Guardian OS units

[Phoenix32]

And the family grows...

[tje]

Gah

I've
1 x 4000 with 4 x 320gb drives
1 x 4400 with 4 x 180gb drives (as stock currently - they need upgrading I think )

and I just picked up 2 1100s on ebay - gonna put them in remote locations for off site backups of photos and things.

I could really use some more guardian based units. I did just build an 8 250gb drive raid array in a freebsd box for storage...

ariel# df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on
/dev/ad0s1a 3.9G 36M 3.5G 1% /
devfs 1.0K 1.0K 0B 100% /dev
/dev/ad0s1d 3.9G 14K 3.6G 0% /tmp
/dev/ad0s1f 12G 1.6G 9.1G 15% /usr
/dev/ad0s1e 3.9G 11M 3.5G 0% /var
/dev/twed0p1 1.5T 996G 535G 65% /Storage
ariel# tw_cli

//ariel> /c0 show all
/c0 Driver Version = 1.50.01.002
/c0 Model = 7500-8
/c0 Memory Installed = 2MB
/c0 Firmware Version = FE7X 1.05.00.068
/c0 Bios Version = BE7X 1.08.00.048
/c0 Monitor Version = ME7X 1.01.00.040
/c0 Serial Number = F11605A3190281
/c0 PCB Version = Rev3
/c0 PCHIP Version = 1.30-33
/c0 ACHIP Version = 3.20
/c0 Number of Ports = 8
/c0 Number of Units = 1
/c0 Number of Drives = 8
/c0 Total Optimal Units = 1
/c0 Not Optimal Units = 0

Unit UnitType Status %Cmpl Stripe Size(GB) Cache AVerify IgnECC
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
u0 RAID-5 OK - 64K 1630.19 ON - -

Port Status Unit Size Blocks Serial
---------------------------------------------------------------
p0 OK u0 232.88 GB 488397168 5ND2A2Z6
p1 OK u0 232.88 GB 488397168 3NF0WEE6
p2 OK u0 232.88 GB 488397168 3ND1EDFW
p3 OK u0 232.88 GB 488397168 5ND2CC2M
p4 OK u0 232.88 GB 488397168 WD-WCAL71170963
p5 OK u0 232.88 GB 488397168 WD-WCAL71224093
p6 OK u0 232.88 GB 488397168 WD-WCAL71174455
p7 OK u0 232.88 GB 488397168 WD-WCAL71174543

//ariel>


Performs quite well too - can easily saturate the 100mbps card I have in it at the moment - gonna upgrade it to gig at the weekend I think

[Phoenix32]

In case this may help someone trying to put a Guardian unit together...


I saw and add on eBay where a guy was selling a couple bare drives (no sleds) for a 4500. This got me to thinking... Hey, I have a couple drives I pulled, and even a couple spare sleds that might help someone trying to get a Guardian unit up and running (missing parts etc).

I have a couple 250 GB drives (one Seagte and one WD) I pulled from a working SNAP 4500 with OS 4.4 to upgrade to larger hard drives. I had a couple spare sleds, so I just used those. I know the drives will work in a SNAP 4400, 4200, or 4500, but the sleds will only work in a 4200/4500. I cannot speak for other units.

These are not new drives, probably a couple years old, but they did pass a Spintrite 6 run without problems. I have no use for them and maybe one of you guys is looking for one or two drives to upgrade your Guardian unit. I did not waste the time to zero the drives, so you will have to wipe it/them yourself to remove the OS and it's partition.

If you want them, with or without the sleds, send me an e-mail with an offer and maybe I can help you out. phoenix32x@hotmail.com

I only have the 2, so first come, first serve (or best offers considered first). If not, no big deal, off to my spare parts bin they go. If you want the sled(s) also, keep in mind those are not cheap and very hard to find.

NO, this is not some sales pitch or using the forum as a sales venue. I just thought about it and decided I would offer them to this community since so many people seem to always be trying to aquire parts and stuff and I have extra. Please don't make a big deal out of it or turn it into a circus.

