Is my Mac Pro seeing my Highpoint 4322?

[goldenhourfilms]

Hi,

I could really use a little help here,

I just installed a Highpoint 4322 Raid card into my Mac Pro 2008.
I then installed the drivers, restarted and then installed the GUI and restarted.

When I go into my "About This Mac" tab and under Hardware Raid Controllers it shows that I do not have one installed. Why is that?

However I did go into the GUI interface and started building my raid 5 which is still building. So the card is working... but why is it now showing up?

Also am I suppose too be able to see the external drives that are plugged into the card in Disk Utility?

I wonder if I went wrong some where...

thank you!

 

[goldenhourfilms]

an update to my thread, I looked around in the About this Mac section and I did see the card come up under the Parallel SCSI. Which is what it is. So i guess thats good, but should I be able to see the drivers under disk utility?

thanks every one

 

[gugucom]

You may have to install a driver package which should come from the Highpoint web site or a CD that came in the package. Also make sure you have the right firmware installed on the card.

 

[nanofrog]

Hi,

I could really use a little help here,

I just installed a Highpoint 4322 Raid card into my Mac Pro 2008.
I then installed the drivers, restarted and then installed the GUI and restarted.

When I go into my "About This Mac" tab and under Hardware Raid Controllers it shows that I do not have one installed. Why is that?

However I did go into the GUI interface and started building my raid 5 which is still building. So the card is working... but why is it now showing up?

Also am I suppose too be able to see the external drives that are plugged into the card in Disk Utility?

I wonder if I went wrong some where...

thank you!

I'm assuming you want to use it exclusively for OS X, so you'd need to flash the firmware with the EFI version (OTB = BIOS). Then the card will actually load it's firmware, and you can access its settings from the Web Utility (uses your browser).

 

[alphaod]

Yes it should show up as Parallel SCSI and no you can't see the drives themselves in Disk Utility, only the array you created.

 

[w6fxj]

Is my Mac Pro seeing my Highpoint 4322

The thread title describes my problem exactly! Until about two weeks ago I used my 4322 controller as an external 3.6 TB RAID with eight Seagate Cheetah 450 GB 15k SAS hard drives on my Mac Pro early 2009, 8 core 293 GHz processors and 16 GB memory. I also have the Mac Pro internal RAID card running four 1.5 TB SATA drives. I am using OS 10.5.7 as Snow Leopard still has compatibility problems with my system. Things ran great. 800 MB read write speed. Perfect for editing HDTV with Final Cut Studio 3.

Suddenly my 4322 stopped accessing the disk array and the array went away from the OS. Unlike the OP I can NOT see my 4322 using the GUI interface either locally or remotely. Then the 4322 controller does NOT initialize the external drives on the Mac Pro. But, when I move the 4322 and it's external RAID box to a Dell Precision Workstation 670, the controller is seen by the PC BIOS, the drives are initiated by the 4322 and the controller shows up in the WinXP with the array recognized, but not accessable due to the 2 TB WinXP drive limit. I have attached screen captures from the 4322 running on the PC.

Highpoint recommended replacing the 4322 under warranty for this problem and another problem that limits the supported drives to SAS. I want to run eight larger SATA drives like the Seagate 1.5 TB 7200.11 drive that is available for about $100 now. The replacement acts the same as the original. It was a later version with the current FW already in place.

Anyone have suggestion as to what this might be?

 

[nanofrog]

The thread title describes my problem exactly! Until about two weeks ago I used my 4322 controller as an external 3.6 TB RAID with eight Seagate Cheetah 450 GB 15k SAS hard drives on my Mac Pro early 2009, 8 core 293 GHz processors and 16 GB memory. I also have the Mac Pro internal RAID card running four 1.5 TB SATA drives. I am using OS 10.5.7 as Snow Leopard still has compatibility problems with my system. Things ran great. 800 MB read write speed. Perfect for editing HDTV with Final Cut Studio 3.

