two 7200 for everything else. I wanted to have the two for everything else in RAID 0 and don't plan on adding any drives for a while. Would this card be OK:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124037 ?Ha ha I didn't realize there was a raid controller built into the motherboard , sorry for that everyone.
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If you have an interest in using RAID, then the MS Word document attached to this post may be useful information. Scroll all the way to the bottom for the attachment.
RAID for Consumer PCs
Table of Contents
RAID
RAID 0
RAID 1
RAID 5
RAID 10 (0+1)
INTEL Controller Support for Different RAID Configurations
Background Information for Creating a RAID configuration.
Considerations:
Performance comparisons
Creating a RAID 0 Array
Creating a RAID 1 Array
Creating a RAID 5 Array
Creating a RAID 10 (0+1) Array
Conversion from RAID 0 to RAID 5
RAID 0 to RAID 5 Observations
Other RAID Migrations
*************DISCLAIMER***********
RAID
RAID is an acronym for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks and also commonly called Redundant Array of Independent Disks. A RAID array is created when one or more hard disks or one or more solid state disks (SSD) are combined to form a logical volume using one of several different configurations. Consumer level PCs typically use RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 5 and occasionally RAID 10 (0+1). The RAID configuration choice is dependent on the requirements for redundancy, speed and capacity. The choice of a RAID configuration will be a compromise between speed, redundancy, capacity and cost. The different RAID configuration options can be restricted by hardware limitations.
RAID 0
A RAID 0 volume is created when 2 hard disks are used and then data is spanned or striped across the different hard disks. The process of spanning data across different hard disks is also called scatter loading. By spreading data across multiple hard disks, a significant performance improvement can be gained. However, should one of the hard disks fail, then the entire RAID 0 configuration becomes unusable. A RAID 0 volume combines the capacity of the hard drives being used in the configuration.
RAID 1
A RAID 1 configuration is created when 2 hard disks are used and then data on hard drive 1 is replicated to hard drive 2. The process is also called data mirroring. This configuration provides for redundancy in the event of a single hard drive failure but at the expensive of a degradation to write performance as data has to be written to multiple hard drives. Since the data is being replicated between two volumes the overall capacity is limited to that of one hard drive.
RAID 5
A RAID 5 configuration is similar to a RAID 0 array except RAID 5 deploys distributed parity also referred to as checksum data. Blocks of data are stripped across three or more hard drives and each hard drive contains block level recreation data (parity). In the event of a hard drive failure, parity will allow for the data to be accessed through a dynamic data creation process. The downside to the dynamic data creation process is a reduction in performance until the failing hard drive can be replaced. RAID 5 performs best for supporting read accesses as write operations will be slower while the parity blocks are being updated. Parity data does consume disk space. A three hard drive RAID 5 array will have about the same total data capacity as a two hard drive RAID 0 array.
RAID 10 (0+1)
A RAID 10 configuration also called RAID 0+1 can be implemented in two different methods depending on the hardware being used. The below left configuration is a striped RAID 1 array being replicated and the below right configuration is a RAID 0 array being replicated. A RAID 10 configuration can provide a RAID 0 performance level even with the loss of one hard disk. The downside to RAID 10 is the reduced configuration capacity.
INTEL Controller Support for Different RAID Configurations.
The RAID configurations used in this document are based on the INTEL SATA controller.
See the below table.
NOTE: Even though your system board may have the appropriate Intel controller,
not all system boards will provide RAID functionality.
Background Information for Creating a RAID configuration.
You can create a RAID configuration provided that:
The PC cabinet can accommodate additional hard drive(s) if needed.
The system board has the necessary open SATA port(s) if needed.
A SATA controller that can support the desired RAID configuration.
You can determine the status of your RAID configuration by using the Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) software. If you don’t have this software on your PC then you can download IRST from the Intel web site. I recommend that you use the latest version available from Intel. Background information can be obtained from the IRST User Guide. When you launch IRST, the help topics are an excellent source of information. You can access IRST by going into the Control Panel and select Intel Rapid Storage Technology. You can also access IRST from the lower right Task Bar location. IRST should resemble a hard drive icon and normally it has a green check mark. By default IRST is set as delayed startup so don’t expect to see it active right after boot up. The Intel images being used in this document are from IRST version 11.1.0.1006.
If the SATA controller in your PC is not set to RAID then read this Microsoft article if you are running VISTA or Windows 7. You need to run the MrFixIT script before you reboot your PC in the bios and make the SATA controller mode change to RAID. The script will then allow Windows to choose the correct driver when you reboot your PC. If you plan on using a boot drive image restore then be sure to run the script just prior to making taking your image backup. That way your backup image is set to allow Windows to choose the correct SATA driver.
Before creating any RAID configuration, always make backups of your data and image the boot hard disk to external media such as an USB drive. Additionally, be sure that your imaging product boot disk is functional, particularly if the PC’s boot hard disk is part of the RAID configuration. Its best to use a commercial hard disk imaging product as support and functionality is generally better than the “freebie” software.
Be sure that your PC is running the latest available BIOS. BIOS updates are used to update the Intel ROM firmware. Additionally, check for hard drive and SSD firmware updates.
Summary of preparation steps in priority order:
Backup your data.
Test out your recovery and restore procedures.
Update the following: BIOS, hard drive firmware, SSD firmware
Update IRST
Execute the Microsoft MrFixIt if your PC is not set to RAID mode in the bios.
Create an image of your boot hard drive.
Considerations:
After replacing a failed hard drive, don’t expect the rebuild process to be fast. All of the data that existed on the failed hard drive must be either regenerated using parity data or replicated to the new hard drive.
I recommend that you use an uninterruptable power supply (UPS) when using RAID 5. Cached write data needs to be written to hard drive in the event of a power failure to avoid the loss of data. You might want to consider disabling write back cache if you are not using an UPS. There is a performance reduction by doing so at the expense of improving data integrity.
If you need a RAID array over 2 TB then your PC needs: UEFI bios, 64 bit operating system, GPT formated hard drives. Review this Microsoft article on Windows and GPT FAQs.
Since a MBR formated array will limit the useable space to 2 TB it’s therefore best to use hard drives that are 1 TB or less for RAID 0, 5 and 10.
Consider the data growth rate and the size of the array. The Intel controller will limit the number of hard drives. The size of the PC cabinet and available system board SATA ports will also be growth constraints. It’s not uncommon for a business to experience an annual data growth rate of 20 percent.
If you need a RAID solution beyond the typical consumer level RAID configurations, then you should review the RAID options available from HP.
RAID technology in not infalible so you need to consider backups. A voltage spike inside your PC could render the RAID unusable and unrecoverable. Corrupted data or a virus are other reasons for keeping backups. An external USB connected hard drive might be sufficient for backups.
Throughly test your backup and restore software. Always keep more than one backup copy of your data.
Performance comparisons:
All of the hard drives benchmarked are Hitachi 1.5 TB SATA III hard drives connected as SATA II devices. HD Tune was used to benchmark the seniaros using default settings.