Also, if you are not in the continental US, be warned, the shipping would be brutal. Sorry, but not my fault.

Hope I can help...

[jdvelasquezs]

I have a Snap Server 520 3TB and it was working fine but now I tye to bind it to a windows server 2003 R2 and I cann't get users information into the snap server

If you guys can help me I really appreciate it

[rarmy]

Originally Posted by Phoenix32

Not so long ago, the Guardian units were very rare on this forum, but that seems to be changing, so...


I am curious as to how many users/members we have here on the forum that have (or work with) Guardian OS Snap Servers. If you are one of them, speak up and let us know you are here, and maybe even what unit(s) you have. (maybe even if you are still trying to get one)

got 1, have issue w/CA AntiVirus though...

[sradair]

Got 2 4400's running Guardian OS 4.2.054 SP3

One still has the original 120gb IBM hard drives in a RAID-5 configuration.

The other had 2 bad 120gb drives, so I picked up 4 new Seagate 400gb, 7200rpm, 16mb cache, ATA-100 drives for about $100 each and configured them as a 1.04 TB RAID-5 array. Nice for storing all that HD video content I record from TV via my DViCO FusionHDTV5 RT Gold ATSC HD TV tuner card.

I kept the 2 120gb drives from the one unit as spares for the other unit, but I ran all 6 drives thru a full Spinrite 6 scan and installed the best 4 of the 6 back in the 4400 before building it out as a general purpose file server for the whole family to use. Decided not to spend the money on new drives for this one at the moment. Probably gonna wait until I burn up 3 of the 120gb drives and my degraded RAID-5 is hanging by a thread, then pick up 4 new drives in whatever capacity is going for a good price point at the time so I can make it the new, higher capacity multimedia server and turn the old video server into a general purpose file server.

I got these 2 units for a really smokin' deal. I probably shouldn't say how much because it might engender some real animosity and spawn a few hater posts.

Only downside is that the maintenance agreement with adaptec ran out shortly after upgrading to Guardian OS 4.2.054 SP3 and I can't really justify the cost of renewing it just to get OS updates, so it looks like 4.2.054 is where I stay.

[rarmy]

Originally Posted by rarmy

got 1, have issue w/CA AntiVirus though...

ok, Update...;

SNAP4500
GuardianOS Version: 4.4.049 SP2
Model: 15000
Hardware: 05.03.00
Server Number: 432306
BIOS Version: 3B02
JVM Version: 1.4.2_13-b06


so, what do I have, a SNAP4500 ?? or a 15000 ???

[Phoenix32]

Same thing, for the most part. In fact, I am going to be selling one soon. The difference is the CPU speed, amount of memory, and most important, the Interface Card (optics). That is a $700+ Interface Card.

[madmartyk]

Count me in, we have in our office a 4200 with 4-160GB Drives. The scrap pile in NJ has a bunch of 4200s and 4000s. That project is coming up soon.

[dango99]

Just joined the forum.

I've recently acquired a guardian 4400 with 4 x 185Gb IBM Deskstar (deathstar?) drives.

These drives show up as 169Gb.

I have tried putting in Seagate Barracuda 500Gb drives, but they are also shown as 169Gb... Anyone know what's going on? my OS version is 2.2.008


cheers

Dan

[blue68f100]

The guardian OS on hot swap treats the drives as failed and auto rebuilds the array. Cold swaping only transfers the OS.

You were in RAID 5 config so it treated it as a failed drive. If your going to upgrade the OS, now is a great time to do it. So you can have a clean install through the recovery console.

You need to break the array down to single disk, disable any AV or snap shots prior to this. Since you already have an os on the new 500g drives you will need to erase (quick is fine using the utility that came with the HD) the all but drive1.

