HighPoint RocketRaid 3522 Problems

[Mark Keck]

Jarvis,

I’m not sure I can help you… I’m just a want-a-be 3522 owner. However, what you’re painting is not a pretty picture. Anyway, I’m going to do a little digging, I’ll let you know if I come up with anything.

Mark

[Jarvis Smerd]

HighPoint tech support did get back with me (so my comment about “leaving a lot to be desired” was a little harsh in retrospect!) I asked when a Mac compatible update with the newer firmware would be available. Here was their reply:

The PC update can also be used with your card.

Download the update (,zip format), and extract it to a new folder (desktop may be the easiest to locate).

Open the Web interface, and select Manage – Devices.

Towards the bottom of this screen, you will see a Firmware Update option.
Use browse to locate the new folder.
Update using all three .blf files, in this order:

loader
BIOS
firmware

Then, reboot the system.

I also asked the ReadMe indicating that the PC BIOS did not have the EFI BIOS and they said:

the EFI version is only necessary if you intend to boot from the card.

So I intend to give it a whirl in the next day or two…

[Mark Keck]

Thanks for the info. Please let us know how it works for you.

Mark

[Jarvis Smerd]

Just wanted to follow-up and say that the upgrade to the new firmware rev (as described above) went smoothly.

So far the system seems more stable — I was previously getting sporadic hard lock-ups during heavy read activity from the RAID-6 volume on the 3522. Since the firmware upgrade, that hasn’t happened, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the issue is resolved…

[Randall Brown]

Hi Jarvis and others with a working 3522,

Can you try one thing for me. Can you copy a folder of media >20GB off the drive and on to another drive on your system, or a network drive. And let me know if it works?

THe new firmware has helped, but still having this specfic issue. Also, Jarvis are you using the Samsungs or the Seagates? If so, the ES or the regular drives?

[Ben King]

Hey guys

I was following this thread and saw all the issues just as I bought mine! 🙁

I have exactly the same issues with lock-up on large/long reads (no issues on write)

I have the1.2.16.21 firmware

I have tested with 1TB Samsung Spinpoints F1s AND the New 1.5TB Seagate Barracudas and both have exactly the same issues!

Grrrrr

I was wondering if all the electronics (PCB trace, etc) either side of the cable connectors might cause some degradation in the signal between devices if they measure the controller chip to HDD as the total length between devices…

I have two 3m Multilane SFF8088 TO Multilane SFF8088 connections

SAS can have a maximum cable length of 8m (25 feet) so I would think it should be fine, however I read an article on the MegaRAID SAS 8344ELP Controller stating that:

“there are 9 inches of PCB trace (electrical lines on the controller) between the I/O engine and the external connector. This is equuivalent to nine feet, or 2.7 meters of external cabling…”

https://www.lsi.com/DistributionSystem/AssetDocument/files/docs/techdocs/storage_stand_prod/sas/mr_sas_8344elp_addendum.pdf

If this is true then maybe…

I/O Chip 3522>3522 PCB Trace>External connector>Cable>External Connector>RAID PCB Trace>HDDs…

…might be more than, or close to 8m (25 feet)!!!

Can I ask if any/all of you have long SAS/SATA cable lengths?

I would really like to get this working! Otherwise I will have to get an ARC-1211x!

Such a shame Adaptec don’t make their offerings available for Mac (only need drivers!)

Ben

“You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus!”
~ Mark Twain

[Mark Keck]

Jarvis,

If you’re still monitoring this thread… can you provide an update to how your system is working??? Any issues??? Do you have the large file reading issue that Randell is seeing???

Thanks,

Mark

[Ben King]

Well…

I’ve been in touch with Highpoint’s Tech support and they say its probably a defective card… I get anyone else here having the same issue would be advised to get theirs replaced too.

However they are extremely slow at responding and their returns department in need of a serious course in basic english, basic operational processes and efficiency.

You will probably wait days for them to get back to you even when asking for something as simple as an address to return the card to!

I’m still trying to resolve this and will be forced to spend $200+ on shipping as Highpoint don’t ship to/from the UK.

So if you can get an RMA from the place you bought it I would, or better still, get your money back and buy your hardware from CalDigit to cheer yourself up and never have to deal with charlatans again!

“You cannot depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus!”
~ Mark Twain

[Randall Brown]

Well, i finally got around to returning my card. I got another back in a shrink wrapped box, but the card within was obviously NOT new/ nor adequately refurbished, as when I added it to my system, I could see in the event log that it had been connected to Samsung drives. They could have at least cleared the cache.

Anyway, new card, same problems. DO NOT BUY THIS CARD. its simply NOT worth it. And on top of it, they had the nerve to have a sales person call me to see if I knew about their newest card. HA, never again. DO NOT DO IT.

