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SoftRAID 2.x Troubleshooting

  • Before You Contact Us
  • What To Try First
  • Check For Software Issues
  • Hardware Conflict Possibilities
  • Troubleshooting Procedures
  • Getting Info on Disk Drives
  • Purchasing Quality SCSI Cables and Terminators
  • Mac OS Troubleshooting Resources

Before You Contact Us
PLEASE NOTE: You must contact your supplier before contacting SoftRAID for technical support.

  • If your copy of SoftRAID came with an Adaptec card, contact Adaptec technical support first. You will need your registration ID number.
  • If your copy of SoftRAID came with a Ratoc card, contact Ratoc technical support first.
  • If your copy of SoftRAID came with an Initio card, contact Initio technical support first.
  • If you received SoftRAID with a G3 or G4 system from Apple, contact Apple for technical support.

SoftRAID LLC gives priority to users who have purchased SoftRAID directly from SoftRAID LLC.

SoftRAID technical support is via e-mail. If you wish telephone technical support, you must purchase Extended Support from us. For e-mail technical support, contact us at support@softraid.com

Please troubleshoot your system before you contact us by including:

  1. A full detailed description of your problem
  2. Steps you have already taken
  3. The symptoms
  4. Your system's hard drives, SCSI cards, cables, and termination
  5. An Apple System Profiler data file named so we can recognize it, such as with your e-mail address

What To Try First
CHECK YOUR HARDWARE!!! Most problems with SoftRAID can be traced to hardware faults:

  • Cabling - SCSI cables must be the correct type for your drives, and as short as practical. Inadequate cabling can cause intermittent problems, such as occasional hangs, and freezes at startup. With SoftRAID's fast driver acceleration, cable problems are usually more pronounced.
    Cabling Guidelines
    NOTE: bus speeds shown are not "SCSI performance speeds, but the raw speed of the SCSI bus in Megahertz
    1. SCSI (5 Mhz SCSI-1) 6 meters or 18 feet. This is the typical SCSI that comes out the back 25 pin connector of the Mac.
    2. SCSI-2 Fast (10Mhz) 3 meters max. This is the internal 10Mb/s SCSI internal to most Mac OS systems, except the 1997 and later Gossamer G3's, which only have 5Mb internal.
    3. SCSI-2 Ultra (20Mhz) 1.5 meter max. (The spec calls for 3 meters) Mostly found on PCI SCSI cards, Ultra SCSI has specific requirements for both cables and cable length. 90 Ohm impedance balanced cables are required for good, trouble-free performance.
    4. SCSI-2 Differential (20Mhz) 25 meters cable length, 90 Ohm impedance. Differential has higher voltage requirements for termination power, so avoid using standard SCSI cabling for differential devices. Do not mix Differential SCSI with standard SCSI devices on the same bus. They will destroy each other
    5. Ultra2 SCSI(LVD)/U160 (40Mhz) 15 meters max. NOTE: Both Ultra160 and LVD SCSI are both pin and bus compatible with standard SCSI devices. When mixing SCSI device types, the entire bus will operate at the slowest speed on the chain. (Adaptec has a Speedflex technology designed to prevent this. If you have an Adaptec card, go to their web site for more details.) Improper SCSI cabling with LVD SCSI can result in a 50% performance drop. LVD SCSI requires a 120 Ohm twisted pair impedance balanced cable. For short cable runs, under 3 meters, standard Teflon coated 90 Ohm cable will suffice. For longer runs, or multiple devices, switch to twisted pair cabling. U160 requires exclusively twisted pair cabling.
  • Termination - SCSI requires the first and last device to be terminated. The SCSI host (the computer/SCSI card in the computer) is usually terminated. All PCI based SCSI cards are by default terminated, and most are auto switching, depending on whether you are using internal and external ports on the SCSI bus. Always use an active external terminator for best results, and ESPECIALLY when troubleshooting. Active terminators are essential with LVD or U160 SCSI. (On older standard Macs the Macintosh motherboard is NOT terminated.)
  • Termination Power - SCSI termination requires a power supply. That power is +5 volts in the case of standard SCSI and ±3 volts with Low Voltage Differential SCSI. Any device can supply termination power, but normally the host computer/device is responsible for termination power. If you are using a PCI SCSI card, you can reduce the potential for termination power errors by disabling termination power on all devices EXCEPT the host SCSI card. Improper termination will cause inconsistent SCSI results.
  • SCSI cards - While most SCSI cards are both reliable and problem free, sometimes unusual problems may present themselves. Here are a few things to try:
    1. Update firmware - Check with the manufacturer for current firmware. Most all SCSI cards can be "flash-updated". Firmware can often fix problems with the SCSI bus.
    2. Change slots - Sometimes timing issues make a card more or less reliable in different slots. On a newer G4, try moving the SCSI card to the first slot, the BusMaster slot. If that does not work, move it to another slot. If you have a 6 slot system, try reversing the card into the opposite end of the PCI bus. Occasionally, a PCI card has problems with another PCI card, such as a Digital Video card, Graphics card, etc. Switching slots is worth testing, although an unusual error condition.
    3. Swap SCSI cards - Substitute a different SCSI card of the same manufacturer. (Also you can try switching to a different brand - SoftRAID has no problems with volumes being moved to different SCSI buses, SCSI ID's etc.)
  • Drive cabinets/installations - Make sure that the disk drives are in good enclosures, do not get too hot, and do not use "cable stubs". "Cable stubs" are small stubs in poorly designed drive cases, where a stub of cable is used to connect the drive to the SCSI bus, instead of a "loop configuration". A good drive case should use high grade cables, all connectors should be looped, and have good cooling. The power supplies should be either shielded or isolated in some way from the drive mechanisms. Also be sure that the inside of the enclosures have the appropriate cables, especially with high speed U160 systems where twisted pair cabling is necessary throughout.

