Running SoftRaid on Apple Silicon (M1) Macs including 2020 Mac Mini with M1

Something I've been running into on an M1, and not sure if it's SoftRAID-related or Big Sur/M1/Thunderbolt related, but figured I'd share here anyways in case anyone else has run into it:

I have 2 large (8 disk raid 0) arrays, one of which is a backup of the other using Carbon Copy Cloner. On a fresh restart, everything runs fine, though after a day or two of uptime, CCC starts failing to backup (stating that the subtask did not complete in a reasonable amount of time). The last time this happened, I tried ejecting the disk to see if that would resolve the issue, but it would not eject, so I tried restarting (rather than force ejecting), but upon restart, I was shown a kernel panic occurred (though I didn't think at the time to save it - I'll be able to share in a day or two when it inevitable happens again. I couldn't find it in Console.app, but I may not be looking in the right place).

Some details: The enclosures are Thunderbay 8s filled with 14GB drives in RAID 0, each plugged directly into the M1 Mac mini's two thunderbolt ports. I did try certifying the drives before I used them, more on that below. Currently using macOS 11.1 and SoftRAID b48.

Certification: While still on macOS 11.0.1 and SoftRAID b47 (about a week or two ago), I attempted to certify (3 pass) the disks in enclosure A. Realizing that this would take the better part of a week to complete, a few hours later I daisy chained enclosure B into enclosure A (both thunderbolt ports were used at the time), and started certifying that one as well. All three passes went fine for enclosure A, but as soon as it completed, enclosure B disks (all of them) stopped certifying. There were no errors up until that point, and no io/smart errors reported on any of the drives. The SoftRAID log at the time didn't give much more information, but checking back now, those entries have been trimmed from the log file (probably more that a week old?). Not wanting to wait another 5 days for certification tempting fate with my power going out instead (I've since moved things onto UPSs), I decided to YOLO it and use enclosure B as a backup for now.

I'm now assuming this is probably the same or related issue, especially since a fresh restart does *not* exhibit any issues, but any of the above could be at play.

On a related note, I know M1 performance has not been tuned yet, but I did notice that Apple RAID 0 writes were at ~2000 MB/s (reads at 600MB/s), while SoftRAID 0 writes were closer to ~1700 MB/s (reads at 800MB/s) on a fresh wipe. However, as soon as I installed SoftRAID, Apple RAID speeds dropped to match the SoftRAID speeds, so I'm assuming the SoftRAID driver took over at that point. I don't particularly need the speed bump, but do you know which configurations we should expect a speed boost with once performance has been tuned?

Attach a SoftRAID tech support file. SoftRAID logs will persist until you do an OS X upgrade, which will wipe them.

The last comment is interesting. SoftRAID should have no impact on Apple RAID disks. Different drivers control the disks.

Are you using AJA SYstem test for your results?

It is easiest, as you can more easily compare across systems.

Settings:

resolution 5K video

Codec: 16 bit RGBA

File size 64GB

See if you get more consistent numbers.

@ooblick Same problem, except I got the beta software to run, I can see the volumes there but it won't mount. I have an employee starting next week and I need this working before then! Has anyone found a solution to this problem on the new Mac mini?

@softraid-support I was using the black magic speed tests, but my ability to retest speeds in all scenarios is limited since the machine and drives are now in active use, so I can't wipe and re-test. I can re-test AppleRAID vs SoftRAID speeds in a few weeks once I am able to order a new enclosure. Attached is the support file.

In any-case, using the AJA System test, for my 8-disk SoftRAID 0, I'm getting 719 MB/s writes and 1373 MB/s reads. I couldn't find "5K video", so I used 5120x2700 5K RED instead. I'll give this a more comprehensive go in the near future when I have the resources to spare.

(I also tried uploading the system test screenshot here, but got "Error: Filetype not allowed" for a regular PNG...)

@softraid-support should the beta SoftRAID 6.0.1 b48 be able to mount the volumes? Cuz I can't get it to work. I really need to get this up and running asap. 

Thanks

@dimi Totally unrelated, but I just got the new M1 Mac mini and I can't get the volumes to Mount. How did you get yours working?

Absolutely it should.

If this is an M1, did you do this:

https://support.apple.com/en-lk/guide/mac-help/mchl768f7291/mac
Select reduced security and enable this:
Select the “Allow user management of kernel extensions from identified developers” checkbox to allow installation of software that uses legacy kernel extensions.

Did you "Allow" OWC as a identified developer?

If both are yes, perhaps you used migration assistant to migrate your old data over?

Then you may have a duff extension or more. Attach a SoftRAID Tech Support file and I can take a look.

@dimi

All looks OK, big volumes! It may take a while, but I will try to test your Apple RAID scenario.

I think images are limited here. Sorry. But we prefer not to fill it up with images anyway.

@softraid-support

Select the “Allow user management of kernel extensions from identified developers” checkbox to allow installation of software that uses legacy kernel extensions.

Did you "Allow" OWC as a identified developer?

Yep, I did both of these steps during initial setup, and when I updated SoftRAID. The machine is (was) a fresh install of macOS 11, this being my first time that I'm using these disks or SoftRAID. The SoftRAID Tech Support file should be attached to the previous message, but attaching it here as well.

There are three reasons:

Did you enable third party security?

https://support.apple.com/en-lk/guide/mac-help/mchl768f7291/mac

Did you Allow OWC as a developer? (System preferences)

Is this a clean system? Bad extensions cause drivers not to load. that is a little trickier to figure out which ones.

@joshzsherman I think this reply should get you going in the right direction: https://srforums.wpengine.com/forum/big-sur-issues/running-softraid-on-apple-silicon-m1-macs-including-2020-mac-mini-with-m1/paged/16/#post-6479

@softraid-support Not a problem - for the most part, it's working fine, so just thought I'd let you know that something off may be going on, in case it is something you are able to fix in the future. Thank you for your support!

At least your volume is mounting. We can investigate the performance issues later.

@joshzsherman Not getting the volumes to mount is not very much to work with. The SoftRaid volume will, for example, not mount with the developer beta. The SoftRaid app will see it, but it will not be accessible.

In other words:

• M1 with Big Sur release 11.1 will work with b48
• M1 with Big Sur Public Beta 11.2 will also work with b48
• M1 with Big Sur Developer Beta 11.2 will not work with b48

I am attaching a supt-File here from my M1 running the developer beta. The SoftRaid app runs, sees the drive, but it can not mount. During boot, the system reboots several times. I am pretty sure that the driver is not loading. This is not urgent. Just to help you analyse stuff.