Mac Classic | System Utilities | SoftRAID

SoftRAID - 2.2.2

disk driver & array formatting software: fix for G4 sleep issue

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All Time:	(3.8)
This Version:	(3.8)
Current Version:	2.2.2
Release Date:	2000-07-17
License:	Update
Downloads (this version):	11,524
Downloads (all versions):	13,470

Information Related to Version:

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What's new in this version:

Faster Mirror Rebuilds: SoftRAID 2.2.2 incorporates new mirror rebuild algorithms. SoftRAID allows the user to rebuild Mirror Volumes in the background, while the Server or desktop machine is in full operation. The new Mirror Rebuild algorithm allows volume rebuilds to run at the maximum speed that the drives and bus are capable. Internal testing has shown an 8 to 10 fold increase in rebuild performance, with SoftRAID able to rebuild mirrored volumes in excess of 25GB per hour, while the Server is running! The design of the rebuild algorithm is very intelligent. When a Server drive is busy fetching data, the rebuild pauses for the I/O to complete. Servers will run at 98% efficiency during a Mirror Rebuild, although rebuilds take longer during heavy Server usage.
Targa 2000/3000, Digital Voodoo compatibility: Earlier versions of SoftRAID had a conflict with some Digital Video cards, particularly the Targa and Digital Effects Voodoo cards. SoftRAID 2.2.2 is now completely compatible with both(Targa and DE), and SoftRAID is now highly recommended by Digital Effects as the best and easiest to use RAID software for their Mac OS users. SoftRAID has also been tested extensively with the Final Cut Pro, and is fully compatible with all aspects of FCP.
Better Performance with Quantum Drives: Benchmark testing showed a problem with Quantum U160 (Ultra3 SCSI) drives. SoftRAID's driver would issue "Ordered IO" commands whenever concurrent I/O was issued to a drive. Quantum U160 drives exhibit a problem with ordered I/O SCSI commands. Quantum U160 drives time out for a few milliseconds after each ordered I/O command. Hence, performance would suffer by as much as 50% on all SoftRAID writes. SoftRAID now issues all SCSI I/O commands as "Simple I/O". Hardware RAID is affected, in that SoftRAID driver acceleration should always be disabled with hardware RAID, especially the CMD RAID controllers.
There are a few minor bug fixes addressed in SoftRAID 2.2.2.:
- A rare Mirror Rebuild hang was fixed.
- The Mirror rebuild data buffers were redesigned to be more memory efficient during intensive Rebuilds.
- When a user runs SoftRAID on a system without a SCSI bus, a more informative message now appears telling the user that SoftRAID requires installation of a SCSI card.
- Adherence to the New World ROM requirements which allows bootability from any partition on a disk. (Striped Volumes are still not Bootable from Apple's "beige deficient" hardware)
- SoftRAID longer retries i/o requests which have a RECOVERED ERROR sense key

Operating System Requirements:

This product is designed to run on the following operating systems:

Mac OS Classic

Additional Requirements:

Mac OS X 10.4 PPC
Mac OS X 10.3.9
Mac OS X 10.4 Intel
Mac OS X 10.0
Mac OS X 10.1
Mac OS X 10.5 PPC
Mac OS X 10.2
Mac OS X 10.5 Intel
Mac OS X 10.3
Mac OS Classic

Feedback Summary:

This Version:
Overall Rating:	(3.8)	Features:	Not rated (0.0)	Support:	Not rated (0.0)
Ease of Use:	Not rated (0.0)	Quality / Stability:	Not rated (0.0)	Price:	Not rated (0.0)

Key to Types of Feedback:

Reviews Reviews Troubleshooting Usage Tips Developer Notes Commentary Featured Reviews

I have been… - Version: 2.2.2, 5/8/2002 09:57AM PST

JimMueller

holding off updating to MacOS X due to my SoftRAID setup. I finally sent a query to SoftRAID's suport and received this surprising reply: >>If I configure my drives with Apple's MacOS X RAID capabilities, once >>the X-compatable SoftRAID is released, will I need to reformat the >>MacOS X RAIDed drives for SoftRAID-X or will it simply be able to >>supplant Apple's RAID driver? >> >You will be able to take over the Apple RAID driver. > >Keep in mind that your OS X RAID will be slower than a single >disk because of limitations within OS X's SCSI implementation. Their site now says the X version will probably be available "beginning of 2002 Q3", but I should be able to live with X-RAID 'till then.

I have just… - Version: 2.2.2, 1/24/2002 01:08AM PST

pashdej

installed OS 10 and was wondering why my two 60 gig drives in softraid didn't show up. I went looking for the obvious driver update only to discover that it doesn't exist. The whole point of loading 10 was to use FCP and ProTools in that environment, now I find I can't. Come on softRAID, get your act together!

Where the heck… - Version: 2.2.2, 9/25/2001 03:28PM PST

timta2

is the update featuring OS X compatibility? The Summer is almost over :)