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Check For Software Issues
Software conflict reports with SoftRAID:

  1. SoftRAID application freezes when clicking on an icon.
    Conflicting Software: ATI Graphics drivers v. 3.2.2
    ATI Graphics drivers v. 3.2.2 causes the SoftRAID application to hang. (command-option-esc will force quit SoftRAID). There is a bug in the ATI extension. An upgrade or downgrade to any different version will stop this problem.
  2. Striped volumes break and "disappear".
    Conflicting Software: Norton Utilities 4.0 beta version
    This was a temporary, but nasty problem. DO NOT USE THE ONCE PUBLICLY POSTED BETA VERSION OF NORTON UTILITIES 4.0 WITH SOFTRAID OR ANY OTHER RAID VOLUMES. The released version will not damage SoftRAID volumes. The FINAL VERSION of NORTON UTILITIES 4.0 is OK with SoftRAID.
  3. SoftRAID volumes do not mount except for the first volume.
    Conflicting Software: Older, out of date Software Architects drivers bundled with some removable devices. The symptom is the SoftRAID volumes after the first volume do not mount. Anytime a SoftRAID volume does not mount, and SoftRAID shows the volume is OK, and the volume can be mounted manually, it is very likely there is a bug in an extension that is loading. What is probably happening is that an extension is flushing the drive queue at boot time, and SoftRAID needs this queue to mount all remaining volumes. Try booting with extensions off (restarting with the shift key held down), and if all volumes mount, use the process of elimination to find the problem.
  4. HDT Bench Test, MacBench 4 or 5, Mac OS installer freezes the System
    Hardware problem: If SoftRAID hangs when running the above, it is a hardware problem that most likely can be fixed by reading the section above on cabling, termination and SCSI cards. SoftRAID has been tested with the above products, and if the hardware is properly configured, it will work.
  5. MDB format unknown appears after creating a new volume with SoftRAID 2.0 or earlier with Mac OS 8.5
    This bug indicates that the volume format is unknown, which happens when SoftRAID 2.0 attempts to create a volume under Mac OS 8.5, and cannot. The solution is to upgrade to SoftRAID 2.2.
  6. Mac OS 9 refuses to install until you update SoftRAID.
    SoftRAID 2.1 and earlier are incompatible with Mac OS 9 for similar reasons as the above. The solution is to upgrade to SoftRAID 2.2.
  7. "Where have all my files gone?"
    After creating a new volume with SoftRAID on an AppleShare Server, and upon looking at the volume, it says, "Where have all my files gone?". Restart with extensions off (disble ASIP), create your volumes, then restart. When AppleShareIP is running, you cannot create an HFS+ volume.
  8. Startup Control Panel cannot select a startup device.
    This problem sometimes occurs when there is more than one System Folder on more than one volume. If you encounter this problem, avoid having multiple System Folders, and only have one bootable volume.

A useful utility to have around to catch software conflicts is Conflict Catcher.

