How to check if a RAID enclosure is working as RAID

[savedave]

Hi there

I am trying to work out how my computer is viewing my RAID enclosures (set to RAID 1). Is it seeing it as RAID or just accessing a single drive within the enclosure.

I have two RAID enclosures - one is Lacie, one is GSafe. Both are RAID 1, both have two drives in the enclosure - ie they are off the shelf hardware RAID, not arrays I have created and manage through any software - I just plug them in. I can connect each Raid enclosure of two drives to my computer via a single cable.

I recently bought a Lacie Esata Thunderbolt Hub to connect via TB&Esata. I have been trying to work out if the Hub is seeing the drives as RAID or is only accessing a single drive from each pairing.

According to Lacie this hub will not support all raid drives fully, only some. So I want to work out if my drives are supported as RAID, and similarly if they would be supported fully by a USB3 to Esata adapter I have also bought.

I have been on Lacie's online support, who I am sorry to say have been useless, so I am hoping the community here might be able to tell me if there is a way I can tell - is there software I can use to work it out?

I need to do this by tomorrow, as I have until then to return the LAcie Hub if it does not work fully with my Raid drives, so any help would mean a lot to me.

Thanks kindly,

SD

 

[marzer]

Hi there

I am trying to work out how my computer is viewing my RAID enclosures (set to RAID 1). Is it seeing it as RAID or just accessing a single drive within the enclosure.

I have two RAID enclosures - one is Lacie, one is GSafe. Both are RAID 1, both have two drives in the enclosure - ie they are off the shelf hardware RAID, not arrays I have created and manage through any software - I just plug them in. I can connect each Raid enclosure of two drives to my computer via a single cable.

I recently bought a Lacie Esata Thunderbolt Hub to connect via TB&Esata. I have been trying to work out if the Hub is seeing the drives as RAID or is only accessing a single drive from each pairing.

According to Lacie this hub will not support all raid drives fully, only some. So I want to work out if my drives are supported as RAID, and similarly if they would be supported fully by a USB3 to Esata adapter I have also bought.

I have been on Lacie's online support, who I am sorry to say have been useless, so I am hoping the community here might be able to tell me if there is a way I can tell - is there software I can use to work it out?

I need to do this by tomorrow, as I have until then to return the LAcie Hub if it does not work fully with my Raid drives, so any help would mean a lot to me.

Thanks kindly,

SD

Hardware RAID enclosures such as the ones you have present themselves as a single drive unit to a host system. Your computer is unaware of the RAID config inside the enclosure and accesses it as it would any standard non-RAID storage device. Using it on a hub should be no problem as long as there aren't any power issues (i.e. portable enclosures that require extra power through the port).

What LaCie is probably referring to support wise is not supporting software based RAIDs. As LaCie provides a multitude of enclosures that rely soley on RAID software provided through a host OS.

 

[savedave]

Thanks kindly.

There has been lots of confusion for me on this,

SD

 

[LaCieTech]

Hi there

I am trying to work out how my computer is viewing my RAID enclosures (set to RAID 1). Is it seeing it as RAID or just accessing a single drive within the enclosure.

I have two RAID enclosures - one is Lacie, one is GSafe. Both are RAID 1, both have two drives in the enclosure - ie they are off the shelf hardware RAID, not arrays I have created and manage through any software - I just plug them in. I can connect each Raid enclosure of two drives to my computer via a single cable.

I recently bought a Lacie Esata Thunderbolt Hub to connect via TB&Esata. I have been trying to work out if the Hub is seeing the drives as RAID or is only accessing a single drive from each pairing.

According to Lacie this hub will not support all raid drives fully, only some. So I want to work out if my drives are supported as RAID, and similarly if they would be supported fully by a USB3 to Esata adapter I have also bought.

I have been on Lacie's online support, who I am sorry to say have been useless, so I am hoping the community here might be able to tell me if there is a way I can tell - is there software I can use to work it out?

I need to do this by tomorrow, as I have until then to return the LAcie Hub if it does not work fully with my Raid drives, so any help would mean a lot to me.

