What happened to Xserve RAID?

Apple.com no longer lists the Xserve RAID - instead the page shows the Promise RAID device. Has Xserve RAID been killed?
Also, where are the differences between Xsan and the new Xsan 2 listed?
Danke!

Wow this is a big issue ... Xraid's loss means Xserve cant be far behind in terms of EOL since Xraid is the tie in complement of the Xserve , I am a an entreprise sysadmin and use these systems every day , few issues at all with the devices, the lack of 4GB connectivity in the updates was a hint that Apple may move out of the storage space but this spells a load of trouble as far as FC connectivity support on the Xserve and MacPro. What about os X server since it is a tie in product to the Xserve . Apple had a one stop lineup with Xraid XServe Fibre Channel MacosX Server does this mean Apple's presence in such domains is to become a thing of the past ?
Not all macs in use out there are imacs and pro markets is what drives performance up on the Mac platform wether it is IT , FCP , RDBMS or HPC oriented , Apple made reliable tools for such setup at a fraction of the cost of the competition with good performances (not stellar ones but stuff you could setup boot and don't look at again every other day).
I guess it is high time for pro users to look for alternatives not only for storage , unless Apple provides pros with updates on EOL's and doest not simply "pull the plug" on some pro hardware line this seems IMHO the prudent thing to do.

Similar Messages

What happens in a RAID 50 when a drive fails?

Hey all.
I'm setting up my Xserve RAID and need some advice. Right now it has been populated with 14 drives and set up as two RAID5 arrays. Ideally I would like to software RAID these in Disk Utility to make a RAID50 for the speed increase.
If I were to set up as a RAID50, and then a drive were to fail, what would happen to the RAID? I know that when a drive in a RAID0 fails, there's no parity so your RAID is pretty much gone. I also know that in a RAID5 when a drive fails it can run in a degraded state. I'm just trying to wrap my head around how this translates when you combine the two into a RAID50 and a drive fails. Will half of the data be lost, or will it be fine, just running degraded?

Jeff,
RAID 50 is two RAID 5 arrays striped in a "RAID 0".
Each of the RAID 5 arrays can suffer one hard drive failure, which will cause it to run in degraded mode until the failed drive is replaced and the RAID rebuilt.
Not sure what sort of speed you're looking at, but RAID 30 provides significantly better performance with video and large files.
Duncan

What happens if the Raid card battery goes dead?

I just got my MacPro, Raid card, and 3 SAS drive. I set it up as Raid 0. The battery in the Raid card is good for 72 hrs. And that is to save the raid cache. So what happens if I leave the MacPro unplugged for longer then 3 days and the battery goes dead? Do I loose all my data?
Thanks-Ray

With an orderly shutdown prior to disconnecting the power, no problems should arise.

Drives just stop with new Xserve raid

I have just set up a new Xserve on 10.4.5 with 2 x 400 gig drives.The raid has been set up by the book twice and the drives were formated aswell, the problem is that after the raid is set up i then test it by copying lots of data to it from various machine across the network and after about 10 gigs of copying the drives just stop, on their own(not in a raid) the drives work fine.
Any suggestions ?
Thanks
Matt

Hello, Diego Arana and welcome to the AppleBoards,
+I don´t know what OS the Xserve RAID has, I just know that it is the first one.+
The Xserve RAID has no operating system on it. It is essentially a very fancy external hard drive that attaches over fibre channel. It does a firmware version that can be updated but that is the closest thing to an OS that it has. (Unless you're adding drives you can probably leave that alone.) The XRAID is controlled over either of the ethernet ports using the RAID Admin program - if you don't have a copy download it from Apple's support site.
+Is it possible to connect a New MacPro (Early 2009) to a Xserve RAID (RAID 720G/4DRIVE/2X2GB FC) via fiber channel?+
Yes, I have done this and it is straightforward. The fibre will negotiate down to 2GB, of course, but it does just work. If you're talking about the Apple shipped fibre card it is (at least in the states) shipped with SFP connectors that match the SFP connectors that are on the Xserve RAID and you just use the copper cabling (not the optical fibre) to connect them unless you are going a very long distance. If you order the card (again in the states) with Xserve the copper cables are included when they ship it.
If you do have optical connections you can buy optical to copper/SFP converters. I have several of these on my fibre switch and they are not more complicated than adding the adaptor and plugging them in - at least on the fibre switch. I have never actually hooked up an XRAID to optical fibre but this is pretty common in XSAN environments with longer "cable" runs.
HTH,
=Tod

