Sonnet ExpressSAS RAID Problem

[Adam Kovic]

The Flash is the most current version.

This computer belongs to my boss so he bought the drives or they came with the RAID as a package deal (I’m almost positive it’s the latter.)

Something interesting did happen though, I followed some people’s advice on swapping drives and this is what happened:

I swapped drives 1 with 2 and drive 3 with 4. Before switching this is what the ATTO Config tool read:

1. Unavailable
2. Online
3. Online
4. Unavailable
5. Online
6. Degraded
7. Online
8. Online

After swapping the drives, the card read the same thing. Just thought that might help anyone still praying for me 🙂

[Mark Rodway]

Adam,

I think that that is most probably good news (and your data hopefully is recoverable) and that you are looking at an enclosure / cable / or ATTO card issue…. However, the number on the ATTO config tool doesnt necessarily read down the enclosure – see this mail I have from Sonnet……

The “member number” reported in the ATTO configuration utility is not associated with a particular bay of the D800.  You have to find it the hard way, by using the command line utility (“CLI”, the 4th tab in the main ATTO configuration utility window).

You type 
rgdisplay

to display the raid group name

then
rmstatus raidgroupname

where “raidgroupname” is the name you got from the previous step. It will show which drives are degraded

blockdevidentify 6

to identify which drive is #6 for example- the LED on the front should light up, indicating which drive it was.

If the LED doesn’t work (because the drive is dead or malfunctioning for example) you find it by reverse: 

blockdevidentify 0
blockdevidentify 1
…
blockdevidentify 5
blockdevidentify 7

and drive 6 is the only one that didn’t light up.

When you remove the “degraded” drive, the status should change to “unavailable”.

Again – I hope that it helps.

Mark

[Adam Kovic]

Well Sonnet finally got back to me, I drove down to Irvine this morning and gave them the enclosure, the card and the drives – they said they should get started on it ASAP and hopefully they save our data.

Thanks everyone for all your help, it’s nice to have other people to count on for help – I’ll keep everyone updated in the future.

[Rhys Ludlow]

Did Sonnet ever fix this problem?

I am about to make a RAID decision and it is all coming down to reliability and comany responsiveness for me.

I’m looking for the company closest to what Medea used to be.
They used to have the best customer service(along with AJA and Ensemble Designs) of any companies I ever dealt with.

It is very scary that you were down for two + weeks without a solution.

You tone is much more patient than mine would have been.

Rhys Ludlow
Ludlow Media Services
http://www.ludlowmedia.com
415-927-1300

[Mark Rodway]

Yes, it seems with the very latest ATTO cards that the problem has been fixed. (Although I cannot confirm this under very rigorous testing as yet).

As for both Sonnet’s and my supplier Holdan – they couldn’t have been more on top of the problem – and it wasn’t long before we identified it as being a RAID card (ATTO) heat issue and smc fan control was implemented to alleviate the issue temporarily. The only problem was the 8hr time delay between us and the states made getting to the bottom of the issue a bit slower than normal.

Once I installed SMC fan control the problem itself almost vanished…. I have now turned off this app. on our systems and everything is stable with the very latest cards.

[Rich Campbell]

Hi Rhys,
Rich Campbell here. Formally Medea tecnical support and now Avid technical support. Your storage needs can easily be accomodated with Avid storage solutions with the great support you have come to expect. There is the current Avid VideoRaid and the upcoming SAS VideoRaid ST and SR which will bring you all the latest technology for local storage. Follow the links I have here to get the information you will need to help decide.

https://www.avid.com/products/video-RAID/index.asp
https://www.avid.com/products/2915.htm

Call me anytime.
Best Regards,

Rich Campbell
Avid Technology, Inc.
Technical Support Representitive
805-584-8743
richard_campbell@avid.com

[David Roth weiss]

[Rich Campbell] “Your storage needs can easily be accomodated with Avid storage solutions with the great support you have come to expect.”

Oh lord!!! What is this world coming to?

It’s one thing when all of the indie raid manufacturers come here to jump on a thread “hawking” their wares, but now Avid, on the FCP Forum?

David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles

POST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™

A forum host of Creative COW’s Apple Final Cut Pro, Business & Marketing, and Indie Film & Documentary forums.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Rich Campbell] “Rich Campbell here. Formally Medea tecnical support and now Avid technical support. Your storage needs can easily be accomodated with Avid storage solutions with the great support you have come to expect.”

Rich, it is inappropriate for a vendor to jump into a thread that has absolutely nothing to do with their products and attempt to make a sale. Other vendors on the Cow have been warned about this in the past.

And quite honestly I could never in a million years recommend this storage solution to anyone because I would not trust “the great support” for anything in the world. Everyone I know that uses Avid, and there’s quite a few, all agree that Avid Tech support is the worst in the business.

Medéa was a great product, but now with Avid’s nameplate on those products, Final Cut Pro users would do well to stay away from that product line. At least with Medéa I got excellent tech support because that’s all those guys did. With Avid, storage is just another cog in the machine.

If you want that same great Medéa quality and tech support, then look no further than Ciprico. A lot of former Medéa guys are there including Don McDonnel who is one of the best guys I’ve ever met in the industry. Those products work, they are well supported and I would highly recommend them.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
Read my Blog!

[Dan Debruno]

Walter, I’m sorry but I had Richard respond to that thread. It wasn’t by any means to hawk a sale. He was just letting the user know that the Medea Support team is still intact with Richard Campbell. (Richard was part of the Medea support team for 4 years before the Avid buy-out.)

Richard does a great job supporting the Medea product line that is still out there under the AVID name.

Dan DeBruno
Application Engineer
AVID Technology
(Old Medea Guy)

Dan DeBruno
AVID Technology
Drive Sub-Systems
Application Engineer

[Mark Rodway]

Interestingly – I’ve just been doing some prep work on the Dalsa 4k camera and their recommended drives are Ciprico also.

Regards,

Mark