Configuration
Average MB/s
Maximum MB/s
Single hard drive
113
152
RAID 0
222
289
RAID 1
104
142
RAID 5
221
288
RAID 10 (0+1)
220
274
Creating a RAID 0 Array.
If you are configuring the Windows boot drive into a RAID 0 array, then you need to use the Intel option ROM method for creating the array. Tapping Cntl-i at boot up will get you into the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility. Once the array has been created then boot up your image recovery disk and load the array from your image backup.
If you are creating a RAID 0 data only array then you can use the IRST when running Windows to create the array. You can also use the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility. Even though this HP VISTA RAID setup article is dated, it does have some excellent information.
Launch IRST.
You can observe in the above image the status of the hard drives attached to the Intel SATA controller. Now click on Create. Select Optimized Disk (RAID 0) then click on Next.
Configure the RAID 0 array by selecting two hard drives of the same size and click on Next.
Next click on Create Volume.
A warning window will appear. Click on OK.
The new RAID volume is now created. However, you now need to use Windows Disk Management to ready the volume for use.
Creating a RAID 1 Array.
If you are configuring the Windows boot drive into a RAID 1 array, then you need to use the Intel option ROM method for creating the array. Tapping Cntl-i at boot up will get you into the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility. Once the array has been created then boot up your image recovery disk and load the array from your image backup.
If you are creating a RAID 1 data only array then you can use the IRST when running Windows to create the array. You can also use the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility. Even though this HP VISTA RAID setup article is dated, it does have some excellent information.
Launch IRST.
You can observe the above status of the hard drives attached to the Intel SATA controller. Now click on Create.
Select Real-time data protection (RAID 1) and click NEXT.
Configure the RAID 1 array by selecting two hard drives of the same size and click on Next.
Next click on Create Volume.
The new RAID volume is now created. However, you now need to use Windows Disk Management to ready the volume for use.
Creating a RAID 5 Array.
A RAID 5 array will require three to four hard drives. While it is possible to convert a RAID 0 to a RAID 5 array, I recommended that you consider building the RAID 5 array from scratch rather than use a conversion method.
If you are configuring the Windows boot drive into the RAID 5 array, then you need to use the Intel option ROM method for creating the array. Tapping Cntl-i at boot up will get you into the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility. Once the array has been created then boot up your image recovery disk and load the array from your image backup.
If you are creating a RAID 5 data only array then you can use the IRST when running Windows to create the array. You can also use the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility. Even though this HP VISTA RAID setup article is dated, it does have some excellent information.
The following procedure will build the RAID 5 array with three hard drives using IRST.
Launch IRST.
During this create process, I will be using the last three hard drives
listed in the above image under Storage System View. Now click Create.
Select Efficient data hosting and protection (RAID 5) and click
On Next.
Select the three hard drives for RAID 5 and click on Next.
Review the volume creation selections then click on Create Volume.
Review the final warning then click on OK.
Now click on OK and review the final array status.
Creating a RAID 10 (0+1) Array.
A RAID 10 (0+1) array will require four hard drives.
If you are configuring the Windows boot drive into the RAID 10 (0+1) array, then you need to use the Intel option ROM method for creating the array. Tapping Cntl-i at boot up will get you into the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility. Once the array has been created then boot up your image recovery disk and load the array from your image backup.
If you are creating a RAID 10 (0+1) data only array then you can use the IRST when running Windows to create the array. You can also use the Intel option ROM firmware setup utility. Even though this HP VISTA RAID setup article is dated, it does have some excellent information.
The following procedure will build the RAID 10 (0+1) array using four hard drives using IRST.
Launch IRST.
This create process will be using the last four hard drives listed in the above image under Storage System View. Notice that the hard drives are not the same size. Two of the hard drives are 1.5 TB and two hard drives are 2 TB. While it’s recommended to use all hard drives of the same size, it’s not required. The RAID 10 creation progam will pick to two smallest hard drives for the striped pair and then the two largest hard drives for replication pair but not the opposite as the two largest hard drives if used as the striped pair would not fit on the two smaller hard drives for replication. Now click Create.
Select Balanced performance and data protection (RAID 10) and click
on Next.
Select the four hard drives for RAID 10 and click on Next.
Notice that IRST is set to create a RAID 10 volume with the capacity of 2.7 TB.
Review the volume creation selections then click on Create Volume.
Review the final warning then click on OK.
Now click on OK and review the final array status.
Conversion from RAID 0 to RAID 5
If you have a RAID 0 hard disk configuration and you are concerned that a hard drive failure will cause your PC to crash or results in data loss then you might have an option to use RAID 5. A RAID 5 three drive configuration can survive a single hard drive failure but not two failing hard drives. While there are other RAID configurations possible, this document will only be addressing a three hard drive configuration using the Intel SATA controller. Some of the newer HP PCs can accommodate three hard drives and can be configured when ordered with RAID 5.
Observe the below image. This PC has a RAID 0 2.7 TB array. To build the RAID 5 array, you will need to add (configure) an additional hard drive into the array. Click on Manage and then add an eligible hard drive to the array.
Note: all data on the hard drive to be added to the array will be lost since parity and data from the existing array needs to be written to the added hard drive to create the RAID 5 array. Take backups of your existing array in case something goes wrong.
Once you are on the Manage screen then click on Change type.
The following screen will appear:
Select the drive to be included into the array and click on OK.
When the migration process begins, the Status is now indicating migrating and the Type is RAID 5. The hard drive added was 2 TB which meets the minimum amount. BE PATIENT! The migration process will take a very long time for an in place migration to complete.
It’s much faster to delete out the original RAID 0 volume, create the new RAID 5 volume and then reload the original RAID 0 image from your backups. I recommend that you consider
this method verses the in place approach.
Click on Status to show the migration progress.
RAID 0 to RAID 5 Observations
I was able to shut down and boot the RAID configuration before the migration process had completed. The in place migration method was very slow, about 3% per hour and hence my recommendation to use a differnet method. Booting up from different hard drive before the migration process has completed results in a BSOD on boot up.
After completing the RAID 5 conversion, I did receive a message from IRST indicating that one or more volumes is protected against a hard drive failure.
Other RAID Migrations
While there are other RAID migrations options available, they can be platform (chipset) specific. Review this Intel Chipset article on supported RAID migrations. Even though the Intel RAID migration has a safety function built into the process in the event of a power loss or shutdown, it’s always best to have a complete set of up-to-date backups.
The migration process can be painfully slow. The migration time is largely dependent on the hard drive sizes and the number of hard drives involved in the overall migration. In some cases it might be faster to build the RAID array from scratch and then load the data back to the array verses using an in place migration process.
It is possible to increase the overall RAID array (volume) size with some RAID configurations by adding hard drives to the array. The overall size of the array may be limited by how the array had been previously formatted by Windows. Review the information under the Considerations topic in this document.
