Third Party RAID Card Solution...

[golding2]

So I finally heard back from "Accusys" about how to install their PCI-e RAID card into my Mac Pro. Not exactly plug and play. The RAID controller I'm talking about is the Accusys 61000-4 RAID card. It was only about $300 at Newegg and according to their MacWorld display, is pretty phenomenal. In case any of you are pulling your hair out to get this to work, here is the solution:

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Since Apple has not yet been able to place our device driver into their Mac
OS, there are a few tricks you will need to know before installing the Mac
OS onto our RAID.
Please follow these steps to enable our bootable feature.

Things you will need:
1. Intel Mac Pro
2. A host OS disk drive that came with the Intel Mac Pro.
3. Accusys 61000 4 bay controller.
4. One to 4 Mini SAS cable which came with the Accusys 61000 packaging.
5. At least one and up to 4 disk drives depends on the RAID level you would
use.
6. A power supply or any PC that can power up the hard drives. During the
installation, you will need to power up the hard drive/s from that power
supply or PC.

Installation procedure:
1. Plug 61000 controller into the Mac Pro. Use our mini SAS cable to connect
the disk drives you would like your OS to be installed to the controller. Do
not reroute the iPath yet.
2. Use local host drive and boot up the system. The system should detect
61000.controoler.
3. Install the Mac OS driver and the GUI. Then update the SystemCode,
Bootcode, EFI/, Mac OS Drivers to the latest version. Please make sure that
you install the EFI and the latest Mac OS driver!! Restart the Mac Pro.
<http://www.accusys.com.tw/eng/support_download.asp#expe>
4. Open up our RAIDGuard X Gui and you should be able to see the drives that
are attached to the controller. Use the create RAID function to create the
array volume.
5. Once the array volume got reported from OS, you can then use the Disk
Utility function to restore/clone the Mac OS from the local drive onto this
RAID array. Wait until it finishes, then shut down the Mac pro.
6. Remove the Local Host drive and replaced it with the Array drives that
were attached to 61000 controller through mini SAS cable. Re-route the iPath
and connect it to our controller (you might need to re-arrange disk slot 1
and 2 to make the cable long enough to reach our card). Then power up Mac
Pro and the system should start to load Mac OS from Array.

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Good luck!

 

[JesterJJZ]

Seems like a pretty lengthy process. How well does the card work compared to the Apple one?

 

[golding2]

Can't tell you about the Apple one since I've never used it. I do know this though, they were playing multiple streams of some hefty videos at MacWorld and it worked great. I know for me, saving $400 bucks is worth a workaround and a possible slight lag in performance. I am a little nervous about the lack of a battery backup. You can purchase those separately they say, but I don't know how much they cost.

 

[cosmos]

Potential Issues...

Personally, I would be concerned that future OS revisions could FUBAR the aftermarket RAID Card.

You might not save anything in the end.

 

[golding2]

Ain't a chance that Apple would disable RAID cards. Why would MacPro's even have PCI-e if Apple was going to disable its use? I feel pretty confident that Apple won't "fubar" third-party RAID solutions. This isn't a hacked iPhone.

 

[Play4keeps]

try the 2304 high point card in the new macpro
Apple killed it