Is 64k stripe size the only working option for RAID5 on Apple Silicon with v7 as well?

Posted by: @softraid-support

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@midihead7

It seems like it that is what you need to do sadly. When you create with 64k, give it some testing before copying all data to it. Wince you are having issues with 3 drives, its possible you may have the same with 64k, in which case, switch to RAID 4, which does not have this issue. It will work the same as RAID 5.

So I created a new volume with the 64K stripe size on RAID 5 and I have had no further kernel panics. Thanks so much for your assistance.

We also have a video editor who will be upgrading soon to a new M1 Mac running Ventura. He is using a 128 TB Thunderbay 8 which currently has about 60 TB of data stored on it. I've mainly been seeing users who have Thunderbay 4 enclosure (like I do) having the kernel panic issue. Have you been getting reports of people having the issue on the Thunderbay 8 as well? I'm trying to plan ahead and am really hoping that I don't have to back up 60 TB of data and then restore it which would probably take 3 or 4 days and would prevent our editor from being able to work during that time.

@midihead7

WHen this bug affects someone, it is device independent, so yes it could affect them.

We expect in a couple months, this will finally be fixed, however.

Posted by: @softraid-support

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@midihead7

WHen this bug affects someone, it is device independent, so yes it could affect them.

We expect in a couple months, this will finally be fixed, however.

Do you have a recommendation on an external drive that is capable of backing up 48 TB of data? I see that a 56TB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Quad RAID set up as RAID 0 should probably work (unless you have a better recommendation).

@midihead7

I generally recommend Thunderbolt devices ,but yes the MEPQ would work.

I've been working on getting a RAID 4 array working with my M1 Mini. I think I initially experienced the 16k kernel panic issue, and changed it to 64k. Since then, it's been running fine most of the time, but I've been noticing that if I'm forced to open Disk Utility to manage other disks that performance starts to quickly degrade, and if left long enough, ends up in a kernel panic.

@eMouse

Please attach a SoftRAID tech support file. And, Next time the system panics, on restart, there is a "Report to Apple" option. click that then "details." Copy and paste that text into a Text Edit file and send that to me. Note: you need to use "Make Plain text" in text edit in order to attach it here.

@softraid-support

There's the current tech support file. If I have time this weekend, and it hasn't already happened, I'll see if I can trigger the issue again.

@softraid-support 

Had another crash happen. Disk Utility wasn't involved this time. When it gets like this, I have to physically disconnect the Drobo I've been using in order for the computer to start back up. Prior to installing SoftRAID, the Drobo was working fine, though the fan was getting noisy, so I got the Thunderbay array to replace it. Once I finish getting files copied over the Drobo will be retired from this computer.

I tried saving the crash report as a plain text file, but the forum won't accept it.

@eMouse

In Text Edit, you must "Make Plain text" in format column. Otherwise it always saves as rtf, which is not supported. I would like to see the panic.
I cannot see how Drobo and SoftRAID are related. the SoftRAID driver only "talks" to disks in SoftRAID format. So the Drobo would never be talked to by SoftRAID's driver, etc.

@softraid-support 

That's what I did. I tried it a couple times, making sure that the file was in 'plain text' format, and saved with the txt extension. The forum refused to accept the txt file. I also tried it without the extension as part of the name.

I've been leaving the Drobo disconnected today and have had two more instances of issues. While neither got to the point of a kernel panic, in both cases the computer became so sluggish and unresponsive that I had to force a shutdown using the power button. In both cases the computer came back up without issue. So the Drobo only seems to be a problem if it's connected on boot-up. In that case, it's obvious that there's an issue because the clock is missing from the menu bar.

But there's definitely an issue that is independent of the Drobo being connected.

@eMouse You saw the menu item, Make Plain text?"

If you get info on your file, it may reveal the name as name.txt.rtf otherwise.

@softraid-support

 I very definitely had it set to plain text, and it very definitely was refusing to accept it. But I just tried it again and it worked, so I don't know what was going wrong.

After a couple slowdowns today that made my computer unusable I had to resort to unplugging the Thunderbay from it. So far it's been stable since doing so. I'm planning on wiping the computer and doing a clean install to make sure there isn't something else installed that's causing issues.

@eMouse

This is a weird panic. It appears that the FireWire driver is crashing. Did you have a FireWire drive connected?

@softraid-support The Drobo is an old one, with FireWire 800. So, yes, when it's plugged in, there is a FireWire drive connected.

Yesterday, I left the Drobo disconnected, and twice experienced slow downs that were similar to what I'd see happening before the FireWire driver would crash and cause a panic. In both cases I didn't wait for it to result in a panic, I rebooted as soon as I could.

I resorted to disconnecting the Thunderbay completely, and haven't experienced another slow down since then.

@eMouse

I can check this, have not tested with FireWire in a fairly long time.