*********updated August 21, 2013
If you are using SSDs in a RAID 0 configuration then you will need to have the Intel 7 or 8 chipset plus Intel Rapid Storage Technology (IRST) version 11 or higher to get Windows TRIM support to function. The latest version of IRST as of 8/21/2013 that I have seen is 12.7.1036.
*************DISCLAIMER***********
There may be inaccuracies with the information contained in this document so please consider that when using RAID.
*************DISCLAIMER***********
HP DV9700, t9300, Nvidia 8600, 4GB, Crucial C300 128GB SSD
HP Photosmart Premium C309G, HP Photosmart 6520
HP Touchpad, HP Chromebook 11
Custom i7-4770k,Z-87, 8GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650,GTX 760
Custom i7-4790k,Z-97, 16GB, Vertex 3 SSD, Plextor M.2 SSD, Samsung EVO SSD, Corsair HX650, GTX 660TI
Windows 7/8 UEFI/Legacy mode, MBR/GPT
Attachments:
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Backup solutions w/RAID or redundancy (NAS, RAID, DIY File server)
Hi all, I need a place to bounce my ideas off of. Here goes:
I have been doing a lot of reading, since I was considering adding an NAS solution for my home network. My data consists mainly of videos (TVs and movies) and pictures (many many years worth).
Anyways, out of the box solutions seemed a bit too pricy and the RAID not that spectacular unless you're willing to spend, so I began looking at building my own fileserver, with a hardware/software RAID solution. That was a bit better bang for the buck, but I still had one nagging concern.
I've played around with RAID before, and I realized that with mirroring (the only RAID option I was really considering), was that it relied on the RAID controller. I couldn't just take a hard drive, remove it physically from the array, and have my information accessible when plugging it into another computer.
What happens in a few years if your RAID controller dies and you can't find the exact same one? Your array will always be dependent on that controller and I really don't like that feeling. I'd rather have the option of taking a drive, plugging it in another computer, rather than needing to move the whole array (RAID, NAS, DIY file server) around. That means quicker access to my information or the ability to take it with me anywhere I go, on a moment's notice.
The least costly solution I have come up with, for data that doesn't change all that much, is to have two huge drives (1 TB) on a computer, either one or both connected via eSATA. Just remember to ghost/copy the main drive once in a while, and keep the 'backup' drive detached (preferably located in a fire-proof safe) and back it up once in a while, on a regular basis).
Sorry for the long post, but how does that sound, for a cheap, reliable backup solution, for data that doesn't get updated too frequently and for ease of access and use?Hi BGBG;
For what you are attempting to do, RAID is not the best solution. The reason I say this is because RAID 1 is only capable of protection from disk failure. It is not a valid backup solution.
I think that your last solution of using eSATA and a copy is the best. My only addition to your proposal would be a third disk. That way when you move the backup disk into storage you could replace it with the third one. In this way you could use SuperDuper to periodically backup between two disks.
Allan -
Need urgent help with RAID failure on Graphics server (running OSX10)
Hey.
Here's the deal... Our graphics department has a MAC G4 (fully upgraded. newest patches, OS, etc.) that's got a 4 port SATA RAID controller. They use this with four 750GB hard drives as an external RAID (the OS is on a seperate, 65GB hard drive). The way it's set up, through Apple's OS, is we have the four 750GBs in pairs... those pairs are striped, and then the two sets of striped 750s are mirrored. This has worked just fine for a number of months, but we recently had a power surge, and now we're unable to mount "Monkey" (the name of the 1.4TB array).
See the below screenshots for more clarification.
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/raidsetup.JPG
This shows the RAID card, and the four SATA cables coming out of it.
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside1.JPG
As you can see in this and the below screenshots, this shows the 1.4TB Striped set as 'online', but the two below (the two 750GB hard drives) show up as "offline".
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside2.JPG
this shows the actual drive i click on. same thing
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside3a.JPG
If i click the entire array, you can see how it's set up (the Mirrored RAID set consisting of the two Striped RAID sets). The RAID sets (all 3 of them) are showing up as online, yet the drives are offline. No idea why. The drives are all powered, and are spinning, and plugged in.
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside3b.JPG
when you click "Monkey Drive", nothing shows up in it. i don't remember if anything ever used to. if you click 'mount', nothing happens.
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside4.JPG
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside5.JPG
this shows the exact same problem as the first RAID set.
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/verifyRAIDset1.JPG
If you try to Verify the RAID set, it shows that no repairs are necessary
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/verifymonkey.JPG
If you try to verify Monkey, you get a "Volume Needs Repair" error... but when you try to repair it, you get this:
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/repairmonkey.JPG
Really need help; this is a pretty critical problem. Someone that's familar with RAID solutions on MACs please help me out. We can't risk losing any data if at all possible.
Thanks
~LorenzoYou might want to post this to the Server Products forums.
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RAID controller on G4; problems... is RAID dead? Help please!
Hey.
Here's the deal... Our graphics department has a MAC G4 (fully upgraded. newest patches, OS, etc.) that's got a 4 port SATA RAID controller. They use this with four 750GB hard drives as an external RAID (the OS is on a seperate, 65GB hard drive). The way it's set up, through Apple's OS, is we have the four 750GBs in pairs... those pairs are striped, and then the two sets of striped 750s are mirrored. This has worked just fine for a number of months, but we recently had a power surge, and now we're unable to mount "Monkey" (the name of the 1.4TB array).
See the below screenshots for more clarification.
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/raidsetup.JPG
This shows the RAID card, and the four SATA cables coming out of it.
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside1.JPG
As you can see in this and the below screenshots, this shows the 1.4TB Striped set as 'online', but the two below (the two 750GB hard drives) show up as "offline".
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside2.JPG
this shows the actual drive i click on. same thing
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside3a.JPG
If i click the entire array, you can see how it's set up (the Mirrored RAID set consisting of the two Striped RAID sets). The RAID sets (all 3 of them) are showing up as online, yet the drives are offline. No idea why. The drives are all powered, and are spinning, and plugged in.
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside3b.JPG
when you click "Monkey Drive", nothing shows up in it. i don't remember if anything ever used to. if you click 'mount', nothing happens.
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside4.JPG
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/leftside5.JPG
this shows the exact same problem as the first RAID set.
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/verifyRAIDset1.JPG
If you try to Verify the RAID set, it shows that no repairs are necessary
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/verifymonkey.JPG
If you try to verify Monkey, you get a "Volume Needs Repair" error... but when you try to repair it, you get this:
http://www.amcdoors.com/lorenzo/repairmonkey.JPG
Really need help; this is a pretty critical problem. Someone that's familar with RAID solutions on MACs please help me out. We can't risk losing any data if at all possible.
Thanks
~Lorenzohave you gotten this to work yet ?? if not let me know
-d -
Raid Setup Guide 865/875 LSR/FIS2R Rev 1.04
On-Board Raid Setup MSI 865PE/875P
Revision History
Revision 1.0 (January 2004)
- Original Raid Article
Revision 1.01 (February 2004)
- Reformatted text and fixed spelling/grammar
Revision 1.02 (October 2004)
- Added warnings to temporarily disconnect ALL drives including Zip drives during formatting Raid drives for WinXP.
