Xserve G5: Verifying compatibility and installing Hardware RAID PCI card

An Xserve G5 must meet minimum software requirements for the Hardware RAID PCI card to work properly. Follow the steps below to help ensure that data is not inadvertently deleted.
This procedure also provides support for booting from volumes attached to the Hardware RAID PCI card.

  1. Update to BootROM 5.1.7f1, available here. It is essential to update the Xserve G5 from the BootROM version 5.1.6f3 it shipped with.

  2. Update your Xserve G5 to Mac OS X Server 10.3.5, available here.

  3. Back up all the data on all drives. Installing the Hardware RAID PCI card requires you to erase the data on all three disks. For example, use Disk Utility to move data from the internal disks to an image on external media, or use a third-party backup utility to maintain permissions while transferring the data. The key to successfully backing up a volume is to maintain these permissions.

  4. Create a method for booting your server that does not involve the three internal drives. This can be done by installing Mac OS X 10.3.5 on an external FireWire drive, SCSI drive, or using a NetBoot image.

  5. Install the card using the instructions enclosed with the card.

  6. Boot the server and verify the card and drives are connected correctly by typing the following commands in the Terminal application:

    megaraid -showadapter

    megaraid -showdevices

    If your card does not appear, type the following command:

    sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions

    Then restart your Xserve.

    Important: Your old drive partitions may now appear, but the partitions are no longer valid since the drive geometry has changed. Do NOT use your previously formatted drive partitions attached to your newly installed Harware RAID PCI card. You must reformat your drives before you can use the drives.

    This is important because the Hardware RAID card uses the space on the drive differently than the original formatting of the drive, which will result in the following:

    • The logical size of the drive will be different when used by the Hardware RAID card, and it is possible that some filesystem data structures or other data may be lost.

    • The partition map will become no longer valid such that Disk Utility will report problems and HFS+ journals will not be able to be replayed.

  7. Type the terminal command:

    megaraid -destroyconfig

    This will erase the Hardware RAID PCI card metadata and the metadata stored on the drives.

  8. Create your RAID set with the following command:

    megaraid -create [and your options]

  9. Restore your boot drive and data.
Published Date: Oct 11, 2016