PANIC! - Mac Pro 2008 RAID Card Vanished!

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Level 1

40 points

PANIC! - Mac Pro 2008 RAID Card Vanished!

Hi all

Right I seem to have a major issue so hoping someone can help.

This morning I was using my MP there was a click the screen went blank and then the MP tried to reboot. The white light came on but the screens did not. I turn off the unit and all connected devices at the mains, waited a few mins and tried to re boot. The screen when blue but nothing loaded. I then got my old SL disk and booted from that. It booted and looking at disk utility there are no drives. Even worse I booted RAID utility and it tells me there is no RAID card!

Now in essence I have got no further due to having to leave for work but I thought I'd ask for advice / ideas before I got back to the machine tonight.

I will obviously try reseating the unit (with and without drives) but does it sound like the card is knackered!

If this turns out to be the case is there a way I will be able to (some how) access data off the three drives that were in a RAID 5 config. or is the data lost?

I do have a spare new battery for the card so would it be worth trying this as well?

Any pointers you could give would be appreciated.

Actually while were on the subject. If the card is dead then what card if any would you recommend to replace it with. (Not that I can currently afford to do this!). A actual Apple 2008 RAID card will be like Rocking Horse S**t to get hold of. It would need to be bootable and preferably do internal and external (but just internal would be fine)

Thanks

Steve

Mac OS X (10.7.3)

Posted on May 2, 2012 2:06 AM

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Answer 1

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

May 2, 2012 3:42 AM in response to Cacus

Drives fail. RAID5 should still have some backups (clone the volume(s) and use something whether TimeMachine or else).

And putting equipment behind a strong 1500VA UPS

External when you get a chance. Take a look at what www.macgurus.com has on their site.

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Answer 2

Cacus Author

Level 1

40 points

May 2, 2012 4:11 AM in response to The hatter

Thanks for the reply.

re Drives fail . this assumes that a drive has failed and that the card is working but if the drives are ok but the card has failed can you get data off the drives (as the raid set is then broken) Is there software that would solve this?

Cheers

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Answer 3

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

May 2, 2012 4:37 AM in response to Cacus

you need access to Apple RAID card. I should say computers fail and things always have more issues than first appear.

Fail means always have duplicate backup redundant sets and so you have access to data and system, come heaven or high water. some go for off line backup too.

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Answer 4

Cacus Author

Level 1

40 points

May 2, 2012 9:05 AM in response to Cacus

Update :

I have returned home and before doing anything else I removed the drives, popped out the RAID card. I then re inserted everything and the machine booted.

The machine booted sucessfully and the RAID set pops on to the desktop which appears to function as normal. However the raid utility has come up with the following:

Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:35:29 British Summer Time	Background task started: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1	informational
Wednesday, 2 May 2012 07:18:37 British Summer Time	Controller detected disorderly shutdown without battery backup	critical

in RAID utility I have a Orange light on the volume, orange on the RAID set and green on all drives.

The task Initialize has started running on the Taget Volume and RAID Set.

I assume this is just checking over the raid it certainly does not appear to be "initializing" in the normal sense of the word.

Battery seems to be fine.

Any advice? could this be the start of an issue with the card/drives or is it possible it's a one off?

Cheers

Steve

PCI Slot: Slot-4

Hardware Version: 1.00

Firmware Version: M-2.0.5.5

Expansion ROM Version: 18

Shutdown Status: Disorderly shutdown with battery backup

Write Cache Enabled: Yes

Battery Info:

Firmware Revision: 1.0.2

First Installed: 12/03/2011 12:47

Last Date Conditioned: 09/03/2012 21:13

State: Working battery

Fault: Normal battery operation

Status:

Charging: Yes

Conditioning: No

Connected: Yes

Discharging: No

Sufficient Charge: Yes

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Answer 5

Ricks-

Level 6

11,515 points

May 2, 2012 9:53 AM in response to Cacus

To reinforce what hatter stated: you must always expect a failure. They happen at the worst times, in the strangest ways. The key to life is: have a backup!

RAID5 means absolutely nothing, by itself, to protecting your data. Only a backup does that. As you have already seen, what now looks like a small event can cause you to lose your RAID. If the RAID volume information is damaged by a failure of the hardware RAID card, even replacing the card may not bring the RAID and the data back online.

I would figure out a way to backup the data immediately that you make the data available. That is absolute first priority. If the data is worth the price of a hardware RAID card - it is worth actually protecting it by having a backup.

hatter's point is - eventually, everything will fail. That is the only 100% guaranteed event. Having multiple copies is the bare minimum to protect against the inevitable.

Rick

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Answer 6

Cacus Author

Level 1

40 points

May 2, 2012 11:26 AM in response to Ricks-

Thanks for the reply.

The data is backed up. I was only the last weeks that wasn't. But this now is thanks to it coming back online. Though i still would like to know why the controller shut down and if it's there's an issue with a drive or the controller.

If after the Task= initialize gives me green lights will it be ok to continue to use? Is there any way to test the card?

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Answer 7

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

May 2, 2012 11:32 AM in response to Cacus

I would be doubly sure that you are on UPS with enough runtime to complete any task running.

I have an APC + battery pack extension, the 24v extension adds about 60-75 minutes runtime.

Hard to say not knowing what and why it 'died' there. A power surge or drop that even with UPS wasn't caught? Taking too long to recover an I/O? Time-limited error recovery for hardware RAID.

Issues with the Apple RAID card battery are common needing to recondition.

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Answer 8

Cacus Author

Level 1

40 points

May 2, 2012 11:51 AM in response to The hatter

Again thanks for the feedback.

There currently is no UPS but lets just say there will be soon!

