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Jefe533
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Q: Files on the SAN temporarily disappear

Hi all,

I'm having an issue where, after a certain amount of use, one of the two computers I'm using connected to an XSAN hard drive will seem to "lose track" of the file structure. That is, when I click on folders on the SAN disk, they will suddenly show as empty, even though I know the files are still there (I can still see them on the other computer, for example). This is often accompanied by a spinning beach ball of death, which can be averted by relaunching the finder, though the computer doesn't start showing the files again until I do a hard power down and reset (once I go into this death spiral, the computer won't do a software restart...it just hangs endlessly after logout).

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!

Mac Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.5)

Posted on Dec 1, 2010 3:11 PM

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Jefe533

Q: Files on the SAN temporarily disappear

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  • by perfektionsloge,

    perfektionsloge perfektionsloge Jan 10, 2011 7:42 AM in response to Jefe533
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Jan 10, 2011 7:42 AM in response to Jefe533
    Hi,
    did you solve this problem? We have the same issue!

    Kind regards,
    Martin

  • by perfektionsloge,

    perfektionsloge perfektionsloge Jan 10, 2011 10:41 AM in response to Jefe533
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    Jan 10, 2011 10:41 AM in response to Jefe533
    What setup do you have? Exclusive LUNs for metadata and data or mixed?
    Our setup: easyRAID Q16 with 2 LUNs for metadata and data. I know it's not recommended to mix metadata and data... Controller is Xserve with 10.6.5 Server, QLogic SANbox 5602, 2 Mac Pros 10.6.5, dedicated metadata network with HP ProCurve switch, Xsan 2.2.1
    We changed everything! Cables, switches, SFPs, easyRAID. Only Xserve and Mac Pros did not change.

  • by jmyres,

    jmyres jmyres Jan 10, 2011 10:34 PM in response to perfektionsloge
    Level 1 (80 points)
    Jan 10, 2011 10:34 PM in response to perfektionsloge
    If your other station really is ok, that's an important troubleshooting fact, as it indicates your Xsan is functioning correctly and your issue is limited to the hanging client. An important first thing to check is that your fibre, public and private Ethernet connections are all ok. If any of them are intermittent you will get that kind of behavior.

    If you have access to your fibre switch, login, highlight the ports connected to the problematic station, and click on the tab for Port Stats. If you see a lot of CRC errors, than you might have a bad fibre cable or SFP (rare). Remember that the problem might be in your wall, or if you are using a mixture of 62.5 and 50 micron fibre cable.

    If you have access to Xsan Admin, see if there are any errors in your log files, or in the GUI itself under Errors and Warnings. If you are still having a problem tracking it down, an extreme idea would be to shut down both stations, and swap them. If the previously stable station, starts behaving erratically on the connections your problematic station was using, then you know you have a cabling problem.

    JM