Thanks kindly,

SD

hi,

Everything Marzer said is accurate. Hardware RAID enclosures are independent of computer control and report themselves as a single, non-RAID, device to the computer. Your thunderbolt hub does not have port multiplication so it will not be able to detect multi-disk units that require software RAID. Those types of devices rely on the port multiplication to put more than one disk through a single port.

Hardware RAID devices should connect fine, even with multiple disks, because the enclosure reports only a single disk.

Do you have a ticket number with us? I can review it and see if we were unclear or made any misleading or confusing comments.

~mn, LaCie

 

[jimthing]

hi,

Everything Marzer said is accurate. Hardware RAID enclosures are independent of computer control and report themselves as a single, non-RAID, device to the computer. Your thunderbolt hub does not have port multiplication so it will not be able to detect multi-disk units that require software RAID. Those types of devices rely on the port multiplication to put more than one disk through a single port.

Hardware RAID devices should connect fine, even with multiple disks, because the enclosure reports only a single disk.

Do you have a ticket number with us? I can review it and see if we were unclear or made any misleading or confusing comments.

~mn, LaCie

A similar LaCie setup question...
Do if I have this right. You cannot do a set-up like, say a 2012 Mac Mini thunderbolt port into a LaCie 5big Thunderbolt (which uses mac's software raid), and then daisy-chain a second 5big Thunderbolt (which would also need mac's software raid) into the first 5big?

As the second 5big wouldn't be seeable by the mac, due to being daisy-chained through the first 5big (as both units rely on mac's software raid, so need to be directly connected to the mac)?

 

[Giuly]

A similar LaCie setup question...
Do if I have this right. You cannot do a set-up like, say a 2012 Mac Mini thunderbolt port into a LaCie 5big Thunderbolt (which uses mac's software raid), and then daisy-chain a second 5big Thunderbolt (which would also need mac's software raid) into the first 5big?

As the second 5big wouldn't be seeable by the mac, due to being daisy-chained through the first 5big (as both units rely on mac's software raid, so need to be directly connected to the mac)?

You can daisy-chain Thunderbolt, the Mac will see up to six devices.

The problem is that the LaCie eSATA hub (Thunderbolt -> eSATA) doesn't support port multiplexing on the eSATA ports, so you can only add one device per eSATA port but you can daisy-chain six of those eSATA hubs together via the Thunderbolt ports.

 

[LaCieTech]

You can daisy-chain Thunderbolt, the Mac will see up to six devices.

The problem is that the LaCie eSATA hub (Thunderbolt -> eSATA) doesn't support port multiplexing on the eSATA ports, so you can only add one device per eSATA port but you can daisy-chain six of those eSATA hubs together via the Thunderbolt ports.
Image

Hi,

Yes, what Giuly said.

Thunderbolt can daisy chain on Thunderbolt can port multiply, its only the eSata hub that cannot muliply Sata to TB.

Our support can be reached at 503-844-4500 (USA) or http://www.lacie.com/mystuff to get more info about setting up multiple devices.

~mn

 

[brand]

hi,

Everything Marzer said is accurate. Hardware RAID enclosures are independent of computer control and report themselves as a single, non-RAID, device to the computer. Your thunderbolt hub does not have port multiplication so it will not be able to detect multi-disk units that require software RAID. Those types of devices rely on the port multiplication to put more than one disk through a single port.

Hardware RAID devices should connect fine, even with multiple disks, because the enclosure reports only a single disk.

Do you have a ticket number with us? I can review it and see if we were unclear or made any misleading or confusing comments.

~mn, LaCie

Hi,

Yes, what Giuly said.

Thunderbolt can daisy chain on Thunderbolt can port multiply, its only the eSata hub that cannot muliply Sata to TB.

Our support can be reached at 503-844-4500 (USA) or http://www.lacie.com/mystuff to get more info about setting up multiple devices.

~mn

I must say I am impressed with the active role LaCie is taking providing support in a forum that is not their own.