Need to find Xserve RAID version

This is a pretty simple question, I know, but we are having trouble finding out what version of Xserve RAID we have here. It was seemingly purchased in late 2005 or early 2006, and we have only been using one side of the RAID and now want to populate the other with as much space as it will allow. I found a compatibility list at this link (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1219), but we are not sure what column our equipment falls under.

There are several threads discussing which drives work out of the box - search the forums for the multiple threads about which drives work. The Seagate ST3750640A were the well documented 750s of choice but Seagate stopped making them a while (year and half?) ago and the competition for the remaining ones got fierce and the prices when very high if you could find them.
Last I heard drives were still available through Apple service but I have no idea what the requirements are - eg Do they need to be replacement drives? - or prices.
Sadly the death of PATA as a technology has severely hampered long term viability of the Xserve RAID. If you do find replacement drives be sure to balance the cost against the cost of a more modern system.
Sorry - wish I had better news,
=Tod

What happened to Raid utility in mavericks?

I have an early 2008 mac pro with apple's hardware raid card. After doing Apples "free" upgrade, I no longer have raidutility under utilties... What happened?
I'm also stuck in and endless loop of appstore trying to update itunes and hp printer driver...
Sigh.
Jason

Hi Jason,
I would claim that the RAID Utility is really a System Administrator app, and not a user app. And with the end of the silver Mac Pro models and Xserve already out of production, the Apple Raid cards appear to be a thing of the past.
As I manage 14 Mac Pros, from Early 2008 through Mid 2012 models, I'll have to figure out other ways to perform the mirrored disk function. I think it will be some kind of cron job that runs rsync to keep pairs of disks synced...
I've just installed Mavericks on a test Early 2008 Mac Pro, with RAID card, upgrading from OS X 10.6.8. So far, everything seems to be going pretty well. Next week's project is to compile Macports, and install our standard set of Unix utilities. This will likely be a challenge, for such a new OS.
anyway, glad to help,
Roy

I would like to migrate from Aperture. What happens to my Masters which are on a RAID array and then what do I do with my Vault which is on a separate Drive please ?

I am sorry, but I do noisy understand what happens to my RAW original Master files, which I keep offline on a RAID array and then what I do with my Vault which as all my edited photos ? Sorry for such a simple question, but would someone please help my lift the fog ?
Thanks,
Rob

Dear John ,
Apologies, as I am attempting to get to the bottom of this migration for my wife ( who is away on assignment ) and I am not 100% certain on the technical aspects of Aperture, so excuse my ignorance.
She has about 6TB worth of RAW Master images ( several 100 thousand ) which, as explained, are on an external RAID drive. She uses a separate Drive as a Vault . Can I assume that this Vault contains all of her edits, file structures , Metadata, etc ?
So, step by step........She can Import into Lightroom her Referenced Masters from her RAID and still keep them there ? Is that correct ?
The Managed Files that are backed up by her Vault , are in the pictures folder of her MacPro, but not in a structure that looks like her Aperture library ? This means Lightroom will just organize all the Managed files, simply by the date in the Metadata ? Am I correct ( Sorry for being so tech illiterate ).
How do I ensure she imports into Lighgtroom in exactly the same format as she runs her workflow in Aperture ? ( Projects, that are organized by year and shoot location and Albums within those projects with sub-locations, or species , etc ). What exactly do I need to do in Aperture please to organize Managed Files to create a mirror structure of Aperture on my internal Hard Drive ?
There are a couple of points I am unsure about in regard to Lightroom. Does it work in the same way as Aperture ? Meaning, can she still keep Master Files on an external RAID and Lightroom will reference them ? If the answer is yes, how do you back up your Managed ( edited ) work in Lightroom ? ( Can you still use an external Drive as a Vault ? ) . Will the vault she uses now be able to continue to back up Managed Files post migration ?

