Q: How to set up RAID in El Capitan

Wow! All day talking to Apple and they gave me nothing.. One quick but careful study of this step by step guide & I was able to configure my torched G-Raid 8T drive as a RAID0. Thank you!

How to Create a RAID in Mac OS 10.11

The graphical interface of Mac Disk Utility in Mac OS 10.11 (El Capitan) does not include the ability to create a RAID. However, the Mac Terminal can still create a RAID with simple text commands.

IMPORTANT! Before proceeding, please safely eject and then physically disconnect all external storage devices (external hard drives, SD cards, etc) from your Mac computer, except the device on which you want to create the RAID.

IMPORTANT! Do not attempt the following while your Mac is in Recovery Mode. Proceed only when your computer has started normally.

If you want to create a software RAID in Mac OS 10.11, please follow these instructions:

1. From the Desktop, select Go from the top menu bar, then Utilities > Terminal.
2. Type the following:
   diskutil list
   
   A list of all storage devices connected to or inside your computer will appear.
   
   
   
   
3. Find and note the external, physical drives that you want to include in the RAID.
   E.g., disk0 and disk4
   
   
4. Decide which RAID mode you want - striped (RAID 0) or mirrored (RAID 1).
   
   
5. Type the following for RAID 0:
   diskutil appleraid create stripe [Array Name] JHFS+ disk_ disk_
   For example: diskutil appleraid create stripe LaCieRAID0 JHFS+ disk0 disk4
   
   

RAID0?  It is good and faster than single disk, but if it crashes, bum deal.  Don't recommend it for too long.  And do back ups continually.

I do photography and will move to RAID5 as soon as I can.  Three back up methods.  Backblaze, TM, and CCC.

So for RAID1, would you type:

diskutil appleraid create mirror LaCieRAID1 JHFS+ disk0 disk4

or this:

diskutil createRAID mirror LaCieRAID1 JHFS+ disk1 disk2

It was a little contradictory reading:

https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/Darwin/Reference/ManPages/ man8/diskutil.8.html

Also, what is JHFS+?

thanks,

Which, is no solution when you manage your OSX server from your office, some 30 miles from the datacenter it's in.

Ron98GT wrote:

 

Also, what is JHFS+?

 

thanks,

That is the disk format: OS X Extended (Journaled). In the old days, the disk format used in the Mac was known as HFS (for Hyerarchical File System), then HFS+ when the extended version (introduced with System 8.1) came to be. Journaling was created later.

diskutil appleraid create mirror LaCieRAID1 JHFS+ disk0 disk4

or this:

diskutil createRAID mirror LaCieRAID1 JHFS+ disk1 disk2

createRAID was a synonym for appleRAID create, but it has been deprecated (will stop working in the future).

So, you should use appleRAID create if you are creating a tool or a script that you might use in the future.

El Capitan, ver:10.11.3, does not have that...

daniel.from.lanus wrote:

 

El Capitan, ver:10.11.3, does not have that...

Did you read carefully what Redcat7 wrote? He did it by using the network recovery mode.

Edit: I just tried it by booting with Command-Option-R and indeed I got the "old" Disk Utility.

It does work.  I checked it once and it didn't show up.  Great.  So unfortunate to not include RAID5.

Thought something was odd.  Shows up on MBP (2011) but not on new iMac (2015).  : /

spinningstill wrote:

 

Thought something was odd.  Shows up on MBP (2011) but not on new iMac (2015).  : /

Just a guess: your iMac already came with El Capitan, right?

Yes.  MBP is El Capitan as well.  MBP was wiped and clean install of El Capitan.

spinningstill wrote:

 

Yes.  MBP is El Capitan as well.  MBP was wiped and clean install of El Capitan.

My point is that this MBP model was launched *before* El Capitan, whereas your iMac already came from the factory with El Capitan installed.

Yes, I figured thats what you meant.  Thank you!  Kind of odd though.  Hope they bring it back.  Still can use the terminal though, but not for 5.

Command-option-R takes you to whatever version of OS X was current at the time your machine was manufactured.  So mine takes me back to Tiger.  That doesn't really help me build a RAID for El Capitan.

SoftRAID claims to be able to do this and to be able to put a recovery partition on the disks but they don't say how to do it.  I've asked on their support board but there has been no response so far.