XServe Not Recognizing Drives in Bays

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Level 1

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XServe Not Recognizing Drives in Bays

Hello, I recently got an XServe A1246 and am looking to install two 1TB Drives in a RAID in it. The issue that I am having is that neither of the 1TB drives are being recognized when trying to install an OS or looking for them in Disk Utility.

Before I got the two 1TB drives, I had a 500GB drive which is successfully recognized and shows up as an available drive when installing an OS.

I have included pictures which show all 3 drives and the caddies they are in. The 500GB is in the 80GB caddy and the two 1TB are in the 750GB caddies. I have tried swapping around the drives in the caddies, with the 500GB drive working in all 3 caddies and neither of the 1TB drive working in any caddy.

One thing that has worked for the 1TB drives is putting them in a hard drive dock, then plugging the dock into the server via the front USB port. I was able to see, format, and even put the drives in a RAID with Disk Utility using the dock, but even after doing that they wouldn't show up while in the caddies.

I haven't been able to find much information anywhere about what might be causing this other than maybe the caddies not being compatible with the drives, which I'm a little confused on considering the 500GB drive works with the 80GB caddy. Or possibly the speed of whatever SATA the 1TB drives use is too high for the server, or something like that. I read somewhere about using a jumper on some pins on the drive but haven't been able to figure out exactly what pins on my drives are which, or if that's even the issue.

If anyone has any ideas I'm open to trying anything at this point lol. I hope I've given enough information, but I'm happy to provide any info I might have left out. Thanks in advance to any ideas.

Rack Mount Servers - Intel

Posted on Dec 13, 2022 8:04 AM

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Answer 1

Camelot

Level 9

57,117 points

Dec 14, 2022 3:10 PM in response to Ngkrohmer

The Xserve drive caddies are very particular to the type and size of drives they will accept. In short, if it isn't a model number on a very short list of supported models, you're largely out of luck.

The drives you have are specifically identified as 'desktop' drives, so wouldn't be qualified for server use - not that you probably care about that at this time, but that was the thinking behind the design.

Also, good luck in finding a published list of supported drive models. At the time of the Xserve, Apple were very much in the 'if it didn't come from us, it isn't supported' mindset, which prevented anyone from using off-the-shelf components. It kind of makes sense in a server environment where Apple don't want to be held responsible for failures of non-approved hardware components. It does, however, leave you in a bit of a bind.

Running the drive in an external enclosure is likely your best path forward.

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Answer 2

Ngkrohmer Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 14, 2022 8:53 PM in response to Camelot

Hey, thanks for the response!

I hadn't thought about that, but it makes sense coming from apple.

Do you think any drives "from" apple would be supported, or only drives made around that time. For example, would drives taken from an iMac work, or would I be better off getting one that was known to come from an xserve.

I found on eBay these which I would rather buy than these considering the iMac ones were manufactured around 2019, as opposed to 2010 for the xserve ones.

Worst case I can run the drives in another enclosure, but I'd rather avoid having to buy another shelf for my server cabinet lol.

Thanks again for your help.

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Answer 3

Camelot

Level 9

57,117 points

Dec 19, 2022 1:46 PM in response to Ngkrohmer

> Do you think any drives "from" apple would be supported, or only drives made around that time.

I know for a FACT, that '...any drive "from" Apple..." is NOT sufficient to say it will work within the Xserve caddy.

The Xserve supports a specific configuration of drive manufacturer, model number, capacity and firmware. There were many drives that Apple shipped across their product portfolio, but there were only a handful of drives that would work in the Xserve. You absolutely could not, for example, take a typical drive from an iMac and put it into an Xserve.

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