Xserve RAID Card: Is setup kept when reinstalling OS?

Hi everyone,
I have a new Xserve with 3x 1 TB and the RAID Card. The default setup is JBOD and of course I'd like to change that by booting from the DVD and setting it up. I know that I can convert JBOD to RAID while keeping the already installed OS. But since I plan to reinstall the OS anyway I was wondering if my chosen RAID setup will be preserved this way?
I believe this is a real Hardware-RAID so this should work, right?
Thanks
Björn

Thanks,
since the RAID can't be reconfigured while booted off one of the internal drives and since this can't be accomplished remotely using Server Assistant I need to reconfigure it with another (external) system. Is that true?
I suppose it could also be done directly at the Xserve, but I do not have a Mini Display Port Adapter at hand, so this is currently no option. It seems to work with an external FW drive running OS X 10.5.7 (Client) which has the RAID Utility on it...

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Xserve raid card failing? 3 x 1Tb drives

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This morning I happened to have a look at the server monitor, and there was an error...
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http://smam.net/xserve/raid-card.jpg
Az

This is covered in the RAID Utility User's Guide on page 12.
Every 3 months the RAID card will discharge and recharge the battery. During this process, you will see the message.
Regards,
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Alberto
This is the wrong place to ask.
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Does anyone know if there is a LaunchDaemon or script where i can schedule my battery reconditioning ?
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Seems to me to be a hardware design fault…
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Mac Pro RAID Card and Western Digital drives

I'm having huge troubles with these items.
I first installed four WD7500AYYS (Raid Edition) to build a RAID 5 and install Leopard on it. At this point, one of the drives was probably DOA and didn't show up in the bay. I then reinstalled the Seagate that shipped with the machine, then proceeded to create another enhanced JBOD raid with one of the WD drives. After a couple of seconds, RAID utility reported an error (disk about to fail and such). I then tried with another one. The process ended with a kernel panic after two hours, while RAID utility was still marking the drive for enhanced JBOD. That disk never show up again, in any bay.
At this point, I'm left with two WD drives. I can't get past the creation of a RAID set with them, no matter what. Either RAID utility reports an error, or it says the disk has been ejected, or it keeps create the RAID for hours... The later usually ends with a "force quit", or a force shutdown. During these attemps, the RAID card went missing once, then it appeared again on the following reboot. The RAID battery, which was fully charged at first, is now being "repaired" (charging ?).
I then ran AHT to see whether there was something wrong. No errors reported.
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I'm lost in conjectures. I don't even know if/how I can bring all the WD drives back to life. I'm not sure the RAID card is faulty, I've already lost a lot of time and money, I'm not willing to buy yet another drive to see it fail too, and my Mac Pro is kind of useless as I don't want to spend time on installing/configuring everything I need on a drive that is bound to be replaced by a larger RAID 5 array.
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Someone yesterday or Friday, had a system with 4 x 1TB drives and Pro RAID, but in their case, it was determined later Saturday that drive bay #1 was not functioning.
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I've never had trouble buying over a dozen from OWC, so it does seem odd.
If you have SoftRAID 3.6.6 I would use that to zero the first and last 100 sectors, or you can begin to zero the whole drive and cancel at any time, just to check the health of the drive and that it can zero and not produce I/O errors.
There are two other methods for accessing and managing Mac Pro RAID, ARD and CLI
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306231
Originally, only Apple drives were supported. My understanding was that this changed. But the only article I found in KB dates back to Aug '07:
Question: What drives does Apple support with the Mac Pro RAID Card and the Xserve RAID Card?
Answer: +Only Apple drives are supported with the Mac Pro RAID Card and the Xserve RAID Card.+
My understanding that 3rd party retail drives such as WD RE2 750GB, Seagate, Hitachi were supported as well since the article was written - and I can't find where I read that, but sure that I did, as this was discussed in the past.
I'd like to find an official article. Even my friend Google was helpless

Apple RAID card.