Revision 1.03 (October 2005)
- Reformatted text and added links to download Promise/Intel Raid floppies if user is missing them.
Revision1.04 (February 2006)
- Minor BB reformatting
Intro
Equipment List For Tests
Description of Tests
Pre-Raid Setup Bios Tweaks
Raid Setup On Promise Controller
Raid Setup On Intel Controller
--->Intel- Migrating from single SATA to Full Raid Array
Intro
This guide is intended to help people configure their Bios and setup Windows for Raid using the Intel ICH5R controller and the Promise FastTrak 378 controller. Although all the tests were done using Raid-0 the methods described should be virtually identical to setting up Raid-1 provided the user is aware of the fundamental differences between the two. It should be useful for anyone with an MSI 865PE/875P chipset on motherboards with LSR and FIS2R suffixes. Before continuing, please read the FAQ thread posted by Maesus and the Raid manual(s) that came with your motherboard. There's also some good info regarding Raid Here and Here and Here
Keep in mind this guide is intended as a reference to help you. It is not a manual. I do not work for MSI and my equipment and time are limited. You will have different equipment and different versions of software.
All the data below is based on tests that I ran and I tried to avoid using any theory that I did not test. If you feel I’ve missed something obvious or if you have something you feel should be added to make this guide clearer or simpler, please PM me with your thoughts. If you have a specific problem that this guide does not help you with, post a detailed thread in the forum on the main page.
Equipment List For Tests
MSI 875P FIS2R Motherboard
Bios 1.8
Enermax EG365P-VE (350w) PSU
P4 2.6c CPU
Kingston KHX-3200A2 2x512MB Memory
Radeon 9800Pro AIW Video Card
WD 400JB 40GB/8MB cache IDE Hdd
2-Seagate 80GB 7200.7 SATA Hdd's
Liteon 52x32x52 CDRW
Floppy Drive
Tests
Generally, tests were as follows:
Configure 2 SATA on Promise controller(serial3&4) as Raid0 and install WindowsXP Home SP1a on Raid
Configure 2 SATA on Promise controller(serial3&4) as Raid0 and add Raid to an existing WindowsXP installation on IDE drive(IDE1)
Configure 2 SATA on Intel Raid controller(serial1&2) as Raid0 and install WindowsXP Home SP1a on Raid
Configure 2 SATA on Intel Raid controller(serial1&2) as Raid0 and add Raid to an existing WindowsXP installation on IDE drive(IDE1)
Configure 1 SATA on Intel Raid controller(serial1) and install WindowsXP Home SP1a on it. Then add 2nd SATA on Intel Raid controller(serial2) and migrate to Raid0 using Intel Application Accelerator-Raid edition.
IDE drive used in these tests was pre-installed with a fresh copy of WinXP Home SP1a using default settings and the following drivers all from MSI setup CD and Raid Floppy Disks that came with motherboard:
Intel INF files - version 1002
Gigabit Lan drivers - 7.0.37.0
SoundMax drivers - 5.12.1.3538
Catalyst 3.7 & Multimedia Center drivers from standard ATI CD came with video card.
Pre-Raid BIOS Tweaks
Before I continue, I'd like to point out a few changes from the defaults that I alway make to Bios before I attempt a WinXP install or hardware change. I can't guarantee that they all apply to you but none should make things worse. If anything differs from a setting that you feel is fixing another problem you're having, by all means leave at your prefferred setting. Anything related to performance and overclocking can be raised again AFTER the Raid is all setup and everything is running smoothly.
Standard Cmos Features
The only thing I change here is to enable "32bit transfer mode" whenever I connect new devices to the Intel IDE controller.
Note: Devices attached to the Promise controller and the Intel Raid(when it is enabled) will NOT appear in the standard Cmos page
Advanced Bios Features
Everything on defaults is usually fine except I always change the following for WinXP:
APIC ACPI SCI IRQ - Enabled
Boot Device select is also on this page and you'll be changing it after all the hardware is setup; more later.
Advanced Cipset Features
Confirm that the memory timing "by SPD" is enabled
PNP/PCI Configurations
Clear NVRam option I always set to "YES" before the first boot after making hardware changes. I'm not sure how important this is but I understand that's what you're supposed to do. I believe it forces the motherboard to detect hardware changes. It reverts to "NO" after the reboot.
PCI/IDE Busmaster set to "enabled" to speed things up outside of Windows.
Integrated Peripherals (Before Raid for most flexibilty)
Onboard Promise IDE - Disabled if you have nothing attached to IDE3 and Serial 3&4
ON-Chip IDE Configuration:
Native Mode (Supported by WinXP- Allows all devices connected to IDE 1&2 and Serial 1&2 to be detected)
SATA Only or PATA Only (select the one that you boot XP with)
Keep SATA Active - Yes (if option available)
Keep PATA Active - Yes (if option available)
PATA Channel selection - Both (if option available)
Configure SATA as Raid - No (if option available)
Leave other settings here at default
Note: Some older Bios versions may appear different than above
Frequency/Voltage Control
Dynamic Overclocking - Disabled
Performance Mode - Slow
Dram Frequency - Auto
Adjust CPU Bus - 201 (for "c" type cpu's)
DDR Voltage - 2.65 (minimum for Dual-Channel Mem stability)
AGP Voltage - 1.55
Note: some features above may not appear with your Bios
Note: performance & overclocking features can be increased again AFTER the Raid array has been setup and is stable with Windows.
Raid On Promise Controller
This procedure should work for anyone adding a Raid array to a system already having XP installed on another drive on the Intel controller or intending to install Windows XP on the new Raid array.
Note: IDE 3 and Serial 3&4 connectors are controlled by the Promise controller.
Note: It is possible to setup Raid arrays using 2 IDE drives on IDE3 or even 2 SATA & 2 IDE drives. I only tested 2 SATA drives on Serial 3&4 connectors.
Note: It is possible to setup Raid 0+1 using 2 IDE drives on IDE3 and 2 SATA drives on Serial 3&4. See HERE for a related thread.
Note: It is possible to setup SATA or IDE drives on the Promise controller as separate drives NOT using Raid but I did not test this. See your manual.
- Attach the SATA drives to Serial 3&4 connectors and ensure that both power and data cables are securely connected. Most SATA drives do NOT need any changes to default jumper positions if any(check Hdd installation instructions).
- Boot into Bios
Integrated Peripherals:
Set Onboard Promise IDE - As Raid
- Save and reboot computer
- Use control-F keys during the boot(when prompted-goes by quickly) to enter the Promise Raid Bios.
Note: You will only be able to enter the promise Bios if you have set the Promise controller to "As Raid" AND there are devices connected and detected by the Promise Bios.
- Use the menus to configure the Raid for your preferences.
Note: I can't say which settings you should use for creating the Raid. It depends on many things. Do some research.