Remove all drives except drive 1
Power down and install a new (clean) HD in drive 2, reboot.
Watch the leds on drive 2, once the units is up and the os has been copied to it (approx 5-7min), power back down and remove drive 1 (orig). You can use the admin gui to confirm if you like. It only takes <30sec to transfter the OS.
Move drive 2 to 1 and reboot.
Now if drive 1 was a 500gig you will need to erase it too. Not required but makes life easier.
Once the unit is up you can now hot swap the remaining drives (2-4) and setup your array.

I hope this helps you. You really need to upgrade the OS to V4. If you are going to do that, just force the unit in to recovery mode and do a clean install from there.

[dango99]

Thanks for your post.

I didn't get any CDs with my unit, so i didn't want to risk losing the OS and having a brick. (I didn't know how the drives were set up).

I had already followed the swap plan that you mentioned (albeit without breaking the RAID first).

I haven't seen any downloads available for the Guardian OS - it seems i need to purchase a support contract with adaptec which sounds expensive...

[dango99]

I have tried taking one of the new 500Gb drives out and looking at them using a PC based partition utility.

It (as i expected) reports the partitions as Linux based.

The LAST partition is only 169Gb, so i deleted it and recreated it to fill the rest of the drive. Once that drive was inserted into the Guardian 4400, the drive shows up as empty, but with 475,855MB available!

So it seems like i've solved that problem. I am now filling the drive with rubbish to check that the 4400 can read/write all the way up to 500Gb...

In the meantime - i'm still looking for updates...

[dango99]

Hmmm. I've only managed to get 1 drive recognised as 500Gb... The others are still showing up as 169Gb - even though i've prepared them in the same way. I've tried to do it the way blue68f100 has suggested, but the 2nd, 3rd and 4th drives still only show up as 169Gb.

Does anyone know where i can find an updated operating system??

[blue68f100]

You need to confirm that a RAID5 array does not exist. If so this info is saved on all HD's. The only way to remove it is to remove the array to release the space. Which you should beable to do it through storage gui. A raid 5 array on Guardian OS is writer across all drives, incase of failure. You do not want to erase them using a linux format. Format to a std pc FAT32, NTSF or use the quick erase utility that came with the drives. If it reconises the drive as being used it will not use it as a clean HD.

I have not seen how v2 OS looks like, I started on v4. Yes, Adaptec wants everyone on a service contract. But I thought you could buy the OS without a service contract $600?, could be wrong. Did you contact Sales or tech support?

There is NO FREE OS upgrades for the Guardian OS. You may find something on BT, but don't know. Since it is Copyrighted material, anything you find is illegal. This is one reason guardian OS units are expensive to maintain and mainly Corporations are the owners, deep pockets. If you plan on using it as a FTP server, there was a user that came through here awhile back that had his hacked and was forced to completly reload. The newer 4 version is more security minded.

You only need to keep one working HD to boot a Guardian unit, And preferable clean.

[Phoenix32]

Dango99, send me an e-mail and let's see if we can get your unit showing 4 x 500 GB drives (so as not to clutter up this thread). Also, where are you located?

[dango99]

Big thanks to Phoenix32!!

After several hours on MSN, he got me sorted.

[Phoenix32]

You're welcome. I am happy to see another Guardian Snap owner up and running.

[bush781]

Originally Posted by blue68f100

The guardian OS on hot swap treats the drives as failed and auto rebuilds the array. Cold swaping only transfers the OS.

You were in RAID 5 config so it treated it as a failed drive. If your going to upgrade the OS, now is a great time to do it. So you can have a clean install through the recovery console.

You need to break the array down to single disk, disable any AV or snap shots prior to this. Since you already have an os on the new 500g drives you will need to erase (quick is fine using the utility that came with the HD) the all but drive1.

Remove all drives except drive 1
Power down and install a new (clean) HD in drive 2, reboot.
Watch the leds on drive 2, once the units is up and the os has been copied to it (approx 5-7min), power back down and remove drive 1 (orig). You can use the admin gui to confirm if you like. It only takes <30sec to transfter the OS.
Move drive 2 to 1 and reboot.
Now if drive 1 was a 500gig you will need to erase it too. Not required but makes life easier.
Once the unit is up you can now hot swap the remaining drives (2-4) and setup your array.