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Hardware Conflict Possibilities
NOTE: SoftRAID does not recognize certain SCSI devices and will not show them in the disks window. These include tape drives, CD ROM drives, scanners, and other SCSI devices which are not of the type "disk". This is not a "conflict", but a feature of SoftRAID. SoftRAID filters out unnecessary devices to simplify the user interface. SoftRAID was not designed to search for SCSI ID conflicts.

  1. ATTO card running SoftRAID causes system hangs when launching SoftRAID.
    This was a problem with the scanning for LUN feature in the configuration software and was fixed by turning off this feature in the ATTO configuration software. Also, SoftRAID version 2.2 and later works around this issue.
  2. SoftRAID hangs when creating new volumes on 2.1 GB IBM UltraStar disk drives.
    Hardware conflict - Caused by a defect in the Drive Firmware.
    SoftRAID uses a feature called tagged command queuing. This feature allows the Mac SCSI manager to issue multiple SCSI commands to increase performance. The 2.1GB IBM drives which have this problem were mostly sold by Mac ResQ in early 1997. The solution is to turn off SoftRAID driver acceleration. The problem will not show up with the internal Mac SCSI, nor with most Mac OS disk drivers as they do not support Tagged Commands.
  3. Drives power down when a Server is in active use.
    SoftRAID was originally designed purely for Servers, where it is a poor idea to put drives to "sleep". With the new Mac OS hardware designs, sleep becomes an integral part of all machines. SoftRAID 2.2 and later support both sleep and "deep sleep" if the rest of the hardware does also, especially the SCSI card.

Sometimes the Energy Saver Control Panel does not handle sleep properly, and puts the drives to sleep. There are two answers.

  1. Use Sleeper, from Jon Gotow. It works around most all of the sleep related issues. A great shareware product, 100% compatible with SoftRAID.
  2. Reset the Saver prefs. Please do ALL of the following steps in order:
  3. Delete the Energy Control Panel preference file in the System Folder
    1. Restart the machine immediately and reset the PRAM. (Hold down the command-option-PR keys as the machine restarts, until the machine chimes. Hold it down until there are 3 cycles of resetting the PRAM)
    2. Let the machine restart, and open the Energy Saver Control panel. Set the system to never sleep.
    3. Under more options, set the drives SEPARATELY to "never sleep".

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Troubleshooting Procedures
SoftRAID acceleration (concurrent I/O's) causes freezes, hangs or SCSI errors in your system.

Sometimes SoftRAID's fast driver, which uses a SCSI capability called "tagged command queuing", or concurrent I/O's, brings out problems. When you first suspect a problem, turn off all acceleration in the SoftRAID driver by installing the driver on one disk and rebooting. Turn off read/write and Photoshop acceleration. Reboot and test your system. If the problem goes away, then concurrent I/O's are causing your problem.

If concurrent I/O's are a problem in your system:

  • Check termination carefully - only the first and last device should be terminated. You should use active termination.
  • Turn OFF all Termination Power settings on your drives. Most SCSI cards supply sufficient power to the bus, and some SCSI cards are more sensitive to Termination Power settings than other.
  • If you have an Initio SCSI card turn off Sync Negotiation. (This test can be tried with other cards)

If you have tried the above, and are still having problems, create an HFS volume using Drive Setup and test. If you still have a problem, it is unrelated to SoftRAID. If you have no problem, then use SoftRAID to install the driver onto the Drive Setup volume and retest. If you have a problem, retry with SoftRAID acceleration off. If there is still no problem, try a full format on both drives, and create a new RAID volume and retest. If there is a problem with acceleration off, and it does not appear with Drive Setup, send us a note describing what you tried.

If the SoftRAID application hangs:

  • Download the latest firmware from Initio if you have an Initio SCSI card.
  • During a SCSI scan - This is a concurrent I/O problem, try the above steps.
  • When creating a volume - You may have a drive or system unable to deal with concurrent I/O's. Turn off acceleration and try again.

Getting Info on Disk Drives
One thing that is useful when troubleshooting drives is to have access to technical data on disk drives. Here are a few resources:

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Purchasing Quality SCSI Cables and Terminators
It is important to have high quality SCSI cables and terminators to avoid problems. Here are a couple of places that sell SCSI connection devices:

Mac OS Troubleshooting Resources
End User Tech Support

Try us first

If you are an Adaptec, Initio, MacGurus, Ratoc, or VST customer, you can contact them.