- After saving the Raid array, reboot to Bios.(you should see the configured array for a second or two during the post and it should be "functional")
- In Advanced bios Features>>Boot Device Select:
Set the order you prefer to boot from
- If you already have XP installed on another drive and are just adding the Raid for an extra drive, Ensure that the list is still appropriate and includes your XP drive.
- If you will be installing XP on the new Raid, make sure the new Raid array is in the boot list and any other hard drives are NOT.
Note: Typically, I put the disk with XP first and use F11 key during post to boot from another device. This is not required though.
- Save bios
Important!: If you are installing XP on the new Raid array, you should now shutdown and either disconnect or disable any other drives connected until AFTER XP is installed. This includes USB/Zip drives.(See "Bugs" below).
If Installing XP On The New Raid Array(others skip to below):
- Boot from the Windows XP Setup CD and use F6 key when prompted(at the beginning).
- Follow prompts to load the WinXP Promise FastTrack 376/378 Controller from the floppy that came with motherboard(If Required Download Floppy Here). There are a number of different choices on the floppy. PICK THE RIGHT ONE.
Note: if using Win2K with the floppy, you can scroll down to get more driver options on this screen. It's not readily apparent on the screen.
- Continue setup and Windows should now show you the new Raid array as a single drive available to install to. If it shows other drives that you have connected, re-read the "important" note above and the related section on "Bugs" below.
- When XP setup makes its first re-boot, make sure the floppy has been removed or depending on your settings it may give you a scary moment. Yes I did this(tries to boot from floppy).
- After XP is up and running, you can re-connect/re-enable any drives you disconnected earlier. If they have been formatted, they should show up immediately and be assigned letters after your CD/DVD drives.
- You can also install the Promise Array Manager software(from MSI CD utilities tab or download) which adds some array management settings.
If XP Already Installed On Another Drive(and you're just adding the Raid as an extra storage disk):
- Boot into WindowsXP.
- As Windows starts, it should detect a new Raid device and offer to install drivers.
- Select Cancel. It will tell you that it was unable to install new device. If you want you can confirm the new device is present by checking Windows device Manager. It should show the new device with a yellow exclamation mark beside it since the drivers aren't installed yet.
- Download the appropriate drivers or use the MSI CD that came with motherboard.
Note: The MSI CD detects devices connected and shows available drivers/utilities depending on what it sees. You might not have seen the Promise drivers when using the CD before but now that you have a Raid array connected to it, the drivers will be availble from the MSI setup CD.
- Install the drivers and re-boot
- Device Manager should now show the Raid properly identified by XP.
- If the Raid array was not previously formatted, you can now use Windows Disk Manager (Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc) to Initialize and then format the Raid array.
- The Raid array should now show in Windows Explorer with it's own drive letter.
Bugs/Surprises
- Trying to install WinXP on the Promise Raid while my IDE drive was connected to the Intel IDE connector resulted in Windows installing boot files to the IDE drive and the rest on the Raid drives. This was especially bad since I had another installation of XP on the IDE drive which was overwritten. The work-around was to disable the IDE drive until AFTER XP was setup on the Raid array.
Update: There have been a few posts on the forum since I wrote this guide where people installing XP have had problems similar to the one above with USB/Zip drives connected so i am adding them to the list of drives to disconnect while installing XP.
- When setting "Boot Device Select", if I selected "NO" for "boot from other devices", the motherboard would ignore my selection and still boot from other devices if the ones in the list were unusable.
- Be gentle with SATA connectors on the motherboard. They can stand firm downward pressure but not a lot of side-to-side pressure.
Raid On Intel Controller
This procedure should work for anyone adding 2 SATA hard drives for a Raid array on a system already having XP installed on another drive or intending to install XP on the new Raid array.
Note: IDE 1&2 and Serial 1&2 connectors are controlled by the Intel ICH5R controller. Only Serial 1&2 can be configured for Raid arrays.
You can also install a single SATA drive and configure the system for Raid BEFORE installing XP on this drive if you intend to add another SATA drive later to form a Raid array. This method was also tested. I will refer to this for the rest of the thread as the Raid-Ready Method.
Note: If you install WinXP on a single SATA drive without enabling Raid and loading Raid drivers, you will NOT be able to migrate the XP disk to a Raid array at a later date. Reinstalling XP would be required.
Note: There is no performance advantage to having a single drive with Raid enabled. But doing so makes the disk Raid-ready and XP reinstall unnecessary.
- Attach the SATA drive(s) to Serial 1&2 connectors and ensure that both power and data cables are securely connected. Most SATA drives do NOT need any changes to default jumper positions if any(check Hdd installation instructions).
- Boot into Bios
- In "Integrated Peripherals>>On-Chip IDE Configuration" set:
Native Mode (Supported by WinXP- Allows all devices connected to IDE 1&2 and Serial 1&2 to be detected)
SATA Only (Even if you will be booting XP from a PATA drive)
Keep PATA Active - Yes
PATA Channel selection - Both
Configure SATA as Raid - Yes
Leave other settings here at default
Note: Some older Bios versions may appear different than above.
- Save Bios and reboot computer
- Use control-I keys during post(when prompted-goes by quickly) to enter the Intel Raid Bios Utility.
Note: If you are using the single SATA Raid-Ready Method, you can skip the steps involving the Intel Raid utility. Go to the step for setting Boot device select in main Bios.
Note: You will only be able to enter the Intel Raid Bios if you have set the "Configure SATA as Raid" option to "YES" AND there are devices connected and detected by the Intel Raid Bios.
- Use the menus to configure the Raid for your preferences.
Note: I can't say which settings you should use for creating the Raid. It depends on many things. The Intel utility does describe the different options well though.
- After saving the Raid array, reboot to Bios.(you should see the configured array for a second or two during the post and it should be "functional")
- In Advanced bios Features>>Boot Device Select:
Set the order you prefer to boot from;
If you already have XP installed on another drive and are just adding the Raid for an extra drive, Ensure that the list is still appropriate and includes your XP drive.
If you will be installing XP on the new Raid or using Raid-Ready Method, make sure the new Raid array or raid-ready drive is in the boot list and any other hard drives are NOT.
Note: Typically, I put the disk with XP first and use F11 key during post to boot from another device. This is not required though.
- Save bios
Important!: If you are installing XP on the new Raid array or using the Raid-Ready Method, you should now shutdown and either disconnect or disable any other hard drives connected until AFTER XP is installed. This includes Zip/USB drives. (See "Bugs" below).
If Installing XP On The New Raid Array Or Using Raid-Ready Method(others skip to below):
- Boot from the Windows XP Setup CD and use F6 key when prompted(at the beginning).
- Follow prompts to load the IAA Raid Driver for ICH5R (If Required Download Floppy Here) from the floppy that came with motherboard. I only had 1 driver to choose from on my floppy but if you have more, CHOOSE THE RIGHT ONE!
- Continue and Windows Setup should now show you the new Raid array or Raid Ready drive as a single drive available to install to. If it shows other drives that you have connected, re-read the "important" note above and the related section on "Bugs" below.
