New Pegasus R4

[Macman45]

So, my R4 arrived, and is working in factory default settings (RAID5) I want to disconnect one of the drives to use for real-time work, but the Wizard simply will not allow me to do anything other run utilities I have upgraded the firmware and have the later T/Bolt drivers installed on my iMac....No RAID card in the iMac, so DU is of little use in this situation.

Th unit is fast...Very fast ans I'm pleased with it, it's just annoying I don't have the flexibility....With TC backups too, I really can spare one drive in the R4 for other purposes.

ANybody found a way around this?

 

[Macman45]

Attached photo...Forgot to post!

 

[Macman45]

Been at this most of the day...According to the manual, I should have access to the configuration wizard. I don't...RAID5 is set, and the only way I can think of doing anything to change this is to force eject drive 4 (There must be a better way) And then format it.

Pegasus are less than helpful, simply suggesting I uninstall the utility, and re-install it....I already had, but did it again and threw in a permissions repair too...The unit is showing normal functionality, but despite a re-install of the Pegasus utility software...All wizard and config. options remain greyed out.

I don't think it's a faulty unit, it works as it should...In RAID5...Is that it? If I'm stuck with it as is I guess I can live with it, but it seems to me that a better way must exist?

 

[flynz4]

Been at this most of the day...According to the manual, I should have access to the configuration wizard. I don't...RAID5 is set, and the only way I can think of doing anything to change this is to force eject drive 4 (There must be a better way) And then format it.

Pegasus are less than helpful, simply suggesting I uninstall the utility, and re-install it....I already had, but did it again and threw in a permissions repair too...The unit is showing normal functionality, but despite a re-install of the Pegasus utility software...All wizard and config. options remain greyed out.

I don't think it's a faulty unit, it works as it should...In RAID5...Is that it? If I'm stuck with it as is I guess I can live with it, but it seems to me that a better way must exist?

I am not at my R4, so I cannot help you immediately. I can confirm that when I wanted to change configurations (ex: RAID5 to RAID 0), that many options were grayed out. I was doing this before I had data on the R4, so I simply started from scratch and blew away my test data.

During one transition, the R4 started a migration in place (i.e. saving data)... but I cancelled and distorted the data just to save the day or so it would take to migrate everything. It seemed like a very slow process.

I am not too sure what your plan is for the R4. Is it a backup target for TM? You said you wanted to use one drive for real time data.

Once I get my new Thunderbolt iMac, then I am personally planning to use my R4 as a primary drive for my data... especially my large Aperture library. Testing Aperture with my A3 library on it was superb... and this was on my MBA! I do not want to really use the R4 for a Time Machine backup per se. Instead, I think I will attach a cheap Thunderbolt single drive for TM. I do not think TM needs the high bandwidth of a DAS thunderbolt RAID array. I double back up all of my computers... once locally via TM, and once to the cloud using Crashplan+... so I do not need RAID protection for my TM backups.

/Jim

 

[Macman45]

I am not at my R4, so I cannot help you immediately. I can confirm that when I wanted to change configurations (ex: RAID5 to RAID 0), that many options were grayed out. I was doing this before I had data on the R4, so I simply started from scratch and blew away my test data.

During one transition, the R4 started a migration in place (i.e. saving data)... but I cancelled and distorted the data just to save the day or so it would take to migrate everything. It seemed like a very slow process.

I am not too sure what your plan is for the R4. Is it a backup target for TM? You said you wanted to use one drive for real time data.

Once I get my new Thunderbolt iMac, then I am personally planning to use my R4 as a primary drive for my data... especially my large Aperture library. Testing Aperture with my A3 library on it was superb... and this was on my MBA! I do not want to really use the R4 for a Time Machine backup per se. Instead, I think I will attach a cheap Thunderbolt single drive for TM. I do not think TM needs the high bandwidth of a DAS thunderbolt RAID array. I double back up all of my computers... once locally via TM, and once to the cloud using Crashplan+... so I do not need RAID protection for my TM backups.

/Jim

That's what I'm doing at the moment...Deleted the Array, the Wizard options reappeared, but although I singled out a drive for isolated use, I think it's it's just re-building the RAID5 array...Could be wrong.

I was after backup, and one drive for the T'Bolt speed...This process as you say will take until about 10PM to complete, so I will see whether or not I have a 3 drive array, and one spare...That's what I'm aiming for!

Jeff

 

[flynz4]

That's what I'm doing at the moment...Deleted the Array, the Wizard options reappeared, but although I singled out a drive for isolated use, I think it's it's just re-building the RAID5 array...Could be wrong.

I was after backup, and one drive for the T'Bolt speed...This process as you say will take until about 10PM to complete, so I will see whether or not I have a 3 drive array, and one spare...That's what I'm aiming for!

Jeff

Jeff,

What are you using the 3 drive array for? Is it just for backup... as in a Time Machine destination? If so, then I think you are wasting a lot of speed, since that is not a very intense operation.