I hope this helps you. You really need to upgrade the OS to V4. If you are going to do that, just force the unit in to recovery mode and do a clean install from there.

Do these instructions also apply to the 4200 I am trying to increase the capacity of a snap server I have at work and want to know if I can install 4 x 500GB Hds please help.

[blue68f100]

Yes, it applys to all Guardian OS Units. It must be down to a single HD and capable of booting without any errors. I do not have NetVault running, so it may need disabling too, if it was shipped with your unit. If it encounters a problem it will drop into the recovery console. If you have the GSU, you can drop into the recovery console and do a clean install using the GSU. You will still need to swap your new drives in after using the recovery console for a clean install.

Some back ground. The GuardianOS is well design to recover from most any issues, by the use of snapshots and normal backups. AV causes a problem if it's not shutdown properly or have file corruption, preventing it from being shutdown. With snapshots disabled, it releases the drive info from flashram/bios. So it will not drop you into the recovery console during a cold boot. When a HD is replaced while powered down it will only transfer the OS, even if there is a raid structure. But then again you have a broken raid and it now knows the new drive, even though you did not hot swap it. Once the OS has been trasfered over, move the drive to position 1. hot swap the rest of your new HD in, once the disk leds go out your ready to build you new array.

If you hotswap drives you transfer the existing file structure over with the same capacity as the original drives, or new hd if clean. The reason for the cold boot file transfer is to get a clean system with only the OS.

It's always nice to have HD pre loaded with the OS, but you still must disable Snapshots and AV or it will drop you in to the recovery console.

[bush781]

thanks this a great forum

[punkdefied]

I know this is probably the wrong place to post, but you can redirect me.

I have a Snap Server 14000 Guardian OS (lastest version 4 something with latest SP) I have all 12 HD Sleds but 8 of the HD have failed. I want to remove the old HD and place a new HD into the sled (preferably a much larger 300gb or 500gb drives). What types of hard drives fit into the sled? I have tried Maxtor ones but the IDE and power slots dont quite line up and therefore I cannot get it seated into the sled. It looks like the drives used to be Western Digital. Will any WD drive work or do I need a specific series or product line to properly fit?

Any suggestions?

[blue68f100]

There are 2 different sleds used in those units. I don't know why you would want Maxtor's, they have the highest failure rate in the industry. I think WD will work. WD does not make a Raid Edition drive larger than 320gig, th elast time I looked. These are great HD and are design with Raid in mind, have a min seek time. These drives are actulally heaver than a std HD, design for 24/7 servers. I have the 250gig in my 4500 and they work great.

[Phoenix32]

14000 is another I have not touched or seen... Sorry, I got nothin'...

[bitor]

I've emailed Adaptec concerning this unit. They said that the max HD is 250GBs x 12 on these units. Of course, they never tell you if you can go bigger. This limitation might be because of the power supply's ability to be able to run all 12HDs larger then 250GBs as my guess. Who knows with Adaptec. Anyway, just my 2 cents. The sleds are the same in the 12000 and 14000 both having to types of possible sled types. One HD has an offset and the other doesn't. Depends on the type of sled you have. But this is a good guide for you. Check to make sure all the sleds are the same. I would guess they would be , but you never know. See picture for the two types of HDs for the two types of sleds.

bitor

Originally Posted by punkdefied

I know this is probably the wrong place to post, but you can redirect me.

I have a Snap Server 14000 Guardian OS (lastest version 4 something with latest SP) I have all 12 HD Sleds but 8 of the HD have failed. I want to remove the old HD and place a new HD into the sled (preferably a much larger 300gb or 500gb drives). What types of hard drives fit into the sled? I have tried Maxtor ones but the IDE and power slots dont quite line up and therefore I cannot get it seated into the sled. It looks like the drives used to be Western Digital. Will any WD drive work or do I need a specific series or product line to properly fit?

Any suggestions?