- When XP setup makes its first re-boot, make sure the floppy has been removed or depending on your settings it may give you a scary moment. Yes I did this(tries to boot from floppy).
- After XP is up and running and INF files and other important drivers installed, you can re-connect/re-enable any hard drives you disconnected earlier. If they have been formatted, they should show up immediately and be assigned letters after your CD/DVD drives.
- You can also install the Intel IAA-Raid Program(from MSI CD utilities tab or download) which gives some info and adds the array management settings(Not many. Just the enable/disable cache setting and the migrate to raid option).
If XP Already Installed On Another Drive(and you're just adding the Raid as an extra storage disk):
- Boot into WindowsXP.
- As Windows starts, it should detect a new Raid device and offer to install drivers. Select Cancel. It will tell you that it was unable to install new device. If you want you can confirm the new device is present by checking Windows device Manager. It should show the new device with a yellow exclamation mark beside it since the drivers aren't installed yet.
- Download the appropriate drivers or use the MSI CD that came with motherboard.
Note: The MSI CD detects devices connected and shows available drivers/utilities depending on what it sees. You might not have seen the IAA Raid drivers when using the CD before but now that you have a Raid array connected to it, the drivers will be availble from the MSI setup CD.
- Install the drivers and re-boot
Note: If the IAA Raid program detects that the Raid controller is not enabled or no device is present, it will NOT allow you to install the drivers/utility.
- Using Windows Device Manager should now show the Raid device properly with no problems.
- If the Raid array has not been formatted, you can now use Windows Disk Manager (Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc) to Initialize and then format the Raid array.
- The new drive should now appear in Windows Explorer with it's own drive letter.
Bugs/Surprises
- Trying to install WinXP on the Promise Raid while my IDE drive was connected to the Intel IDE connector resulted in Windows installing boot files to the IDE drive and the rest on the Raid drives. This was especially bad since I had another installation of XP on the IDE drive which was overwritten. The work-around was to disable the IDE drive until AFTER XP was setup on the Raid array. It is safe to assume this can occur with the Intel controller as well since I believe the problem occurs because of how WinXP setup addresses the hard drives.
Update: There have been a few posts on the forum since I wrote this guide where people installing XP have had problems similar to the one above with USB/Zip drives connected so i am adding them to the list of drives to disconnect while installing XP.
- Be gentle with SATA connectors on the motherboard. They can stand firm downward pressure but not a lot of side-to-side pressure.
Migrating XP System Disk To Raid On Raid-Ready System
This part describes how to use the Intel Application Accelerator-Raid edition to migrate an existing WinXP system disk (1-SATA) to a 2-SATA Raid array.
This procedure is actually very well documented in the last part of the Intel SATA Raid manual that ships with the motherboard but I thought I’d add it to make this thread more complete.
Please note that to use this feature of the Intel raid software the disk you are migrating FROM must have been made Raid-Ready as described above. Basically, this means that Raid should have been enabled in the Bios and the drivers installed from floppy during the WinXP install.
Note: I tested this by migrating to a Raid0 array but Raid1 should work also if the latest Bios and version of Intel-Raid application used.
- Open the Intel Application Accelerator Raid utility.
- With the “Raid” tab window open, right-click on “Raid volume” and select “Create from Existing Disk” as seen below.
- Follow the next several steps to choose the type of Raid array and the strip size.
Note: 64kb strip size is good for general purpose and 128kb best for most desktops and work stations according to Intel. Anything smaller is for specialized purposes. You should research this a little because you can’t change it after easily.
- After configuring the array for your preferences, you will face a couple of warnings telling you that “All data will be deleted from the Raid-controlled drive(s) and is unrecoverable” and ask if you want to continue. Obviously all data(if any) on the new drive you’re adding will be lost but the OS and other data on the disk you’re migrating FROM will be striped to the new array and will remain intact.
Note: Any complex disk procedure such as this carries the risk of losing data. A backup of the disk is important BEFORE beginning the migration process. Don't say I didn't warn you.
- The migration process can take a long time. You should see the window below during the operation.
Note: With just a default WinXP installation, migrating to 2-80Gb drives took about an hour for me.
- After the migration is complete, you will be prompted to re-boot to complete the process.
- During the reboot, as the Intel Bios comes up for a couple of seconds(don’t blink) you will see the 2 drives configured as an array and they will be listed as “functional”.
- After the reboot, you should have a fully functional Raid array with 2 SATA drives and all data from the single drive will have been striped or mirrored into the second one. Check Windows Disk manager(Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc) to see the status of the new drive. See bugs/surprises below.
Bugs/Surprises
The only problem I had with this test came in the form of a small surprise after everything was completed and the computer had rebooted. Although the Intel Application Accelerator showed everything functioning normally, Windows explorer showed my Raid drive as 74Gb in size instead of the 150Gb or so that I expected. After checking Windows disk Manager (Start > Run and type diskmgmt.msc), I found that the missing GB’s were in fact there but were unformatted. Unfortunately, Disk Manager does not seem to allow merging or extending partitions so I ended up using Partition Magic 8 to format the empty space and merge it with the rest of the partition. This seemed to work fine and I ended up with a single 150Gb drive showing up in Windows Explorer. I also briefly tested the performance to confirm that it was operating as a Raid array.
I know there is a utility for Win2K called DiskPart.exe that is run from command console to extend NTFS partitions but if anyone knows of an easier way or a FREE utility that will format/merge NTFS partitions that they have confirmed works, please PM me so that I can include a reference to it here.
All the data above is based on tests that I ran and I tried to avoid using any theory that I did not test. If you feel I’ve missed something obvious or if you have something you feel should be added to make this guide clearer or simpler, please PM me with your thoughts. If you have a specific problem that this guide does not help you with, post a detailed thread in the forum on the main page.
Vango44Great work vango44!
Here are some RAID performance statistics I gathered while testing RAID on my system. The testing software was Winbench 99. The hard drives tested were new Seagate ST380013AS drives, formatted NTFS. Winbench was running on a third drive that is not included in the tests and should not affect the results.
The drives were reformatted between tests and chkdsk'ed to try and keep things "apples to apples".
No hardware or software changes other than the RAID setup/connections were made between tests.
Higher numbers mean better performance.
I also ran the same tests on the newish WD Raptor 10K drives:
I couldn't stand all the noise the Raptors made, so I returned them.
On my motherboard:
SATA 1 & 2 = Intel RAID controller
SATA 3 & 4 = Promise RAID controller
If the test title does not include "RAID", then it was a single drive test.
Unfortunately, I don't have a spreadsheet version of the above stats. Otherwise I'd create nice bar charts for us and it's would be easier to deduce performance.
Perhaps some kind reader will OCR the pictures, put them into Excel, and make some nice bar charts for us?
Hope the info helps. -
On RAID 10 - How to relieve Log Writer Slow Write Time Trace Files
We have a DELL 8 CPU 5460 3.16Ghz Xeon with Dell Open Manage RAID 10 array
Oracle 10g 10.2.0.4 on RedHat EL 5 with
filesystemio_options='' (DEFAULT)
disk_asynch_io='TRUE' ( NOT DEFAULT)
Running 2 instances 64 bit 10g 10.2.0.4 with an app that does a lot of row updates and uses BLOBs heavily.