Suddenly my 4322 stopped accessing the disk array and the array went away from the OS. Unlike the OP I can NOT see my 4322 using the GUI interface either locally or remotely. Then the 4322 controller does NOT initialize the external drives on the Mac Pro. But, when I move the 4322 and it's external RAID box to a Dell Precision Workstation 670, the controller is seen by the PC BIOS, the drives are initiated by the 4322 and the controller shows up in the WinXP with the array recognized, but not accessable due to the 2 TB WinXP drive limit. I have attached screen captures from the 4322 running on the PC.

Highpoint recommended replacing the 4322 under warranty for this problem and another problem that limits the supported drives to SAS. I want to run eight larger SATA drives like the Seagate 1.5 TB 7200.11 drive that is available for about $100 now. The replacement acts the same as the original. It was a later version with the current FW already in place.

Anyone have suggestion as to what this might be?

Are you sure the card is actually running the EFI based firmware?

I ask, as your description sounds like it's running BIOS in an EFI environment. In this state, it would be able to boot Windows or Linux, but NOT OS X (this is case in both MP's and Itanium based systems which run EFI too).

If there was a firmware update, the EFI could have been overwritten with BIOS, and may have occured without your knowledge.

 

[w6fxj]

Are you sure the card is actually running the EFI based firmware?

I ask, as your description sounds like it's running BIOS in an EFI environment. In this state, it would be able to boot Windows or Linux, but NOT OS X (this is case in both MP's and Itanium based systems which run EFI too).

If there was a firmware update, the EFI could have been overwritten with BIOS, and may have occured without your knowledge.

Thanks for the quick replay Nano! I am a new 4322 user so I would appreciate more information about EFI.

Up until two weeks ago the 4322 ran just fine on OS 10.5.7. The 4322 controller had FW version 1.2.19.8 installed. That is the Highpoint recommended FW to be used in the 4322 when running Apple OS10.5.7. I do not run the 4322 on any other OS. For trouble shooting purposes I move the controller to a PC and it worked fine. Highpoint says the 4322 will run on WinXP with no change in firmware.

I see a special "EFI" firmware download on the Highpoint Mac web site (http://www.hptmac.com/US/productfiles/bios_driver/RR4322-EFI-081113.zip) to allow the controller to support booting on an array on the 4322. However, my OS is installed and booted from the on-board Mac Pro RAID card.

Are you saying that the special Highpoint 4322 booting EFI firmware is NOW needed to use a 4322 controller on the Mac Pro for ANY purpose? It did work just fine for two months without the EFI booting firmware. What firmware does your 4322 use?

Bill, W6FXJ

 

[nanofrog]

Thanks for the quick replay Nano! I am a new 4322 user so I would appreciate more information about EFI.

PC's typically use BIOS (Itanium based servers do use EFI), and the MP's use EFI (Extensible Firmware Interface), which is different. Apple's implementation isn't even 100% EFI v. 1.10 spec compliant (it's a bastardized version, and it's more than just the code tying the system and OS X).

Up until two weeks ago the 4322 ran just fine on OS 10.5.7. The 4322 controller had FW version 1.2.19.8 installed. That is the Highpoint recommended FW to be used in the 4322 when running Apple OS10.5.7. I do not run the 4322 on any other OS. For trouble shooting purposes I move the controller to a PC and it worked fine. Highpoint says the 4322 will run on WinXP with no change in firmware.

As you're intending to ONLY run OS X off the Highpoint, EFI will allow you to boot it (I realize you're using the Apple RAID card to boot the OS).

It should be able to run OS X without the firmware change, which is what you saw before, once the drivers are loaded.

But you may have lost the drivers, or there may have been a firmware update that you didn't notice (card or logic board) that broke it. I'm not sure, as I've no idea what updates you may have had applied to your system.

RAID cards in MP's are more difficult than their PC counterparts, particularly when you want to boot from it (means flashing it before you can actually use it).

I see a special "EFI" firmware download on the Highpoint Mac web site (http://www.hptmac.com/US/productfiles/bios_driver/RR4322-EFI-081113.zip) to allow the controller to support booting on an array on the 4322. However, my OS is installed and booted from the on-board Mac Pro RAID card.

Are you saying that the special Highpoint 4322 booting EFI firmware is NOW needed to use a 4322 controller on the Mac Pro for ANY purpose? It did work just fine for two months without the EFI booting firmware. What firmware does your 4322 use?

