Re: Update R680, Hitachi Deskstar 3Tb, ProAvio 8ms

Last night at 2am the initialization completed with only a single error requiring a restart to continue. I then ran the RAID maintenance utility from ATTO to confirm it was healthy. The utility said the RAID was healthy. Then I ran AJA System test - and on the 2,4,6 and 8 gig tests results were somewhat erratic, but halfway through every single 16g test, the RAID would unmount, I'd get a warning about improperly ejected disk, and then a minute or two later it would remount.

So I went into the office at 2am to swap out the RAID card with the older Highpoint 4322 that had been in the system for a year until last weeks "upgrade".

Initializing didn't work on the Highpoint for some odd reason, but all drives were seen and reported excellent temperatures and healthy smart status. So today I took out each drive, dropped them into a mac pro one at a time, and formatted/tested individually to see if there was a problem. Each drive has it's own 'personality' on AJA system test, but all were essentially normal. I have screen grabs of each.

I put everything back in, went back into the highpoint manager to create a new RAID, skipped initialization and used old data, and instantly the drive was there and ready to rock. Speed tests were slower than the R680 when it works, but were more consistent than I've actually ever gotten from this highpoint card. For whatever reason, the Highpoint wouldn't complete the initializing, but at least I knew the drives were fine. I'm not interested in using the Highpoint any more anyways.

I also switched the cables with another room and added a new one, just to rule out the cables.

The resolution to this snipe hunt is that I grabbed the ProAvio box w/ drives, plugged it into the other edit suite with a R380, and lo and behold all my drives look good and it easily and swiftly began the initialization process via Express Initialization, which lets you mount a drive and use it at a slower rate when initializing. The RAID works great now. No dropping. No faults.

Obviously, I got a bad R680. It's a bit annoying that "do I have a bad card" was the first thing I asked ATTO before they told me my problem was possibly related to the heat warnings. Ironically, their software that isn't capable of telling the actual temperature of a drive (even Highpoint seems to have that down). These 3Tb Hitachis have been out a while, are recommended for RAID by Hitachi, and ATTO should know that their system erroneously reports wrong temperatures for this very common drive. Further, I got no answer when I asked what could possibly be knocking the RAID offline, presumably because the answer is "You got a bad card". This could have also been a bit easier if the download link for the R680 driver and maintenance utility had actually worked on the ATTO website last weekend. I understand faulty products get put out all the time by every manufacturer, but if I made RAID cards, I'd test it with virtually every drive in the world - there are only 2 or 3 companies that make hard drives, after all.

The process of building a DIY RAID is always a bit challenging, but I did my homework and still got hammered by it. Areca, here I come.

For what it's worth, our editing iMac w/ Promise Pegasus RAID5 came pre striped and worked right out of the gate, no configuration required. I hope ProAvio has a Thunderbolt enclosure coming down the pipes soon. Their tech support is fantastic.