We have detected a number of SERIOUS problems with Apple's new hardware RAID cards that the general Apple-using public needs to be made aware. We have discussed the issues with apple and they posted a single, incredibly vague, knowledge-base article in response.
1) The Apple HW RAID card manuals state that you need to boot off of an OS 10.3.5 SERVER installer disk in order to configure the RAID (using the megaraid command-line tool).
-There is no such thing as a 10.3.5 server installer disk. 10.3.4 was the newest version mastered to CD. But it DOES contain the megaraid command.
3) Though there is no 10.3.5 CD, the manual is correct in stating that you need 10.3.5 to USE the RAID card once installed and configured. Run SOFTWARE UPDATE COMMAND-LINE TOOL IMMEDIATELY after installing the RAID card and the OS or BAD THINGS happen.
After installing the card, configuring the raid, formatting the volumes, and installing the OS from the 10.3.4 CDs we booted the machine up WITHOUT running software update and it crashed, and we had to start all over again.
4) Also make sure your Firmware on the G5 is up to date. The RAID card works with, at the time of this writting, the two newest firmware updates.
5) If your purchase the RAID card for your existing XSERVE you're probably hosed. Unless your XSERVE is relatively new it probably didn't come with 10.3.4 server installer CD and NEITHER DOES THE RAID CARD. You have to call Apple and request "replacement copies" of the server installers (v 10.3.4 of course) to install your RAID card. Until those CDs arrive, you can use your card as a wind chime or perhaps a fish-tank decoration.
6) Server Assistant. Ok, Server assistant will see the server (assuming you get it to boot, see #7), but you can NOT use it to install the OS on your xserve. We've found that 9 out of 10 times, Server Assistant will NOT recognize the any formatted volumes on the XSERVE once the internal drives are controlled by the RAID card. So you have to use the command-line installer command to put your OS on the RAID. Oh, yeah... don't forget to run software update (from the CL) when you're done. The tech at apple didn't even know you could install the server software from the Server Assistant. *SIGH*
7) If all that wern't bad enough here is the kicker. Most of the time your xserve will NOT boot off of an installer CD once the raid card is installed. That makes is awfully hard to install the OS and configure the RAID - especially on a headless xserve. You can try using the firmware command to boot of a CD (typing blind after booting into open firmware), you can try plugging in a keyboard and holding down the C-key, you can try the button commands on the front of the xserve to get it boot of the CD - NOTHING WORKS. Reseting the firmware didn't help either. If you pull the drives out of the bay the xserve will boot off the CD fine, but that makes it a little difficult to build your array.
-APPLE'S ADVICE WAS JUST TO TRY TO BOOT THE XSERVE FROM THE CD CONTINUALLY AND EVENTUALLY IT WILL WORK.
-The ONLY way we got it to work, and I know this is gonna sound crazy, was to move the drives into another xserve, reformat them, and them put them back in the original xserve. Then you play musical drives moving the drive that was originally in bay 1 to bay 3 and vice-versa. THEN and only then would it boot off CD and we were able to configure and build our RAID.
Minor stuff:
Firewire Target disk mode doesn't work with the xserve once the RAID card is installed.
This is the SECOND revision of Apple's HW RAID card. The first did NOT require 10.3.4/5 to config/run and used a differnt command-line tool for configuration.