I am going to reach out to Mac Sales to see if they can help me at all.

Randall

[Felix Buechner]

I am having a lot of problems very similar to not all but many of the problems described in this discussion (like the Finder stalling completely after some time; depending on what size of files i read with what speed to which target; for example i was having no problem writing to the RAID5, and no problem reading off it – but when i read or wrote large amounts of data via LAN, i had immediate kernel panics. Very, very weird stuff).

I was suspecting the raid controller (which was not Highpoint) all the time, and finally, i replaced it against a Highpoint 3522.
After that, i had very similar problems. Not exactly the same, but nearly so.

Let me tell you what i think and what seems to solve the problem (right now, i am conducting very extensive testing; in a couple of days, i wll be able to tell for sure if i solved the problem):

Some time ago, i built servers with external hot-swap enclosures, directly connected to SATA raid controllers having internal connectors. Without the infiniband cables, i had to use SATA cables.

In doing so, i saved tons of money while having perfecty reliable, fast servers. Only the mechanics was looking rather strange (SATA cables running quite “raw” out of the Mac into some box…)

Of course to have long cables would help, so i did try SATA cables with a lengh of 2 meters.
I knew the SATA spec said “Maximum 1 meter”, but heck! There WERE cables with 2 m, so lets try!

And then, i had very similar problems as the ones described above.
Ruefully, i returned to 1 m cables and everything was ok again.

Today, building with the R8ML, i used 2 m cables – just for ease of servicing the system. It allowed me to take the MacPro out of the rack while leaving it fully cabled to everything.

Only there were the above problems. Then, as i said above, i took another controller completely, just to find my problems stayed much the same.

Now this in all probability means that i was following a dead end altogether.

Since the Mac, its RAM, its PCI bus, in short everything else had been tested over and over again, i began suspecting the R8ML; or a cable inside it or the cables leading to it.

I dont know of you guys, but i should add that one very peculiar property of the problem was that nearly never i got any meaningful log entry. I mean no entry at no log, neither any log of OSX nor of any of the controllers.

This means that something happens that is out of the norm AND the system has no way to respond to it or it freezes so completely that logging is rendered impossible.
This is quite compatible with a cable that is installed, but fails. This kind of problem usually is not logged, because it is so rare a condition. BTW back in those days, i had no entrys either.

Anyway, i opened the box and found:
– the two infiniband plugs soldered to a small PCB carrying 4 SATA plugs each
– 8 SATA cables leading from said PCB to the backplane PCB

The SATA cable length i did not measure, but they are not routed tightly, so they are above 50 cm, much more likely around 70 cm.

All in all, a very simple, and clean, thing.

Only: whithout any active element between infiniband and SATA cables, the lengths add up!
I know the Inifinis are better shielded than SATA. They are allowed to be much longer.

But are they still allowed to be longer when they carry SATA SIGNALS, connecting to SATA drives?
If you add 0.7 meter SATA cable, then a connector, then a short lead on a PCB, then another connector, and then a 2 m cable (even a nicely shielded one), i do not expect the signal to get better underway, but the opposite.

All these plugs and cables cannot but degrade the signal, each one a tiny bit.

And that in the Infiniband world the cables are allowed to be long – fine with me!
SCSI nowadays is allowed some very great leghts, too.

But again: We are sending SATA signals over those cables, not SCSI oder Inifini.
And so, the SATA cable constraints do apply.

Anyway, this is what i did:
– i split my 8 drives into two groups of 4 and tested them separately and consecutively to be able to identify one ore more components (since no logs are available, i had to test to exhaustion or failure).

One group of four would fail after max 8 hours, the other on did not fail at all.
I swapped cables but everything remained same, so the cables in themselves were both ok or at least identical.

The failing group, i split into 4 single drives and tested them separately.
Two came out ok, two not.
I made sure all these results were repeatable.

Then i exchanged the cables against shorter ones, having 1 m only.

Now, the two prevoiously faulty drives were perfect (i have to say that my tests run until either a drive fails OR it runs for 24 hours under nearly full load. In the latter case, i consider the drive ok, so of course faults that take more than 24 hours to show up, i miss).

I am pretty confident that i have a situation that has more that one contributor:
– backplanes
– drives
– cables
– controller
My hypothesis is that these components together are operating at the brink of stability.
Push a little too far and your system breaks.

So, to relax the strain, i use shorter cables.

Right now, i am re-building the RAID 5 (it will be ready in one hour), and then, i will rigorously test it – for more that 24 hours (obviously, i hope it does not fail in five minutes …).

After i will report back with results, be they good or bad.