What's the best place to start troubleshooting my Xserve RAID problem

Hello all,
I have an older 2.5tb (ide drives) Xserve RAID connected to an HP workstation, which is a video editing sytem. The fiber card connecting the raid is an LSI 7202XP PCI-x card.
I'm using Windows XP Pro. Nothing on the hardware or software side has been updated or changed in years.
Recently, I'll be editing video and the Xserve RAID will just "disappear". A computer restart will usually restore it.
Where's a good place to start troubleshooting? I was going to replace the fiber cables, then the fiber card...then I don't know what.
I'm just an end user/video editor, so any maintenance help is appreciated!
Thanks,
Jason Kalinoski
Tallahassee, FL

Normally, it should take less than an hour @ $90 USD for labor to replace one. The HD cost is additional. Why do you think the HD needs replacing? Too small?.Then I suggest an ext FWHD, w/FW800 connector, rather than replacing the int one. If there are issues with the HD, check out the iMac HD replacement program. You should really know when you bought the machine and, IMO, it should have the AppleCare Protection Plan, which is the cheapest insurance policy for desktop machines.

What to do with our Xserve RAID, moving forward - Need Advice.

We have an 3.5 TB Xserve RAID (14 drives - 250 GB each, split into two 7-drive volumes). As many others have, we've moved into more HD and tapeless workflow. The Xserver RAID was purchased really for one HD project with DVCPRO HD back in 2004 and hasn't really been used since except for backup storage.
I'd really like to move us into a SAN system, but am curious about others' perspectives on populating our Xserve RAID with 1 TB or greater drives now or get a different RAID setup. We've moved to Mac Pros, but the Xserve RAID is still dedicated to just one G5. I am doing some reading on setups such as the EVO and CalDigit, but haven't setup a SAN. It's time though.
We have three post machines - two editorial and one sound station. I could really use some insight on how to use our setup in a SAN scenario or what's the cheapest way we can get into a SAN workflow. Granted, drives are cheap these days, but it's so inefficient copying data between two machines to make sure we have a copy of the same media.
Thanks for any input folks.

+I'd really like to move us into a SAN system, but am curious about others' perspectives on populating our Xserve RAID with 1 TB or greater drives now or get a different RAID setup.+
I'll start with the fact that 750GB are the absolute max you'll be able to put into the Xserve RAID. Compatible 750 PATAs are really hard to find (and are expensive when you can find them) so that avenue makes little sense. I think you should really be thinking in terms of new hardware at this point. I know several people who run XSAN and are much happier with the Promise RAIDs they have now over the older Xserve RAIDs.
Which hardware and SAN software you should be looking at I'll leave up to someone with more modern experience in the video editing realm- I've been out of it for too many years now.
My $.02,
=Tod

Spare XServe RAID Controller is no SFP - What is it?

Hi
I have a XServeRAID Service Parts Kit from 2003.
The spare XServe RAID controller from the Kit does not have a standard SFP connection. I have no idea what it uses.
Part # 603-4406
Model # CA1009
Can you lead me in the right direction?
Thanks.

The original XServe RAID controllers sported HSSDC2 connectors. The second rev moved to SFP.

What is the max distance recommended between xServe RAID and the host?

I'm looking to relocate my rack to quieter spot, but I would like to keep my xServe RAID in the rack. How far away can I keep my xServe RAID from it's host system? I have it hooked up to my MacPro right now.
Thanks

Hi
I would say about as far as the FC Cables and your budget will go. According to Apple's Tech Brief on the subject that will be around 500 metres provided you use the relevant transceivers:
http://images.apple.com/xserve/pdf/L322097A_FibrChnl_TB.pdf
Page 4.
HTH?
Tony

What is the best way to increase the size of a "full" Xserve raid?