  • Adaptec - Have your Product ID number handy
  • Initio - Have your Serial number handy
  • Ratoc - Have your serial number ready
  • MacGurus - Have your Invoice number ready
  • VST - Have your invoice number, or proof of purchase ready
  • Apple Computer - Have your Macintosh Serial number and/or Apple Care ID number ready. If you purchased a Mac OS Server, Apple WILL support you, but you need to tell them that SoftRAID was bundled with your Server to reach a level two support technician

Third Party Tech Support

  • MacTank (877) 622-8265
    This is a company which is dedicated to providing telephone support to MacOS end users.
  • Granite Digital (510) 471-6442
    Granite is the premier cable supplier for Mac OS users that require high end SCSI/Fibre Channel/FireWire cables and enclosures. Call Granite Digital, and mention SoftRAID.

Data Recovery

  • DriveSavers - (415) 382-2000 Restores data if you have a catastrophic loss. DriveSavers is expensive, but worth it. DriveSavers can recover data from RAID volumes.

Mac OS ISP/Web hosting

  • Mendocino Community Network - A non-profit agency which generates money for the Mendocino county school system. SoftRAID's own web site is hosted on a Mac OS Server with mcn.org, running SoftRAID, of course. MCN, while based in Mendocino in far northern California, also services customers in the San Francisco area, even offering DSL. You do not hear of them much, as being a non-profit, they do not have a large advertising budget.
  • Digital Forest - Probably the largest collection of Mac OS hosting computers in the world. Mostly for FileMaker, but many of their clients just simply prefer their data to be secured by Mac OS. Great people. Digital Forest also hosts the premier Mac Managers mailing list.

Consultants
We only have a handful of consultants listed here, but we have to start somewhere. Everyone on this list is known by us to have expertise with SoftRAID.

MacGurus - Known as the Gurus because of their broad experience and knowledge with tweaking Mac hardware to get the most out of it. There is a MacGurus bulletin board where you can post questions also. Great support. Great people, very concerned about product quality.

MacCPU - has sold many different SoftRAID configurations, always tested before they go out the door. Friendly, down home service.Great people, very concerned about product quality.

Regional Experts:

New York
TekServe - Contact:General Information - Region of Expertise: Mac OS repair and retail store based in New York City. Areas of Expertise: TekServe has been offering SoftRAID with their Server and hardware/software RAID configurations for years, and they are very good at hardware. We made a visit in New York this summer (2000), and were duly impressed by their large facility, and huge staff to take in repairs.

Atlanta
Publishers Network , Contact: Robert W Perez, President - Region of Expertise: An independent computer/network consultant in the Atlanta area. Areas of Expertise: "I have 5+ years experience with Macintosh and Windows systems and hold certifications in several areas including MCSE, MCT, MCP+I, MCT, A+, and CCNA. I am also an ASE. I support RAID arrays on both Windows NT and Apple systems and use SoftRaid software for the Macintosh implementations with Adaptec controller cards and Seagate drives. I have found the three products to work well together and continue to use nothing else when I can dictate components. I have 15 years experience working in and around the printing industry and my client base is about 70% commercial printers and newspapers. I support web, proxy and e-mail servers as well as file and print servers. I also plan and implement network infrastructure installations, expansions and upgrades. My support policy includes one free consultation. I do not charge call-out fees but do have a one-hour minimum. I charge $90.00 hourly and under certain circumstances will work at a flat rate." Phone: 770-445-8136 Fax: 877-448-1542.

Midwest
Desktop Media Group, Inc., Contact: Phil Burk Contact: Jill Mercer - Region of Expertise: Indiana and the Midwest
Areas of Expertise: Primarily Macintosh-related computing/technical issues, integration and networking, training and workflow, project consultation. Type of Customer Supported: Graphic Arts industry (printing, publishing, ad agencies, corporate creative, etc.) Support policy: Contracted support - will answer questions for clients w/o charge.

Tech Support Internet Resources

Macintosh Managers - one of the best troubleshooting resources on the Internet, particulary Mac OS servers. Here are a couple troubleshooting links posted on the Mac Managers site. You may also subscribe to the Mac-Managers mailing list, which is a large group of professional managers. This list operates a bit different than most, as it runs on a question/summary basis.

Other reference sites:

Graphic Power -a great resource site for AppleShare Server managers with many technical articles on AppleShare networks.

Apple Tech Info Library (TIL articles)

Some Benchmark and performance web sites.

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