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SoftRAID 6 licensing
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I agree. I was able to get a free upgrade from Softraid 5 to Softraid 6 XT. But I can't manage more than one of my OWC RAID enclosures unless I upgrade to Softraid 6 Pro.
OWC should enable all OWC enclosures to work with Softraid 6 XT.
Posted : 22/04/2021 2:30 am
A single XT license supports unlimited enclosures on one system. (subject to Thunderbolt limitations)
The only limitation with XT licenses is with large RAID volumes that extend across multiple enclosures. Otherwise, XT works with all devices you have. We also made additional licenses a very friendly $19.
Users with large RAID configurations (multiple enclosures RAID'd into a single volume, are generally professional environment users who require more dedicated support resources.
Posted : 22/04/2021 9:15 am
A single XT license supports unlimited enclosures on one system. (subject to Thunderbolt limitations)
The only limitation with XT licenses is with large RAID volumes that extend across multiple enclosures. Otherwise, XT works with all devices you have. We also made additional licenses a very friendly $19.
Users with large RAID configurations (multiple enclosures RAID'd into a single volume, are generally professional environment users who require more dedicated support resources.
I've got a Thunderbay 8 which works fine with SoftRAID 6 XT, but I can no longer make any changes to the RAID drive on my OWC Mercury Elite Dual Mini after the update to SoftRAID 6. When I try to do anything with the Mercury Elite, I get a prompt to upgrade to SoftRAID 6 Pro.
Posted : 22/04/2021 12:10 pm
A single XT license supports unlimited enclosures on one system. (subject to Thunderbolt limitations)
The only limitation with XT licenses is with large RAID volumes that extend across multiple enclosures. Otherwise, XT works with all devices you have. We also made additional licenses a very friendly $19.
Users with large RAID configurations (multiple enclosures RAID'd into a single volume, are generally professional environment users who require more dedicated support resources.
SoftRAID 5 XT supports a single volume spanning multiple enclosures, so the change to SoftRAID 6 to require Pro, at roughly twice the price of 6 XT, to do the same thing as 5 XT doesn't pass the smell test IMHO. BTW, I'm using such a configuration to support a Plex server with Thunderbay 4 Thunderbolt 2. I've NEVER required "dedicated support resources". A multi-enclosure configuration also reduces parity overhead for the volume, another reason for a multi-enclosure configuration of a voume. Most of us are professionals as well, we aren't morons.
What exactly what does "We also made additional licenses a very friendly $19." mean? I haven't seen anything like that mentioned on Macsales or SoftRAID.
Posted : 22/04/2021 1:36 pm
The elite dual Mini did not work with XT in 5.8.4 XT either, as far as I know, as it was not one of the approved enclosures that we bundled XT with.
Posted : 22/04/2021 3:39 pm
If you check for additional licenses SoftRAID Menu or Monitor, for XT they are $19. For Pro, $99.
Striping or RAID 5 across enclosures does not reduce parity calculations, parity is CPU based. What it does is allow is to get past the Thunderbolt performance limitations (mostly with SSD) to increase performance past what one bus will do.
I can take a RAID 5 volume, and test the same disks in one enclosure or two, and get the same results.
Posted : 22/04/2021 3:43 pm
You didn't understand what I meant. RAID 5 4 discs= 25% of the total disc space is consumed by parity data. RAID 5 8 discs = 12.5% of the total disc space is consumed by parity data. That was my point in using the term "overhead". I never intended to mean CPU processing overhead.
Posted : 22/04/2021 3:54 pm
The elite dual Mini did not work with XT in 5.8.4 XT either, as far as I know, as it was not one of the approved enclosures that we bundled XT with.
It's the full version of SoftRAID 5 I'm using with the Mercury Elite Pro Dual Mini.
Posted : 22/04/2021 4:02 pm
If you check for additional licenses SoftRAID Menu or Monitor, for XT they are $19. For Pro, $99.
Striping or RAID 5 across enclosures does not reduce parity calculations, parity is CPU based. What it does is allow is to get past the Thunderbolt performance limitations (mostly with SSD) to increase performance past what one bus will do.
I can take a RAID 5 volume, and test the same disks in one enclosure or two, and get the same results.
I'm not striping across multiple enclosures. I have the Mercury Elite as a separate RAID drive.
I will have to look and see if I can get additional licenses. I was mistaken to think one license would handle all of my OWC enclosures?
Posted : 22/04/2021 4:06 pm
SoftRAID Supports unlimited enclosures on one CPU (subject to XT limitations)
The extra licenses are for additional computers. not for additional enclosures.
Attach a support file with all the desired disks connected and I can take a look.
Posted : 22/04/2021 5:47 pm
I did not understand your meaning, you are correct, more drives = less "wasted" for parity. but also more risk from multiple simultaneous failures (rare, of course) With SoftRAID 6, XT is limited to one enclosure. You may not have needed support, but there is more overhead from these use cases, quite a bit in fact.
that may or may not have been the reason for this decision, but I note the support overhead.
Posted : 22/04/2021 5:50 pm
I did not understand your meaning, you are correct, more drives = less "wasted" for parity. but also more risk from multiple simultaneous failures (rare, of course) With SoftRAID 6, XT is limited to one enclosure. You may not have needed support, but there is more overhead from these use cases, quite a bit in fact.
that may or may not have been the reason for this decision, but I note the support overhead.
I'm not really sure what you're responding to. I'm not using the Mercury Elite with any association to the Thunderbay 8. The former (Mercury Elite) is connected via USB and is it's own volume in SoftRAID (RAID0). The latter (Thunderbay 8) is connected via TB3 and has a couple volumes (6 drives in RAID5 and 2 drives in RAID 1).
Are you saying that there's significant overhead using SoftRAID with more than one enclosure? Sorry, I don't understand what you're saying about my setup.
Posted : 22/04/2021 7:32 pm
I did not understand your meaning, you are correct, more drives = less "wasted" for parity. but also more risk from multiple simultaneous failures (rare, of course) With SoftRAID 6, XT is limited to one enclosure. You may not have needed support, but there is more overhead from these use cases, quite a bit in fact.
that may or may not have been the reason for this decision, but I note the support overhead.
SoftRAID 6 XT is limited to one enclosure?
SoftRAID Supports unlimited enclosures on one CPU (subject to XT limitations)
The extra licenses are for additional computers. not for additional enclosures.
The extra licenses are for additional computers. not for additional enclosures.
Sorry, which is it?
Is SoftRAID 6 XT limited to one enclosure?
Posted : 22/04/2021 7:39 pm
A volume cannot span across enclosures, i.e, to do a 16 drive RAID volume across 2 Thunderbay 8's, you need the Pro version.
Posted : 22/04/2021 9:04 pm
Sorry if confusing, the new WordPress version changed the forum, so there is no threading. I have to see if we can get it back.
Posted : 22/04/2021 9:06 pm