Hi,
our Xserve raid consists of 2 x 7 x 350GB disks.
These are arranged in 2 volumes (one per controller), RAID 0+1, 3 disks striped, then mirrored, and such are using 6 of the 7 disks per controller. 1 disk per controller is configured as a hot spare.
During time both volumes have filled up and now there only are 100GB left on every volume and we need more space
Is there a way to hot replace 350GB disks by 750GB disks?
Or is the only way to copy data off, replace disks, and restore data?
I would guess, that I can replace one disk with a 750GB disk, but only 250GB of it will be used. If I then would wait for reconstruction of that new part, and then replace its counterpart? Would only the first 350GB be reconstructed and the 400GB be lost, or would the raid recognize the free space and allow to add it to the stripes and mirrors?
Cheers,
Martin

A disks in the array need to be the same size, so your guess is correct - if you replace a disk with a larger disk, the additional space will be lost.
As a result there's no trivial way of doing this.
Copying off the data, reformatting and restoring the data is the best way to go.
If that's not possible, you have one small chance thanks to how you've currently configured the arrays as 0+1.
You could break the mirror on controller 1- that would give you two logical arrays of three disks each. You could then take the data off the 0+1 array on the second controller and put it on the second half of the first controller, leaving the second controller's volumes spare.
Then destroy both volumes on the second controller and rebuild it as a RAID 5 volume. If you want to retain a hot-spare, this will equate to a 6-disk RAID 5, or about 1.8TB
Now you move the data from the two RAID 0 arrays on controller 1 onto the RAID 5 array on controller 2 and repeat the process to rebuild the 6 disks into a single RAID 5 volume. You can then redistribute the files as you like.
Of course, during this process you'll be running with lower (read: no) redundancy, so you had better hope a disk doesn't fail in the process.
A 6 disk RAID 5 is going to offer about the same performance and redundancy as the two mirrored 3-disk RAID 0 arrays (more performance if those RAID 0 arrays are full), with the advantage that RAID 5 isn't so wasteful of disk space (you lose have your total space to the mirror as opposed to one disks-worth of data to parity in RAID 5).
Either way, back the data up first.

Can't copy files to Xserve Raid

Hello,
I'm having serious issues copying files to my work's Xserve Raid. When I try to copy files to it, it stalls for several minutes trying to copy, but making no progress, before giving an error saying:
"The Finder cannot complete the operation because some data in "filename" could not be read or written. (error code -36)"
When I click ok, I get disconnected from the Raid.
Any thoughts as to what could be happening?

What do your logs say? I'd check your afp (or whatever sharing mechanism you're using) and I'd keep an eye out for any fibre channel or LUN messages that might indicate connection/communication problems with RAID itself. (These might show up as LIP messages.)
Sounds to me like an underlying communications issue rather than a file sharing issue but without more information it's hard to say.
Good luck,
=Tod

Problems with Xserve RAID

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

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

XSERVE RAID - Powercut!

HI folks,
Earlier today I had a very brief powercut. When I went to the server room, my XSERVE RAID connected to my XSERVE was starting up again. However I noticed that the disc activity lights on right side of the XSERVE were off. The green light for the lower controller on the front (above the discs) and on the back was flashing green.
So what I hope someone will let me know is:
1: Are the discs dead?
2: Is the controller corrupted or needing replaced?
3: Or do I just have to do a proper shutdown and restart of the RAID?
The left array on the RAID is working fine and is mounted on the desktop of the XSERVE it's connected to.
Any help would be most appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

Hi Guys,
Well nothing too bad happened! When I finally plucked up the courage to restart (pulling the plug since I couldn't connect via raid admin), everything started up fine!
Thanks

What happened to Xserve RAID?

Similar Messages

Maybe you are looking for