HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 pci express SAS SATA RAID card Setup

Hi.

Thanks for the suggestion. Although I didn't note it in my posting, I did try the addresses without the secure connection. The result was the same.

I just tried it again now and again no response. I have tried both Firefox and Safari on this mac that is running osx 10.5.6 and is operating fine in every other regard.

Yes, the card shows up in System Profiler. The driver reported as successfully installed. When I connect SATA drives to the card (via mini-sas to sata cable), they show up to the operating system as straight storage devices (no RAID). They are accessible in disk utility too, obviously.

If this was all I needed from this card, that would be great. But I didn't pay $600 to just get a plain old esata card. It's the hardware RAID functionality I need/want and I can't get that without the web interface.

HighPoint support sent me a worthless one sentence response today that basically said what you said "try the URL with http instead of httpS"

It will probably be another 24 hours before they can be bothered to reply to me again. HighPoint phone support led to a voicemail recording, where I left a polite request for support. But 13 hours later, I haven't heard a word.

Here are my latest findings:

I have reinstalled the driver while logged in as ROOT. (The driver I am using is the most recent release: 3xxx-mac-v132-090407)

I have confirmed that the files which should be installed, are in their correct locations:
The file "hptiop.kext" is present in /system/library/extensions
The folder "hptsvr" is present in /Library/StartupItems/
The folder "hpt" is present in /usr/share/

I still cannot access the web interface.

The user manual says:
If you can't connect to local system, please check if a process named raidman-httpsd is
running on the system. If it is not running, you can start it manually by running the command
“SystemStarter start raidman”.

When I enter that command, the raidman-httpsd process does start running (as shown in activity monitor). But I get the following response message in the terminal after about 1 minute:

----------------

Last login: Tue Jul 7 22:46:37 on console
/Library/StartupItems/Hptsvr/raidman-httpsd ; exit;
machinenamehere:~ root# /Library/StartupItems/Hptsvr/raidman-httpsd ; exit;
No driver detected. Abort!
logout

[Process completed]

----------------

Since all the specified components of the highpoint software are in place, I don't understand how the driver cannot be detected. Especially since a hard drive connected to the card does show up in system profiler and does mount in the Finder.

This system installation of OSX Server v10.5.6 is fresh within the last 5 days and has no hacks in place. The update to 10.5.6 was achieved with a combo update. I have repaired permissions to no avail.

Thanks, everyone, for the help. While I have marked this problem as resolved, it is not.

I put the card in a MacPro and it worked fine and the web admin interface was immediately accessible (following driver installation, obviously). I didn't have to do any tricks to get it to work. So I thought maybe, in order for the web admin interface to be accessible in the xServe system that the firmware update must be installed. So I tried doing the update in the MacPro. Then put the card back in the XServe. Same story as before: discs are accessible, but web admin is not.

At this point, neither I (or my client) have time for anymore of this troubleshooting. I don't know if there is something up with the Xserve, or the highpoint card itself. I suspect that the card isn't truly Xserve compatible, as the maker claims, because the Xserve is not simply a MacPro in a pizza box -- it's an entirely different system.

When I contacted several eSATA card makers/resellers, inquiring about Xserve compatibility of their products, most of the responses were not very confident about saying Yes. I suspect that very few of them have actually tested their cards in Xserve systems.

So, as a test subject, I bought an $50 eSATA card (non-RAID) that is claimed by the reseller to be Xserve compatible. I considered it a control subject (and if the card didn't get used in the xserve in the end, I would just put it to use elsewhere). The card did not work work at all (whereas the RocketRaid 3522 did work in non-RAID capacity).

At this point, I'm giving up on this battle. We were looking to add an external storage array to this XServe, since Apple has discontinued the necessary internal drive modules. But we're going to buy the drive modules on ebay and continue with the internal software RAID for the time being.

We'll hope we experience no drive failures in the near future and plan on replacing the xServe with a refurbished MacPro sometime in 2010. The XServe offers zero advantages for my client (and in fact the noise is an annoyance), so they'll be happy to get rid of it when the time comes.

Peggy: It's sad to say that your posting to this forum was 10 times more helpful than the response provided by a HighPoint support technician. Perhaps they should put you in charge of support services in the company.

My support request is still open in the HighPoint customer support database and not a single support tech has followed up on it, since the first reply one week ago. After this experience, never again will I purchase a HighPoint product.