Hello
I am buying a new X serve and am getting 2 extra drive modules (1TB) for bays 2 and 3. I intend to use bay 1 as a start up device and RAID (dont know what level at this point) the other two into a network shared area.
Rather than using disk util to set up the drives as a RAID, i was going to get an Xserve RAID card.
My question is does anyone have any data on how much quicker this will be?
Thanks for your time.
W

I think that your right thats the best setup using 3 bays and an SSD but thats an extra drive module and SSD drive - about £600 here in the UK.
I think that unless we go the whole hog like that its best not to bother with the RAID card at all. Basically is the server throughput isnt going to be that high and i can mirror the 2x 1TB drives with software raid to add some redundancy.
The server will have a LTO3 backup system on anyhow.
I think thats answered my question thanks guys. Unless we have 3x 1TB, an SSD and a RAID card its just not worth it.
Cheers for your time.
W

Apple RAID Card and 3TB Drives only show 2.2 TB

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Okay. Seems Apple didn't plan for or certify 3TB.
However, Apple doesn't support using 3rd party drives. Some do, and in some situations, drives you would think work don't, or they work but only briefly.
When I said read FAQ I was thinking of all the points like this:
Question: *Which drives does Apple support for the Mac Pro RAID Card and the Xserve RAID Card?*
Answer: Only Apple SATA drives and Promise 450GB SAS Drive modules sold through the Apple Store are supported for use with the Mac Pro RAID Card (Early 2009) and the Xserve RAID Card (Early 2009).
Apple 300GB SAS Drive modules are supported with the Mac Pro RAID Card (Late 2007) and Xserve RAID Card (Early 2007).
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http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1346#faq8
http://www.apple.com/support/macpro/
Apple Knowledge Base: recent changes:
http://support.apple.com/kb/index?page=articles

MacPro RAID card - best drives?

Hey, anybody have any experience they'd like to share on a good set of drives to go with the Apple RAID card? I want to get 4 and I'm looking for maximum speed, but I can't break the bank, so no Raptors.
cheers,
-r

Well, save your $$ and just DON'T! get the Apple RAID card, then you could afford some decent drives.
600GB 10K VRs $279 x 2
OWC SSD 100GB x 2
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If you read the Apple Support Mac Pro link to RAID card FAQ:
Question: *Which drives does Apple support for the Mac Pro RAID Card and the Xserve RAID Card?*
Answer: Only Apple SATA drives and Promise 450GB SAS Drive modules sold through the Apple Store are supported for use with the Mac Pro RAID Card (Early 2009) and the Xserve RAID Card (Early 2009). Apple 300GB SAS Drive modules are supported with the Mac Pro RAID Card (Late 2007) and Xserve RAID Card (Early 2007). Drives must be either all Serial ATA (SATA) or all Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) drives. SSD drive modules are not recommended for the Apple RAID Card because these drives use their own on-disk cache and cannot take advantage of the protection provided by the battery-backed cache on the RAID card.
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1346#faq8
People do try and use retail SATA drives, with mixed results. I have never seen anyone mix SAS and SATA.

Installing, a Apple Raid Card

Hi All
I have got my hands on a Apple Raid card (Free), I have checked it all out and it is the correct model for my Mac Pro (early 2009 i believe). now came the fun bit
I opend the MP up and installed the card as shown in the instructions (not to hard as im tech savvy) turned it all on and nothing, no apple logo, just the white screen and the little apple bing startup sound.
do I have to do any prep first to install this ?
do I have to hold any special keys down on start up ?
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inside the MP I already have
20gb ram
ATI GPU
Blackmagic Intensity Pro (HDMI in/out)
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Hi ada mann,
If you are having issues with an Apple RAID card, you may find the following articles helpful:
Mac Pro RAID Card: Identification and compatibility
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3514
Mac Pro RAID Card and Xserve RAID Card: Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1346
Regards,
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Easiest solution for adding Fibre Channel Tape Backup to Xserve RAID setup

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Xserve RAID & Xserve G5 Mac OS X (10.4.5)

For simple environments like yours, it's trivially easy. You must plug everything in, and you're good to go... as simple as a network switch.
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But for now, just get the switch, plug everything in, and you're off.
BTW if you mark "answered" for me, versus for the thread overall, it helps me out a bit in this forum ranking system, whatever it is.
Cheers.

Xserve RAID Card: Is setup kept when reinstalling OS?

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