It seems that you want the single drive to use a a "working drive" to keep your current projects. Depending on what you are doing, you may want that on the array, since you will get much better real time performance. For me... putting my Aperture 3 library on a Raid 5 array (4 drives) made A3 feel much quicker.

I decided that I am going to give RAID 10 a try. I was originally thinking I would stay with RAID 5, but I do not need all of the space, and RAID 10 is even faster. Even though my data is double backed up (TM locally, and Crashplan+ cloud)... I still prefer to use RAID redundancy... so I will not use RAID 0 even though it is the absolute fastest.

For backup, I have been using Time Capsules on my home network. I might switch to a Thunderbolt direct attached 3TB or 4TB drive for the iMac. I have a 3TB Seagate GoFlex now and I have a TB interface for it. I have not seen the 4TB models yet, but they are probably imminent. They are inexpensive and plenty fast for backup. This whole project is waiting for the release of the '12 iMac. My current iMac (Nov '09) is not TB equipped. Playing with my small stash of TB peripherals with my '11 MBA makes me conclude that TB is an absolute bargain (contrary to popular belief on this forum). This type of performance was previously only available in enterprise class systems at much higher prices. On the consumer side... TB is MUCH faster than USB 3.0 or FW.

I predict that you will enjoy your Pegasus. Good luck with it!

/Jim

 

[Macman45]

Jeff,

What are you using the 3 drive array for? Is it just for backup... as in a Time Machine destination? If so, then I think you are wasting a lot of speed, since that is not a very intense operation.

It seems that you want the single drive to use a a "working drive" to keep your current projects. Depending on what you are doing, you may want that on the array, since you will get much better real time performance. For me... putting my Aperture 3 library on a Raid 5 array (4 drives) made A3 feel much quicker.

I decided that I am going to give RAID 10 a try. I was originally thinking I would stay with RAID 5, but I do not need all of the space, and RAID 10 is even faster. Even though my data is double backed up (TM locally, and Crashplan+ cloud)... I still prefer to use RAID redundancy... so I will not use RAID 0 even though it is the absolute fastest.

For backup, I have been using Time Capsules on my home network. I might switch to a Thunderbolt direct attached 3TB or 4TB drive for the iMac. I have a 3TB Seagate GoFlex now and I have a TB interface for it. I have not seen the 4TB models yet, but they are probably imminent. They are inexpensive and plenty fast for backup. This whole project is waiting for the release of the '12 iMac. My current iMac (Nov '09) is not TB equipped. Playing with my small stash of TB peripherals with my '11 MBA makes me conclude that TB is an absolute bargain (contrary to popular belief on this forum). This type of performance was previously only available in enterprise class systems at much higher prices. On the consumer side... TB is MUCH faster than USB 3.0 or FW.

I predict that you will enjoy your Pegasus. Good luck with it!

/Jim

That was my plan, but the utility simply re-created the RAID5 array...Wasted 8 hours doing the same thing. I don't think there is any way to Separate the drives using the supplied software...It seems to be RAID5 or nothing..

 

[flynz4]

That was my plan, but the utility simply re-created the RAID5 array...Wasted 8 hours doing the same thing. I don't think there is any way to Separate the drives using the supplied software...It seems to be RAID5 or nothing..

I do not think this is correct. I am not able to test my Pegasus right now, but I am pretty sure that you can set it to any RAID level that you want. I will not be able to test for another week. I know I set mine to RAID 0, and I am pretty sure that I can set it to RAID 10.

/Jim

 

[Macman45]

I do not think this is correct. I am not able to test my Pegasus right now, but I am pretty sure that you can set it to any RAID level that you want. I will not be able to test for another week. I know I set mine to RAID 0, and I am pretty sure that I can set it to RAID 10.

/Jim

Thanks, I have now separated one drive but it's unusable...It's going back...Probably with a Pro you ditch the idiot software...But mine is on an iMac..DU is pretty useless..The "Spare" drive is inaccessible..And on the whole I think I'm sending it back!

 

[flynz4]

Thanks, I have now separated one drive but it's unusable...It's going back...Probably with a Pro you ditch the idiot software...But mine is on an iMac..DU is pretty useless..The "Spare" drive is inaccessible..And on the whole I think I'm sending it back!

The only software I used was the "Promise Utility". I think you need to take things in progression. First you have the physical drives. Then you will need to set up the logical drives. That is where you would have a 3 drive array, and a 1 drive single disk. From their you add the RAID on top configuring it in RAID 0, 1, 5, or 10. I actually think higher RAID levels are possible but they take more drives.

Another think you can do, is set up the Pegasus so that 3 of your drives are in a RAID 5 (or whatever) configuration... and have the 4th drive be an automatic "hot spare". That way, if any of your 3 drives failed, the spare would automatically take over.

/Jim