Bill, W6FXJ

Not necessarily, as at the time, I didn't have any details really to go from.

The first thing to do, is reinstall the drivers, and reboot. Then see if you have access to the array. (Make sure you do get the drivers reinstalled, even if it means pulling the card, shut down, reboot, install the drivers, shutdown, put the card back, and finally reboot to check).

If not, a firmware change causing failure is very likely, and the EFI flash would fix it. Since you're using it in OS X exclusively, it may not be a bad idea, but try the drivers first, as I'm not sure of any interaction with the Apple RAID card (both issuing a boot ROM). It should work, but might slow your boot time down by the additional card's loading time under OS X).

BTW, I don't actually use Highpoint, but Areca (ARC-1231ML & ARC-1680ix12; they're the ODM for that card though), and make some of the best cards out there.

Hope this helps.

 

[w6fxj]

Problem Found and Fixed

I found that a defective BlackMagic Intensity Pro HD capture card located in the next PCIe slot was blocking recognition of my 4322 card by my Mac Pro early 2009 computer. Removal of the BlackMagic card restored operation of the 4322. The Intensity Pro problem was associated by an automatic FW update when I was upgrading the OS from Leopard to Snow Leopard.

 

[nanofrog]

I found that a defective BlackMagic Intensity Pro HD capture card located in the next PCIe slot was blocking recognition of my 4322 card by my Mac Pro early 2009 computer. Removal of the BlackMagic card restored operation of the 4322. The Intensity Pro problem was associated by an automatic FW update when I was upgrading the OS from Leopard to Snow Leopard.

Firmware changes can nail you. Especially if you didn't know about it.

Glad you found the issue. Can you get the BlackMagic sorted?
(I'm not sure if "defective" means an RMA, or if it's just a conflict that can be resolved).

 

[AZREOSpecialist]

I'm not sure if this is related, but my Highpoint 4320 RAID card will not wake from sleep under Mac OS X 10.6.2. I contacted Highpoint support who said it should work just fine - and it did under Leopard, just not Snow Leopard. After repeated escalations, Highpoint finally set up a test system and had the opposite problem - the RAID array and card would NOT sleep under Snow Leopard.

They have stated they are working on the problem which will require a change to the firmware they previously said "works just fine". Hopefully we will see a new firmware soon.

 

[nanofrog]

I'm not sure if this is related, but my Highpoint 4320 RAID card will not wake from sleep under Mac OS X 10.6.2. I contacted Highpoint support who said it should work just fine - and it did under Leopard, just not Snow Leopard. After repeated escalations, Highpoint finally set up a test system and had the opposite problem - the RAID array and card would NOT sleep under Snow Leopard.

They have stated they are working on the problem which will require a change to the firmware they previously said "works just fine". Hopefully we will see a new firmware soon.

Usually RAID card's CANNOT sleep. The fact it did is really odd, and rare. Usually the firmware gets dumped, the system shuts down, and you have to reboot.

That's why some cards have a MAID feature. It's not a full sleep, but it will allow the card to spin down the drives after a set period of inactivity.

 

[w6fxj]

Firmware changes can nail you. Especially if you didn't know about it.

Glad you found the issue. Can you get the BlackMagic sorted?
(I'm not sure if "defective" means an RMA, or if it's just a conflict that can be resolved).

My recollection is that there was an automatic FW update for the Intensity Pro card about the same time the 4322 stopped working. It could be that the BlackMagic FW update was screwed up when I tried to upgrade to Snow Leopard.

The Intensity Pro is out of warranty by about six months. I replaced it with a BlackMagic Decklink HD Extreme card in my main PC machine. I did post the problem on the BlackMagic tech support site. Hopefully they will have a way to fix this.

 

[nanofrog]

My recollection is that there was an automatic FW update for the Intensity Pro card about the same time the 4322 stopped working. It could be that the BlackMagic FW update was screwed up when I tried to upgrade to Snow Leopard.

The Intensity Pro is out of warranty by about six months. I replaced it with a BlackMagic Decklink HD Extreme card in my main PC machine. I did post the problem on the BlackMagic tech support site. Hopefully they will have a way to fix this.

I wish you luck with BlackMagic, and if you're willing, post updates.