Our storage (RAID 10) is presented through a single mount point.
I periodically see these messages in a lgwr trc file as follows
Warning: log write time 560ms, size 5549KB
*** 2010-02-25 17:22:24.574
Warning: log write time 650ms, size 6759KB
*** 2010-02-25 17:22:25.103
Warning: log write time 510ms, size 73KB
*** 2010-02-25 20:33:00.015
Warning: log write time 540ms, size 318KB
*** 2010-02-25 20:35:17.956
Warning: log write time 800ms, size 5KB
Note that most of these are larger chunks of data.
Our log wait histogram is as follows:
106 log file parallel write 1 465780158
106 log file parallel write 2 5111874
106 log file parallel write 4 5957262
106 log file parallel write 8 2171240
106 log file parallel write 16 1576186
106 log file parallel write 32 1129199
106 log file parallel write 64 852217
106 log file parallel write 128 2092462
106 log file parallel write 256 508494
106 log file parallel write 512 109449
106 log file parallel write 1024 55441
106 log file parallel write 2048 11403
106 log file parallel write 4096 1197
106 log file parallel write 8192 29
106 log file parallel write 16384 5
In discussions with the group that builds and maintains the systems (DBA's do not) we have asked for more spindles / hba's / mount points to address this issue. We have been advised that since the RAID 10 spreads the I/Os across multiple drives this is not going to affect the situation.
Our thoughts are that multiple HBAs going to separate RAID 10 devices would help relieve the pressure.
Thank you.Is this an internal RAID array? Is it composed of SCSI (SAS) or SATA drives? How many drives are in the array?
Does the RAID controller have a built in battery backed cache (some of Dell's RAID controllers have 128MB, 256MB, or 512MB of battery backed cache). If the RAID controller has a battery backed cache, consider disabling the caching of all read operations, and set the write policy to write-back (see: http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/software/svradmin/5.1/en/omss_ug/html/cntrls.html ).
Charles Hooper
Co-author of "Expert Oracle Practices: Oracle Database Administration from the Oak Table"
http://hoopercharles.wordpress.com/
IT Manager/Oracle DBA
K&M Machine-Fabricating, Inc. -
Repair Utility for xServe RAID?
We have an xServe with an attached RAID consisting of four 350 GB drives. The drives are set up as a RAID. Due to storms/hot weather (air conditioning failed) the server restarted and the RAID powered down. The xServe is fine but the RAID is not functioning. From RAID Admin the drives all show up and are OK but the array is not showing up. Is there any disk repair utility that would be useful on a RAID?
xServe RAID Mac OS X (10.4.6)
xServe RAID Mac OS X (10.4.6)The fact that it's showing up as spares is a significant problem. The host won't recognize it until the RAID recognizes the array. There is no separate utility to help you with this, other than RAID Admin.
What firmware version is on the array? If it's 1.5, there's a "recognize array" option that you should try. If it's an older version, I'd tell you it would be nice if you could have gone back in time and upgraded the firmware. Since that's not possible, you should call AppleCare (assuming you have got APS&S for Xserve RAID, or the machine is < 1 year old) and inquire about your options. -
Can I install windows on a RAID hard drive?
Hi,
I recently purchased a used macPro. This mac pro had a raid set so 4 1TB hard drives were created to make one 4 GB partition. This made the raid utility pop up frequently saying there was something wrong so I just broke the RAID set and tried to set the disk up as their on storage partitions (Just as if they were 4 normal hard drives. Now that I did this, only 3 out of the 4 hard drives are visible in disk utility. Also, I reinstalled macosx snow leopard and tried installing bootcamp but when I partition the hard drive and restart using the windows installation disk, it doesn't show that I have any available hard drives to install windows on. Is this because of my RAID disks? (Sorry I don't know anything about raid disks and didn't know this computer had it before I bought it)
Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks.As stated in the Mac Pro RAID card FAQ you can't install Windows if you have the drives controlled by that card.
Question: Why can't I install Boot Camp on my Mac Pro or Xserve that uses a RAID?
Answer: Boot Camp does not support the installation of Windows onto a Mac using hardware or software RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Drives). Boot Camp is not supported on the Xserve with or without the Xserve RAID Card installed.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1346
Look inside and see if there is a RAID controller from Apple, proably top slot #4. Also look in System Profile under SATA interface.
Pull non-graphic card, seems you don't need it if you have one.
You are not getting something: internal hard drives are one thing. RAID card is another. The RAID card just replaces the normal SATA controller that otherwise interfaces.
Take a look at the photos and manual for the card.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3514
You can find the above from the Mac Pro Support home page I posted above. -
Gspeed ES Pro RAID keeps disappearing from Mac, have to re-initialize!
UPDATED VERSION:
MAC PRO KEEPS LOSING CONNECTION TO RAID DRIVE.
After 9 months of organizing a documentary film edit on an external RAID drive (12TB, Raid 0. Yes, I have 2 layers of backup), I purchased the PNY Nvidia Quadro 4000 video card for the primary edit. Soon after, I began having boot up issues. The screen would freeze at various points during the startup process, requiring manual power-downs.
Over the past two months, my computer has lost communication with the RAID 3 times, forcing me to rebuild it from my backup drives (10TB). One tech at Diskwarrior said my computer lost the partition, and that the 1s and 0s had been largely replaced with gibberish.
The Raid becomes unrecognized by my computer in one of two ways:
1- After two days of copying data back over to the raid (rebuilding it), I get an error code -36, saying a file cannot be read or written, then the Raid partition disappears from disk utility and the next time I start up the computer says it doesn’t recognize my drive. The ATTO configuration tool (the card that attaches my raid to the computer) sees the drive, but my computer does not. I have to re-initialize it and start over again.
2- The Raid will go from being recognized to not being recognized when I reboot one day. Again, I have to re-initialize and rebuild.
I removed the PNY Graphics card and put in the stock ATI Radeon HD 5770 it came with. On day 2 of rebuilding the RAID, I got the error -36 and the Raid disappeared from disk utility again. When I opened the raid folder, which seconds before had 10 TB of data on it, it read as zero items. So the PNY Nvidia card was NOT the problem.
Apple has worked on the computer 3 times, running extensive hardware tests, but the same problem persists. At one point they said my blackmagic card was the problem, and more recently they said I probably have bad ram. I tried separate ram (the old 6GB my computer came with), and my computer seemed to begin booting up okay, but one day later I had the -36 error, the RAID couldn’t be recognized again and I lost the data during another rebuild. Apple even replaced the Ram Tray, but the same problem persists.
G technology says my RAID’s hardware is fine, and ATTO, who makes the Raid card, says it looks fine to them too. This does not mean they are 100% not the problem though.
Yesterday as I was attempting to rebuild the RAID again, I saw the -36 error come up, and files stopped copying. I immediately made a screenshot and noted the time.
