My experience trying to install High Sierra on Mac Pro with Hardware RAID

[jer2eydevil88]

I have a Mid-2010 Mac Pro with an Apple RAID Card and a RAID 5 array.

On occasion, the system has trouble booting from it's RAID 5 array.

The bootup issues have historically been overcome by holding down Option and selecting the boot drive.

This computer is listed as compatible for the upgrade to High Sierra.

I checked the RAID Utility today prior to updating to High Sierra and found that all four of the drives are in good shape and the array itself is in good shape.

I then attempted to upgrade to High Sierra using the download from the Apple App Store inside of Sierra.

The installer required an EFI patch to update the system to High Sierra.

I ran the EFI patch as per the instructions on my screen.

The system shut down.

I held down on the power button until it flashed and the system emitted a tone.

The installation of the EFI patch completed and the system rebooted.

I got a crossed out circle on the screen.

I rebooted and held down the Option key to select the Macintosh HD option.

The computer finished booting then allowed me to attempt the installation of High Sierra.

After clicking to install the system rebooted.

I got a crossed out circle on the screen.

I held down the Option key to select what was the "MacOS High Sierra Installer" option on the screen.

That installer never launched, I again got a crossed out circle on the screen again.

I rebooted again, and again, trying to get the High Sierra Installer to work.

I unplugged every USB accessory including my Time Machine drive.

No matter, if I didn't hold down the Option key it wouldn't boot.

If I did hold down the Option key the system only found the "MacOS High Sierra Installer" option to boot from.

The option to boot back into Sierra was not there.

I tried using my other Mac (a MacBook Pro) to create a USB installer of High Sierra as a backup to boot from but the USB thumb drive I used wasn't detected by the Mac Pro.

I then tried to use Rescue Mode to repair the partition of the array.

It completed a repair without issue.

I rebooted and again got a crossed out circle on the screen.

I again booted back to Recovery Mode.

The RAID Utility seems to be stripped from Recovery Mode, despite the fact I remember it being here years ago.

I used the Disk Utility to erase the partition (I have both a Time Machine backup locally and I use an online backup service, so I wasn't afraid of losing the system's data.)

Then I tried to use Recovery Mode to reinstall MacOS.

The system told me that the latest version to install was Sierra.

The installer started, asked me for my iTunes credentials, then said the software I wanted was not available the installer crashed.

I used Disk Utility to again erase the partition.

I started to restore from my Time Machine backups but it's saying it'll take 18 hours to restore my files.

I think this is extreme as I only have about 1TB of data.

I stopped the restore and used Disk Utility to again erase the partition.

Maybe it's a bad assumption but I assume this is because the thumb drive is USB 3.0 so it didn't get detected by my older Mac Pro?

I then created a new install disk from a USB 2.0 external USB HDD and it was detected.

I am trying now to install High Sierra from it and it was at least detected.

I'll keep the forum updated in case some of this is helpful to other holdouts like me who haven't upgraded to the Mac Mini Pro (aka the Trashcan).
[doublepost=1506477947][/doublepost]The USB Installer of High Sierra booted.

Unfortunately, the partition on the RAID array was not detected by the High Sierra installer.

I do see there is a RAID Utility in the Utilities menu within the USB installer.

I bet this tool is there in the Sierra Recovery Mode but I must have missed it earlier.

I used the RAID Utility to delete the array.

I used the RAID Utility to create a new RAID 5 array.

The Disk Utility on High Sierra installer is also not detecting the RAID array.

Going to give Apple a ring on this one... I'll report back what I figure out.

 

[jer2eydevil88]

Apple technical support says the Mac I have and the RAID card is supported but normal tech support can't help. I scheduled a call with Apple Enterprise support tomorrow. I'll post back after we speak.

In the meantime here are some examples that showcase some of the anomalies I'm experiencing.

Here is a video from Recovery Mode made just before rebooting into the USB 2.0 drive to install that demonstrates the RAID array is there and shows me erasing it:

Here is a screenshot from the Disk Utility upon booting into the USB installer for High Sierra: https://imgur.com/a/cHQ8o

Here is a less blurry screenshot from the command line on this system showing the RAID array isn't detected: https://imgur.com/a/5Hc4X

 

[Fredd057]

Hi, i have the same problem ... any solution to install high sierra on Raid 0 ?

