SCSI RAID and system keep crashing

Hello to all,

I am running a G5 with a serial ATA 400 gig drive, a Blackmagic Decklink Extreme card and an ATTO Express PCI card. I have an Utlra 320 SCSI RAID 5 by Caen Engineering (www.caeneng.com/). The specs on my system are below as well as a list of the software on my computer.

The RAID seems to be crashing the computer. I only have problems when reading-from or writing-to the RAID. Whenever the system freezes up the BUSY light on the RAID is flashing.

Some of the crashing scenarios:
In FCP 5.0.4 I created a new project. After naming the folder and clicking "Save" FCP froze. I was saving the project to my desktop.
Dragging files from a firewire drive to the RAID.
Dragging files from the RAID to a firewire drive.
In FCP importing a .jpeg.
In FCP editing using multi-cam.
During editing, saving a project.
During rendering.
During auto-save.

When the crash occurs, the "busy" light on the RAID stays on and if in FCP I get the spinning beach ball. When it has happened while transferring files, the blue status bar comes to a hold.

We have taken the computer to Mac Hollywood who gave the computer a clean bill of health. We have taken the RAID to Caen Eng. who initially suggested that it was a bad drive. Since they had no way of knowing which drive was bad we had to replace all 5 drives. For 2-3 days after replacing the drives there were no crashes. Then the crashes started again. Caen Eng. looked at the RAID again and said it was not a problem with the RAID. Mac Hollywood connected the RAID to one of their computers and they were not able to make the crash occur. ATTO has also done a diagnostic on the SCSI Card and the card was fine. When the RAID is connected to the computer the crashes happen at least every hour if not more. When the RAID is not connected I do not have any crashing problems.

Any suggestions?

As always, thanks in advance!
Peace,
Lisha

Machine Name: Power Mac G5
Machine Model: PowerMac7,3
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.1)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 2.3 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 5 GB
Bus Speed: 1.15 GHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.2.4f1

Serial-ATA Bus:

HDS724040KLSA80:

Capacity: 372.61 GB
Model: HDS724040KLSA80
Revision: KFAOA32A
Serial Number:
Removable Media: No
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk1
Protocol: ata
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Serial-ATA
Bay Name: "B (lower)"
OS9 Drivers: No
S.M.A.R.T. status: Verified
Volumes:
Media:
Capacity: 372.49 GB
Available: 4.79 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: HFS+
BSD Name: disk1s3
Mount Point: /Volumes/Media

ATTO ExpressPCI UL4S:

Name: ATTO,ExpressPCIProUL4D
Type: scsi-2
Bus: PCI
Slot: SLOT-3
Vendor ID: 0x117c
Device ID: 0x0030
Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x117c
Subsystem ID: 0x8014
ROM Revision: 1.5.2
Revision ID: 0x0008

ATTO ExpressPCI UL4S:

Name: ATTO,ExpressPCIProUL4D
Type: scsi-2
Bus: PCI
Slot: SLOT-3
Vendor ID: 0x117c
Device ID: 0x0030
Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x117c
Subsystem ID: 0x8014
ROM Revision: 1.5.2
Revision ID: 0x0008

pci10b5,a100:

Type: Video
Bus: PCI
Slot: SLOT-4
Vendor ID: 0x10b5
Device ID: 0xa100
Subsystem Vendor ID: 0x10b5
Subsystem ID: 0xa100
Revision ID: 0x0005


SCSI Parallel Domain 1:

Initiator Identifier: 7

SCSI Target Device @ 0:

Manufacturer: FX-606-U
Model: FX-8551 -VOL#00
Revision: R001
SCSI Target Identifier: 0
SCSI Device Features: Wide, Sync, DT, IU
SCSI Initiator/Target Features: Wide, Sync, DT, IU
Peripheral Device Type: 0

SCSI Logical Unit @ 0:

Capacity: 931.32 GB
Manufacturer: FX-606-U
Model: FX-8551 -VOL#00
Revision: R001
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: No
BSD Name: disk4
OS9 Drivers: No
SCSI Logical Unit Identifier: 0
S.M.A.R.T. status: Not Supported
Volumes:
SCSI RAID:
Capacity: 931.2 GB
Available: 612.62 GB
Writable: Yes
File System: HFS+
BSD Name: disk4s3
Mount Point: /Volumes/SCSI RAID

Acrobat User Data
Address Book
Adobe After Effects® 5.5
Adobe Photoshop 7
Adobe Reader 7.0.8
Apple Qadministrator
Apple Qmaster
AppleJack-1.4.2
AppleJack-1.4.3
AppleScript
Art Directors Toolkit 4
ATTO Configuration Tool
Automator
Blackmagic Deck Control
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test
Blackmagic FrameLink
Blackmagic LiveKey
Calculator
Cinema Tools
Compressor
Dashboard
DH_Dropout
Dictionary
DVD Player
DVD Studio Pro
DVDxDVPro
EarthLink TotalAccess Mac OS X
FCP Rescue 5
Final Cut Pro
Final Cut Pro Additional Easy Setups
FireWire_OSX_1.7.4.dmg
Flip4Mac
Font Book
freedomfx
GarageBand
GraphicConverter
iCal
iChat
iDVD
Image Capture
iMovie HD
Installers
Internet Connect
Internet Explorer
iPhoto
iSync
iTunes
iWork
License.rtf
LiveType
M-Audio FireWire
Mail
Maxtor OneTouch? Manager
Maxtor User's Guide
Microsoft AutoUpdate
Microsoft Office 2004
Motion
mp950osxpd419ej7.dmg
OmniGraffle
OmniOutliner
osx_app_configtool_312.dmg
osx_drv_epciu320_420.dmg
osx_fsh_epci_070905.dmg
Palm
Preview
QuickBooks NUE
QuickTime Player
Retrospect 6.1
Safari
Shake
Sherlock
Software.Licence.Agreement.rtf
Soundtrack Pro
Stickies
System Preferences
Tablet
TextEdit
Toast 6 Lite
Utilities
Zinio

...and the system crashed earlier today while opening FCP. I shut down the computer by holding down the power button and then turned off the RAID. Went to lunch, came back turned on the RAID, restarted the computer and the RAID will not show up on the desktop. I've restarted the system 4 times and the RAID will not show up on the desktop.

