OSX 10.5.6 doesn't see Fibre Channel Disk array, neither does Disk Utility

Question

OSX 10.5.6 doesn't see Fibre Channel Disk array, neither does Disk Utility

My system is a Power Mac G5 Quad, 6gb Ram, 1Tb internal hard drives, 1Tb external and several portable drives as needed.
The Drive array in question is a Fujitsu GR710 which contains 12 Seagate Cheeta ST336605FC drives which are around 35gb each.

OK, I have been given a Fibre Channel system, that at one time worked with OSX. I had to move it and now it doesn't show up on Disk Utility anymore. I can totally reformat it if possible, but I have to be able to see it first.

System Profiler sees the setup as:

Fibre Channel Domain 0:

Vendor: LSILogic
Product: LSI7202EP
Revision: Firmware 1.2.18.0, Fcode 1.00.37
Bus: PCI
Slot: SLOT-2
Initiator Identifier: 126
Node World Wide Name: 20:00:00:06:2B:12:C4:C4
Port World Wide Name: 10:00:00:06:2B:12:C4:C4
Address Identifier: 00:00:E8
Description: Port 0
Speed: Automatic (1 Gigabit)
Topology: Automatic (Arbitrated Loop)
Status: Link Established
Cable Type: Fiber Optic

SCSI Target Device @ 0:

Node World Wide Name: 20:00:00:E0:00:41:04:6D
Port World Wide Name: 21:00:00:E0:00:41:04:6D
Address Identifier: 00:00:EF
SCSI Target Identifier: 0
SCSI Peripheral Device Type: 0
Manufacturer: FUJITSU
Model: GR710
Revision: 0000

SCSI Logical Unit @ 0:

SCSI Logical Unit Number: 0
Manufacturer: FUJITSU
Model: GR710
Revision: 0000

Fiber Channel Preferences shows that a link is established.
Hardware RAID says that there is no hardware present.
I am using the Apple MA900A/G Fibre Channel Card to hook into the Drive array. It is hooked up with both ethernet and fiber optic cables.
I have used an IP scanner to search for the IP of the array and only find one that I can't identify at 224.0.0.251 another scan reports an IP of 0.0.0.0, neither worked when I tried to use Safari to access it.

I have tried several programs to try and get into this array and nothing sees it. All my experts tell me that I will need to use the Terminal program and use command lines to access the drives, but I can't find any information about what to do there. I've been told I need the driver for the array, naturally there isn't a driver for Mac to be had, but there are drivers for solaris, Unix, and windows. The last expert said to use the Unix driver, but I don't know where to put it in the system.

So I need help, Terminal commands to talk to the drive and revive it hopefully, or a system program that will do something similar. None of my diagnostic programs sees the array. The Card came with no software or instructions. Neither did the array. I haven't been able to find any hardware information about the drive from FuJitsu at all, it's too old for them to bother with anymore.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Doc

Power Mac G5 Quad, Mac OS X (10.5.6), 6gb RAM 1TB internal disks,Fujitsu GR710 Array

Posted on Apr 4, 2009 10:12 PM

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Answer 1

Apr 5, 2009 2:33 AM in response to Dr. Tardarian

Hi

There are Linux drivers for it on Fujitsu's HK site. The Installation Manual does outline what you need to get started:

http://www.fujitsu.com/downloads/STRSYS/system/eternusmgrguidelinux.pdf

AFAIK POSIX variants might work from one platform to another however nothing is guaranteed. The thing is to try it and see. I doubt if RAID Admin will work either?

http://support.apple.com/downloads/XserveRAID_Admin_Tools_1_51?

You might get a better response if you cross-post over on the Unix Forum?

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=735

Tony

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Answer 2

Apr 5, 2009 8:42 AM in response to Antonio Rocco

Tony Thanks, I will repost over on the Unix forum too.

I have seen the drivers listed, but where in OSX would I install them to test them out, at the worst, they won't work, so I'm game for any thing.

You are right that RAID Admin doesn't work, I've been using Anubis, but then it doesn't work either.

To date all of the IP default addresses given by Fujitsu have been 0.0.0.0, but nothing happens when I try to access that way. It did show up yesterday on one of my IP scans, but I still couldn't get anything to communicate.

Thanks again
Doc

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Answer 3

May 22, 2009 12:46 AM in response to Dr. Tardarian

As it turns out, the problem is a lack of drivers for the SCSI drives in the array, and Apple apparently no longer supplies SCSI drivers in it's OS. The drives are from Seagate, and I'm told by them that the drivers are supplied only by Apple in it's OS and they do not support them.

The thing is the drivers were out there at one time for an older OS, if I could find them, I could probably reinstall them. The system that the array was pulled from ran some version of OS X, but it's gone and nobody knows what it was using (naturally). I have found SCSI card drivers, but no drivers for SCSI drives.

Looks like I'm stuck.

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Answer 4

May 22, 2009 7:19 AM in response to Dr. Tardarian

Something's odd here. The OS shouldn't care what kind of drives are in the array itself, if they're exposed over a fibre channel interface. They can be FC drives, SATA drives, PATA drives, SAS drives, whatever. Unless the enclosure really does nothing at all.

At any rate, you might have better luck with a Promise RAID or an Active Storage Labs XRAID 😉

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Answer 5

May 22, 2009 10:55 AM in response to William Lloyd

Thanks, but it still looks as a lack of SCSI support in the current OS X is the problem. The Apple FC card is there, it shows an active link to the array. System profile shows the FC Card and the array in the list, but no drives. I was told to look for errors in the console log and I found some where the drives were polled but came back without any IDs or Vendor IDs. So, it seems that the FC card is working, the Array is working, but the drives are being ignored. The drives still do not show up on Disk Utility or any of the RAID utilities. I'm trying to find some older OS X install disks that may have the correct drivers on them, it seems the older versions of OS X worked but the newer versions have stopped working with SCIS drives in any way shape or form. I'd love to go with a new array from someone else, but due to the economy and other factors, I'm stuck with this until I can figure it out. I'm not under any deadline though, so that's not a problem, I have a lot of patience and time to work on it.

Thanks

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Answer 6

May 23, 2009 6:51 PM in response to Dr. Tardarian

I have to go with William on this one - if it's shows up over fibre then it should be okay. Have you gotten the admin module to see the device over ether? I have a feeling that is you can get the software to see it you might be able to configure the device into something the computer could mount.

The Promise that way - you can configure the device entire from the web interface and you don't need fibre communication working for any of the configuration of what RAID you want and which disks are attached with what set etc. Once the RAIDs are configured into volumes then the Xserve sees they exist and you can use Disk Utility to format them. If you don't need fibre communication I don't see how SCSI drivers would matter over ethernet. But maybe the box is a strange beast - odder things have been made.

Barring that - can you attach the device to an older machine with the drivers and configure the device into raw volumes and then an HFS+ (or whatever you want) system? If you did that and then switched the box back to Xserve it should be able to pick up the configured volumes drivers or no.

My $.02,

=Tod

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Answer 7

Jul 2, 2009 9:51 PM in response to Dr. Tardarian

I think we can close this out now. The powers that be have provided me with another RAID box (SUN) and the drives are all showing up now. (I Can't get them to format, but there are other topics to search for that, I've seen a solution for that elsewhere).

Thanks for the replys!

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