Mapower MAP-TB32 Dual SATA RAID Enclosure

swolodkin

I am consulting for a company with an Exchange server that needed some work. The server was out of SATA ports and physical space so they bought be this box to serve as dedicated log file storage for Exchange. I was a little concerned that this seemed more a "consumer-oriented" device and was not made for high-speed server backend storage. I did insist that we use the eSATA interface and purchased a good eSATA PCIe card for the coputer. Both devices advertised a full 3Gbs throughput speed, so I went ahead and deployed it.

Therefore I am seeking your oppinion since you reviewed this device in some detail. I don't want to spend a lot of time trying to benchmark all the storage because the machine must remain in production as much as possible. So what do you think??? Thanks in advance. -Steve.

acruxksa · Posted: Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:00:23 Post Subject:

Swolodkin,
I would be concerned about using this device in a mission critical environment. I have no trouble recommending this enclosure to the average consumer for file and media storage. However, I'm hesitant to recommend it for commercial use primarily because I have no idea how large the company is and what kind of traffic volume we are talking about. Typically hardware developed for commercial use will offer redundancy in more than just their data (power supplies and cooling fans). To be honest it sounds like a temporary solution to the problem and I'm not sure it's the best place to save a couple $$$.

In a RAID 1 configuration it should be fast enough assuming we are talking about a small business with a modest number of transactions, it just doesn't have the needed hardware redundancy you should have for the type of use you're proposing. I'm not an exchange guru, but it's my understanding that the transaction logs can be essential to repairing databases if you have a failure. I guess it all depends on just how important the company thinks their databases are.

I would also add that it's better to separate the transaction logs from the databases, so if they won't be able to do this unless they use the Mapower enclosure, then it's probably better than nothing, but If life has taught me anything it's that you can tell them a hundred times that it's only a temporary solution, but as soon as it's installed and working they will forget all about finding something better until it fails. Then no one will remember you telling them it was temporary.

Dfreak · Rated PG Joined: 03 Dec 2008 Posts: 7

Hi, here I am again Razz

My TB32 worked fine until a few days ago Sad

. When I started up the enclosure, it starts to do a Disk Rebuild (Middle LED: Blinking blue + red on). But after about 20 seconds the Power LED becomes purple (HDD volume degradation) and the middle LED is blinking blue + blinking red (error state). I tried everything: removed all partitions, tried other modes: I always used SAFE50 mode, so I tried also another mode: SAFE33 and RAID1; these 2 also don't work.
All other modes (SPAN, Normal, RAID0) just work fine. So every mode which involves RAID1 doesn't work... Is it possible that the RAID controller of the enclosure is defect?

Dfreak

acruxksa · Posted: Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:08:12 Post Subject:

It is possible, but I'd be more inclined to think there's a hard drive issue. Especially since the other modes still work.

TS1981 · Rated PG Joined: 22 Apr 2009 Posts: 3

Hi

I have the same problem as Dfreak.

No RAID1, Safe33 and Safe50.

HDD's are ok (2 x 1TG Western Digital). New. And I already exchanged the HDD's without success among themselves.

(sorry, my englisch is no good, i'm german)

any one an idea?

TS1981 · Rated PG Joined: 22 Apr 2009 Posts: 3

It lasts to provide 5 hours a RAID1 with 2 1TB HDD. Rolling Eyes

acruxksa · Posted: Sun, 26 Apr 2009 13:12:25 Post Subject:

TS1981 · Rated PG Joined: 22 Apr 2009 Posts: 3

I had not counted on which lasts it so for a long time. I am accustomed it, which a structure of a RAID1 lasts a few seconds.

But it seems now to function. All LEDs show that it its work fine.

acruxksa · Posted: Mon, 27 Apr 2009 01:39:29 Post Subject:

Dfreak · Rated PG Joined: 03 Dec 2008 Posts: 7

I thought it was working fine in the normal, span, ... modes, but it didn't, when you started copying, it failed after a couple of minutes. So I took out the drives and tested them both with HDtune, the result: one of the drives had lots of corrupted clusters. So I did a RTM and 2 days later I received already a new one. I placed it into the TB32, started to copy and after a couple of hours it was finished. Grin

Happy end. Grin