Cheers

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Answer 9

Ricks-

Level 6

11,515 points

May 2, 2012 11:52 AM in response to Cacus

Sounds like a power issue of some sort started all this. Or it may have been the card overheated and shutoff on its own.

The card runs as if it were a separate computer within a computer and can have strange corruption problems all by itself, just like a computer does. We cannot even assume a problem like this is hardware, or software. Can be either and mimmic a different problem altogether. Good thing the logs give some clues, or it would be impossible to diagnose except by swapping in parts and software/firmware/drivers looking for the culprit.

Good point that a rebuild that gets interrupted can destroy your volume. Hard to get a UPS that will handle things for as long as some processes take on a hardware RAID rebuild, and that is just one of many little things can bite you with a hardware RAID.

Proof will be in the pudding. Does the volume come back up fully verified?

BTW, to answer one of your initial questions: If you fail a hardware RAID card and need to remount the drives, you must get an identical replacement card to accomplish that. The card literally created the volume that your computer sees. No other card can remount that volume except an identical one.

Rick

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Answer 10

The hatter

Level 9

60,980 points

May 2, 2012 12:06 PM in response to Cacus

sorry to hear... check these what I keep in reserve

http://www.amazon.com/APC-BR24BPG-Back-UPS-External-Battery/dp/B0047E5B90/

http://www.amazon.com/APC-BR1500G-BACK-UPS-10-Outlet-1500VA/dp/B003Y24DEU/

fond of cyberpower after decades w/ apc

http://www.amazon.com/CyberPower-CP1500PFCLCD-1500VA-900W-Compatible/dp/B00429N1 9W/

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Answer 11

Cacus Author

Level 1

40 points

May 6, 2012 6:15 AM in response to Cacus

Ok this has got a bit strange

Once the init task had ran everything went green. So I then ran the Verify RAID set. again after a few days to verifying everything when green again. At this point the machine has not been powered down since 02/05/2012 @ 16.35

Sunday, 6 May 2012 02:06:34 British Summer Time	Background task completed: Task=RedundancyScrub,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1	informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 18:57:43 British Summer Time	Background task started: Task=RedundancyScrub,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1	informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 18:57:44 British Summer Time	Redundancy verification started on RAID set “RS1”	informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 05:13:54 British Summer Time	Background task completed: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1	informational
Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:35:29 British Summer Time	Background task started: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1	informational
Wednesday, 2 May 2012 07:18:37 British Summer Time	Controller detected disorderly shutdown without battery backup	critical

So I shut the machine down. All ok.

Now I have booted the mac up and I get the following:

Sunday, 6 May 2012 13:43:33 British Summer Time	Background task started: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1	informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 16:15:12 British Summer Time	Controller detected disorderly shutdown without battery backup	critical
Sunday, 6 May 2012 02:06:34 British Summer Time	Background task completed: Task=RedundancyScrub,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1	informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 18:57:43 British Summer Time	Background task started: Task=RedundancyScrub,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1	informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 18:57:44 British Summer Time	Redundancy verification started on RAID set “RS1”	informational
Thursday, 3 May 2012 05:13:54 British Summer Time	Background task completed: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1	informational
Wednesday, 2 May 2012 16:35:29 British Summer Time	Background task started: Task=Init,Scope=DRVGRP,Group=RS1	informational
Wednesday, 2 May 2012 07:18:37 British Summer Time	Controller detected disorderly shutdown without battery backup	critical

As you can see it has added a 3 May - Critical after the 6th when everything was ok and it started a init run again!

The battery states it's charge

Any suggestions?

Do you think it will make a difference if I get a new battery for the RAID card? as I suppose it is 4 years old!

Cheers Steve

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Answer 12

Cacus Author

Level 1

40 points

May 6, 2012 6:31 AM in response to Cacus

Just to add a bit of extra info Console indicates the following when searching for RAID utility

02/05/2012 16:30:12.887 open: spawn_via_launchd() failed, errno=5 label=[0x0-0x8008].com.apple.RAIDUtility path=/Applications/Utilities/RAID Utility.app/Contents/MacOS/RAID Utility flags=0

02/05/2012 16:30:12.924 com.apple.CoreRAID: LSOpenURLsWithRole() failed with error -10810 for the file /Applications/Utilities/RAID Utility.app.

02/05/2012 16:33:33.088 RAID Utility: Could not find image named 'BatteryGood'.

02/05/2012 16:38:46.126 RAID Utility: Could not find image named 'BatteryGood'.

03/05/2012 16:23:39.655 RAID Utility: Could not find image named 'BatteryGood'.

03/05/2012 18:57:29.594 RAID Utility: Could not find image named 'BatteryGood'.

06/05/2012 13:41:28.551 RAID Utility: Could not find image named 'BatteryGood'.

The sytem profiler gives the following

Mac Pro RAID Card:

PCI Slot: Slot-4

Hardware Version: 1.00

Firmware Version: M-2.0.5.5

Expansion ROM Version: 18

Shutdown Status: Disorderly shutdown without battery backup

Write Cache Enabled: Yes

Battery Info:

Firmware Revision: 1.0.2

First Installed: 12/03/2011 12:47

Last Date Conditioned: 09/03/2012 21:13

State: Working battery

Fault: Normal battery operation

Status:

Charging: Yes

Conditioning: No

Connected: Yes

Discharging: No

Sufficient Charge: Yes

Although the card was installed in 2008.

Cheers

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Answer 13

Aug 28, 2012 11:20 AM in response to Cacus

Battery Info:

First Installed: 12/03/2011 12:47

"Although the card was installed in 2008."

For what it's worth, I believe that my card lost its battery history when the firmware was upgraded to M-2.0.5.5

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