Peace,
Lisha

I had pretty much the same SCSI Raid setup as you (ATTO ExpressPCI / UltraSCSI RAID) and when I transfered it over to my Octocore (Tiger 10.4.11) with a new ATTO PCIe card, the machine crashed all the time. I ended up pulling the whole thing out & going with a CalDigit S2VR HD (discontinued) / FASTA-4e SATA card and all is well.

When my SCSI Raid didn't show up on the desktop, I opened the ATTO Utility and scanned the busses. When it found the RAID, it mounted it. It never worked right though...tearing quicktimes (embedding glitches), disappearing files / etc. I moved everything off ASAP and dumped it.

Good luck.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Funny, ATTO was making a fairly big play for the Mac & FCP market, showing up at macWorld, etc.

So Joey, what would you install today?

- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:
Adjust video or audio gain with Command-Option-L !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

I take it you've checked the obvious things like SCSI connections, drives correctly terminated, changed the SCSI cable(s)...etc...

And that you have the correct latest Atto UL4D drivers/firmware; and importantly the Atto firmware is the correct version for your PCI bus speed - i.e. PCI (33Mhz) or PCIx (66Mhz). There seems to be some Atto files on your system listed in your post (osx_app_configtool_312.dmg; osx_drv_epciu320_420.dmg; osx_fsh_epci_070905.dmg) - check that they are the right ones at Attotech.com. It's very easy to update the UL4D driver and then firmware but it must be done in that order with the SCSI drives unmounted.

I see one of your drives, I think your system drive, has only 4.79 GB capacity left out of a total of 372.49 GB; i.e. just about totally full - not at all good for any computer anywhere.

You also mention RAID 5 but it's unclear in your post just how the SCSI array is stripped. If it is stripped at level RAID 5 then you probably will have capture problems as the 'write' performance is compromised in favour of adding parity checks to every drive in that array as it writes data. Video needs sustained high data read/write rates... so in RAID 5 the drives are really working in overtime just to keep up - and if they can't keep up they'll crash. Every SCSI based editing system I've used stripes drives at either RAID 3 or RAID 0. RAID 3 has the highest read/write performance with fault protection - RAID 0 has no fault protection but offers the fastest possible performance from that SCSI array.

Now your drives won't mount and that could be due to the frequent crashes you've experienced. The stripping/RAID structure is probably corrupt or the array control board has a residue of corrupt data held in it's RAM. Most manufacturers of SCSI arrays supply a software utility allowing resetting of the drives - usually performed via a network or serial data cable (somtimes known as a 'null modem cable').

If it was my array I would:
1. try and get it to mount by restarting the Mac several times
2. or reset the drive using the manufacturers recommended method
3. once mounted archive anything I needed to keep
4. restipe the array as RAID 0 (this will destroy any data on the drives)
5. do a test capture/playback
6. if this works restripe the drive as RAID 3
7. test again
8. if all this failed put the array on eBay and buy a G-tech G-speed SCSI array - I have one and they are great...

Richard Thirkettle

Loren,

Read the post above yours. I changed from SCSI to SATA RAID (CalDigit).

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.

Thanks Richard and EVERYONE!

I ordered a new cable earlier today from ATTO. So that item on your list has already been taken care of. You have a point about my internal drive being too full. While I'm waiting for the new cable to arrive I'll do some clean-up. I have some firewire drives that need to be cleaned up as well so I'll spend the weekend doing some "house cleaning". LOL!

I'll check in after I've tried the new cable.

Thanks so, so, so much!
Lisha

Oh, I read it; "FASTA-4e SATA card and all is well." But is that what you'd install TODAY? I mean, it's not SCSI at all. Is there still a place for 320 SCSI? Is SATA the best solution?

- Loren
Today's FCP keytip:
Adjust video or audio gain with Command-Option-L !

Final Cut Studio 2 KeyGuide? Power Pack.
Now available at KeyGuide Central.
www.neotrondesign.com

Loren,

I DID install that "TODAY" (well...last week). SATA is the best solution for me at my current gig...and the S2VR HD handles Uncompressed HD as well if I need it (my UltraSCSI 320 never did that) and it's a heck of a lot less expensive (2.5 TB for $2300 controller card included versus 320 GB for $3500 and the ATTO SCSI controller card for $500). It's what we call in the Advertising biz a "WIN-WIN" scenario

I think SCSI as a format is on it's way OUT...especially for smaller, smarter, more cost-conscious shops. eSATA is the sh!t

Lisha,

Don't get your hopes too high on that cable. Though I hope it's just your cable being bad, I also did the new cable swap - it didn't help. I also reinstalled drivers / reformatted drives (low level - overnight) / even replaced all 5 drives with brand new Seagates. It didn't help. I think in my case the RAID controller inside the HD box itself went bad.

When life gives you dilemmas...make dilemmanade.