Today I spoke with a really cool tech at Apple named Ron who helped me investigate the Kernel log, and this is what it said (the RAID is called FadingWest):
Dec 6 17:05:36 Jesses-Mac-Pro kernel[0]: hfs_swap_BTNode: invalid forward link (0xbb739311 >= 0x0000df00)
Dec 6 17:05:36 Jesses-Mac-Pro kernel[0]: hfs: node=2717 fileID=4 volume=FadingWest device=/dev/disk3s2
Dec 6 17:05:36 Jesses-Mac-Pro kernel[0]: hfs: Runtime corruption detected on FadingWest, fsck will be forced on next mount.
Ron believes my problem is with the RAID card. He thinks it’s dropping the connection. So I’ve got an RMA going with ATTO for a new one.
Here are the final things I can troubleshoot at this point:
New RAID card (ATTO)
New RAID drive (G-Technology)
Motherboard / PCI lanes (Apple).
NEW COMPUTER (Apple)
Any ideas are appreciated. Here are the items in question:
Mac Pro mid 2010 2x2.66 Ghz 6 core Intel Xeon OS X Lion 10.7.5
G speed ES Pro (G Technology) – 12TB @ RAID 0
ATTO R680 RAID cardI found this on another help site, I think it's the trick:
there are 2 halves to the Dock. With a bar in the middle.
on the left side, there are 2 sections. the furthest left are the icons that will stay in the dock, then on the right side of the left half of the dock, are the temporary icons, the ones that just stay there till the program is done.
You can freely move a temporary icon to the left and it will be come a permanent icon.
I am reminded of the wizard of OZ here... you could always get to firefox... you just had to click your mouse (and drag an icon).. -
RAID 0 Roaming Disk Problem - Way To Recover?
I have the problem generally described in this archieved thread [RAID 0|discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2041271&tstart=-3] and will describe it below, the thread is more for point of reference.
A few days ago the RAID went down (RAID 0)along the same lines described in this thread [RAID Error|http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2141573&tstart=0]
which in a nutshell, threw this error
Drive 3:5000cca349e4743d missing - Replace immediately or acknowledge loss of RAID set RS1 and associated volumes.
I immediatelly pulled out all the hard drives and cloned them in external hardware enclosures. At that point none of the drives had a fail message. During putting the drives back in I noticed that a drive sled looked slightly warped and would not fit back in properly. When the sled was in the drive would not show up, although two of the drives appeared as "roaming."
Got new sleds, and put the drives in. Could not get it the machine to boot in Safe Mode or properly from an external drive which was hooked up via Firewire (This was the system drive at the time of the freeze. It showed up as bootable when holding down the option key) or the clone of that system when placed in the machine. (I was on the phone for awhile with Apple Tach Support, and by the end it seemed it was a RAID card issue.) So I made an appointment for the Apple Genius Bar. I pulled out the old system drive with data, images and the rest and did a bare bones install of 10.5.1 (which came with the machine) and rebooted before bringing it into the Store, and the computer booted fine.
The "problem" RAID set was paritioned into two volumes. On my reboot after the install of the OS (and without using the RAID Utility to change anything, the RAID drives were simply in their bays), the two volumes are still there, sort of, as R2V1 and R2V2. Additionally all the drives SMART Status and RAID status are fine. One of the three drives is roaming however,
was and is being reported as RS1. Additionally, each of the drives in the RAID reports SMART status as fine, and each of the three drives report a RAID status of good. Additionally the RAID 0 had two volumes and both are reported currently as R2V1 and R2V2 and as being "good" and one of the drives has status of roaming. This is the furthest I have gotten trying to save this. I did not want to shut down the machine on the off chance that there is something else I can do right now before bringing the machine into the store.
The following pictures may make it easier to follow
!http://www.dvdstepbystep.com/Raid2.jpg!
!http://www.dvdstepbystep.com/raid.jpg!
The tower is an Early 2008 tower and I upgraded the firmware on the RAID card with the newest firmware, which required 10.5.8. The base install is back to 10.5.1 on the reboot after reinstall. I am also waiting to hear back from tech support.
Didn't realize the Apple RAID Card had a bad rep until this happened. Sheesh. Missed that one
But if there is anything to try right now, it would be great.A A P L wrote:
Good luck.
Thanks
I know that I have been pretty happy, and when I did lose one drive, it did what it was supposed to do.
I did have it RAID 5 at one point, but set it up for internal RAID 0 for the renders, and it has been fine for a long time. Urgh.
Early on, there were battery warnings all the time, and the battery did not charge unless the Mac was ON, which was totally stupid.
Hmmm, sounds alot like mine there.
I found that out two Christmas vacations ago when we do our two-week shutdown.
Came back in, and could not use the Mac for two days while it charged.
They've since changed it, and thankfully, it's been good since.
Good luck, let us know how the new card works out.
SB
Thanks again and will do. Bought a bunch more hard drives and if it comes back, the first thing I do is back up the 2+ Terrabytes plus of renders (all ongoing projects), slap new drives into the tower, make it RAID 5 and to heck with the hit on speed. Have enough externals to reconfigure things, now just keeping fingers crossed -
RAID 1 disks resync every time computer is starting
Hi All,
My PC is running windows 8.1 ( i3 intel processor,
4GB RAM ).
I have got on this machine two RAID 1 mirrored volumes,
one for Operating System (boot volume) and a second one for data.
Mirroring is software controlled and it has been made using native win8 disk management tools.
Both mirrored volumes resync quite every time computer is starting.
Even if I have just finished to resync mirrors and resynching
completed well (100 %), next time I boot my PC resynch starts again, often but not always on both couples of disks.
Resynching lasts several hours and it is not possible to have it running every day on a home PC, which is used for not more than one-two hours a day.
My PC is very slow and also I often see a black screen for several seconds at boot and at every change of account.
Is it normal to have Resynching running quite every day on windows 8 system ?
May it be Resynching the reason for black screen I often experiment at boot?
Thanks for your helpHi Andy, All
As soon as I
completed a new
resynching, I tried to shutdown (by software) and restart the machine a couple of minutes later,
without switching off the power supply. The result was that both mirrors were resynching another time.
Even if I was precise to wait for complete shutdown to restart the PC, I have found in the event log the following
error:
Origine: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Power
Category: (63)
Level: Critical
Description:
Riavvio del sistema senza un regolare arresto. Questo errore può essere causato da un'interruzione, un arresto anomalo o un'interruzione dell'alimentazione imprevista del
sistema.
(Translation:
Reboot without regular stop. This error may be caused by anomalous power interruption …)
I have found tens of events like this in the last monthes.
I have also found the following error in the eventlog:
Origin: Microsoft-Windows-Kernel-Boot
Category: None
Level: Error
Description:
Avvio rapido di Windows non riuscito con stato di errore 0xC00000D4
(Fast boot not successful with error 0xC00000D4 ).
This error also occurred multiple times.
Thanks again for your help
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