Resolved iMac Pro and Areca ARC-8050T3-8 Bay TB3 RAID - doesn't work

[filmmaker01]

Dear all,

on a production iMac Pro 10 Core, 64 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD, Pro Vega 64 in a small Sportsfilm/Photo Studio.

The iMac Pro is connected since 2017 with no problems whatsoever with 2 Pegasus R4 TB2 RAIDs, and 1 Pegasus R6 TB1 RAID (Daisy chained via TB3/TB2 Adapter).

To streamline Data and get some room we built up a Areca ARC-8050T3-8 Bay TB3 RAID with 8 x 8 TB (64 TB) WDC WD80EFAX as RAID 5 (Net 56 GB). The Areca comes with a Areca TB 3 Cable.

Regarding the iMac Pro, we've had some of the known Bridge KP Issues here and there (rarely while exporting 4K from FCP) but all in all it's a stable workhorse. And never any KP's with the Pegasus'.

However: Getting the Acera TB3 RAID to run with the iMac Pro is since 2 Days/Nights a Nightmare. We are currently out of ideas/clues and did the Setup like instructed by the Areca Manual.

Issues:
- After the usual Bad Block Initializing (takes about 8 hrs)
- and formatting the Volume the Areca was there for the first time

But when we started testing, copying a 100 GB Folder with files, Finder Stopped with Error -36 and -50 after about 30 Secs. Restart etc etc. We tried again.

After about 10 minutes or whatever for 800 GB transfer finder stopped after about 600 GB with Error -36. After this if you would access the Areca it was Error -50. (the Areca has a HTTP Interface, so it can be accessed via WebInterface from there as well, even if Finder has hung up or shows the -50 Error).

Then we detached all other drives, and only left the Areca on TB3, restarted etc. Then we had a KP.

Just to make sure we did everything right, we wiped the Areca, initialized over night etc etc.

Then test again. Same errors, after about 500 GB transfer, time finder stopped with Error -36, Error -50. Then the Areca was not visible anymore in Finder (but in Terminal via Diskutil etc).

We tried TB2 Cable from the Pegasus with the TB3/TB2 adapters, just to make sure, the same.

Totally clueless. The Areca has latest firmware, drivers installed.

We have got all sorts of errors in between, see screenshots.
The two Diskutil Terminal Shots are taken before Copy starts, and after Finder error 36 and 50. First the Areca is there, then after Error 50 etc it doesn't let unmount.

Any Ideas? Did we forget something.

Maybe time to ship it back and exchange for a Pegasus R3 8 Bay. Never any problems with Pegasus RAIDs. What a pity!

Cheers

PS: Cross Checked with other Office machines: MacBook Pro 2014, iMac 2013 and MacBook Air 2011, same Problems with the Areca

 

[greenmeanie]

No one here can afford one but you lol.
Good luck

 

[jerwin]

Look in the system logs for any additional messages regarding these errors. -36 and -50 appear to be rather generic error messages. Perhaps the german localization was incomplete?

paramErr = -50, /*error in user parameter list*/
ioErr = -36, /*I/O error (bummers)*/
source.


There is a mention of error -36 on the sandisk tech suport site:

https://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9699/~/mac-error-code-36-when-transferring-files

but, I rather doubt that this is the cause of your troubles.

Will areca not help you?

 

[filmmaker01]

Look in the system logs for any additional messages regarding these errors. -36 and -50 appear to be rather generic error messages. Perhaps the german localization was incomplete?

paramErr = -50, /*error in user parameter list*/
ioErr = -36, /*I/O error (bummers)*/
source.


There is a mention of error -36 on the sandisk tech suport site:

https://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/9699/~/mac-error-code-36-when-transferring-files

but, I rather doubt that this is the cause of your troubles.

Will acera not help you?

Thank you, yes, the .dot error, read about that but in this case it's not the source.
Areca did not get back to me so far, I'll have to wait until end of holidays.