Mac Pro RAID Card or Xserve RAID Card: Volume may not mount after improper shutdown or restart

After an improper shutdown or restart:

• Systems with a Mac Pro RAID Card or Xserve RAID Card may start up to a blinking question mark, or RAID volumes may not mount. RAID Utility may show the volumes, RAID sets, and disks are all viable or good.

• An Xserve configured with an SSD and Mac OS X Server installed on the SSD may start up but the RAID volume(s) configured on the RAID Card may not mount.

These symptoms may occur if the LUN map has been damaged and needs to be re-created.

Start up from different media and gather information

1. Start up from other bootable media such as an installation DVD, external FireWire disk or USB drive, or the internal SSD with an Xserve (Early 2009).

2. Open System Profiler and select the "Hardware RAID" view from the left sidebar.

3. Verify that the volumes, RAID Set, and drives are all reported as "Viable" or "Good".

4. From the "Hardware RAID" view, navigate to Hardware RAID Device > Xserve (or Mac Pro) RAID Card > Volumes.

   • Examine the information provided for each volume. If a volume does not have a corresponding "BSD Name" attribute, then follow the steps below to resolve this issue. Example System Profiler report

     An example of a System Profiler report showing both an affected Volume (R2V1) and an unaffected Volume (R3V1) is provided below. On systems with multiple volumes, not all volumes may be affected.

Resolve the issue

Note: This process can be used on bootable RAID volumes with Mac OS X v10.5.x, 10.6.x or OS X Lion installed. The operating system will not be updated on the affected RAID volume.

For the Xserve (Early 2009) that came configured with an SSD

1. Update the Server software installed on the SSD to Mac OS X Server v10.6.7 or later. If Lion Server is installed, update to the current version of Lion Server.

2. Restart the Xserve.

3. Wait for the RAID volumes to mount; this could take a few minutes.

4. Once the Volumes have mounted, restart the Xserve from the normal start up volume. This will give the server the opportunity to start up with the RAID volumes available at boot time.

5. Open RAID Utility.

6. Under "Controller", click "Status". The Events pane of the RAID Utility window should contain an entry for each volume whose LUN map was recreated.

For Mac Pro, Xserve (Late 2006), Xserve (Early 2008) and Xserve (Early 2009) without SSD

1. Install Mac OS X v10.6.x or OS X Lion (Server or client) on an external USB or FireWire disk. Use Mac OS X Server v10.6 for server systems or Mac OS X v10.6 for client systems.

2. If you are using Mac OS X v10.6, update to Mac OS X v10.6.7 (Server or client) or later. If OS X Lion (Server or client) is installed, update to the current version of Lion.

3. Start the affected system from the external disk.

4. Wait for the RAID volumes to mount; this could take a few minutes.

5. Restart the system from the normal start up volume.

6. Open RAID Utility.

7. Under "Controller", click "Status". The Events pane of the RAID Utility window should contain an entry for each volume whose LUN map was recreated.

Learn more

It is preferred that this procedure be performed with the disks installed in the computer they usually reside on. However, it is possible to transfer the drives to another similarly configured computer and perform this procedure on the RAID volumes.

Care should be taken if this is done.

Notes

1. Be sure to label all of the disks with the bay number they currently reside in so that they can be reinstalled in the same order.

2. RAID sets configured on a Mac Pro (Early 2009) or Mac Pro (Mid 2010) will not be recognized on a Mac Pro (original) or Mac Pro (Early 2008).

3. RAID sets configured on an Xserve (Early 2009) will not be recognized on an Xserve (Late 2006) or Xserve (Early 2008).

4. Apple Drive Modules that are moved from a Xserve (Late 2006) or Xserve (Early 2008) should only be moved to another Xserve (Late 2006) or Xserve (Early 2008). If they are inserted into an Xserve (Early 2009) they will no longer be recognized by the Xserve RAID Card in the Xserve (Late 2006) or Xserve (Early 2008) they were originally installed in. Moving the drives or Apple Drive Modules to Mac Pro (Early 2009) or Mac Pro (Mid 2010) or Xserve models will perform a hardware migration on the drives.

5. If an alternate Mac Pro is used to repair the RAID Volume, it must have a Mac Pro RAID Card installed in it.

6. If an alternate Xserve is used to repair the RAID Volume, it must have an Xserve RAID Card installed in it.

7. If the RAID volume being repaired was configured in a Mac Pro (original) or Mac Pro (Early 2008), the Mac Pro being used to repair the RAID Volume may only be one of these 2 models.

8. If the RAID volume being repaired was configured in a Mac Pro (Early 2009) or Mac Pro (Mid 2010), the Mac Pro being used to repair the RAID volume may only be one of these 2 models.

9. If the RAID volume being repaired was configured in an Xserve (Late 2006) or Xserve (Early 2008), the Xserve being used to repair the RAID volume can be either of these two models.

10. If the RAID volume being repaired was configured in an Xserve (Early 2009), the Xserve being used to repair the RAID volume must also be an Xserve (Early 2009).