Thanks !

 

[jer2eydevil88]

Hi, i have the same problem ... any solution to install high sierra on Raid 0 ?

Thanks !

I didn't try building any arrays other than RAID 5 in my attempt.

The RAID Utility spotted the array but the "operating system" that booted from the USB installer didn't detect any RAID arrays. I do not think that RAID 0 will work any better but feel free to try and see if you don't mind experimenting. Just be careful to have a backup as deleting a RAID array will destroy all your data on the drives.

 

[Fredd057]

I didn't try building any arrays other than RAID 5 in my attempt.

The RAID Utility spotted the array but the "operating system" that booted from the USB installer didn't detect any RAID arrays. I do not think that RAID 0 will work any better but feel free to try and see if you don't mind experimenting. Just be careful to have a backup as deleting a RAID array will destroy all your data on the drives.

I have trying many solutions... none works... it seems that installing highsierra on AppleRAID volume is now impossible... **** !

 

[jer2eydevil88]

I spoke with Apple Enterprise Support.

They said I was the first to call in about the issue and they think it should be working but they wonder if it's been depreciated. They claim that software RAID has now been moved to a command line only, advanced feature, and they wonder if there is something new like that associated with resolving the issue.

I doubt it. I bet they yanked support for hardware raid on High Sierra by accident. I bet that since they publicly support Mid-2010 Mac Pro hardware they resolve this in a later update to the operating system.

Either that or they may face a potential class-action lawsuit for false advertising, as I can imagine every law firm on planet earth would eat up a case like that with clearly misleading information from the biggest tech company on the planet.

In any case, I'm an unhappy Mac Pro user today. Going to rebuild with Sierra and wait till they have an answer for me.

 

[nekton1]

RAID was certainly supported in the beta versions from the disk util command line

Usage: diskutil [quiet] <verb> <options>, where <verb> is as follows:


list (List the partitions of a disk)

info[rmation] (Get information on a specific disk or partition)

listFilesystems (List file systems available for formatting)

activity (Continuous log of system-wide disk arbitration)


u[n]mount (Unmount a single volume)

unmountDisk (Unmount an entire disk (all volumes))

eject (Eject a disk)

mount (Mount a single volume)

mountDisk (Mount an entire disk (all mountable volumes))


enableJournal (Enable HFS+ journaling on a mounted HFS+ volume)

disableJournal (Disable HFS+ journaling on a mounted HFS+ volume)

moveJournal (Move the HFS+ journal onto another volume)

enableOwnership (Exact on-disk User/Group IDs on a mounted volume)

disableOwnership (Ignore on-disk User/Group IDs on a mounted volume)


rename[Volume] (Rename a volume)


verifyVolume (Verify the file system data structures of a volume)

repairVolume (Repair the file system data structures of a volume)


verifyDisk (Verify the components of a partition map of a disk)

repairDisk (Repair the components of a partition map of a disk)


eraseDisk (Erase an existing disk, removing all volumes)

eraseVolume (Erase an existing volume)

reformat (Erase an existing volume with same name and type)

eraseOptical (Erase optical media (CD/RW, DVD/RW, etc.))

zeroDisk (Erase a disk, writing zeros to the media)

randomDisk (Erase a disk, writing random data to the media)

secureErase (Securely erase a disk or freespace on a volume)


partitionDisk ((re)Partition a disk, removing all volumes)

resizeVolume (Resize a volume, increasing or decreasing its size)

splitPartition (Split an existing partition into two or more)

mergePartitions (Combine two or more existing partitions into one)


appleRAID <verb> (Perform additional verbs related to AppleRAID)

coreStorage <verb> (Perform additional verbs related to CoreStorage)

apfs <verb> (Perform additional verbs related to APFS)


diskutil <verb> with no options will provide help on that verb


Mac-Pro:~ $ diskutil appleRAID

Usage: diskutil [quiet] appleRAID|AR <raidverb> <options>

where <raidverb> is as follows:


list (Display the current status of RAID sets)

create (Create a RAID set on multiple disks)

delete (Delete an existing RAID set)

repairMirror (Repair a damaged RAID mirror set)

add (Add a spare or member disk to an existing RAID)

remove (Remove a spare or member disk from an existing RAID)

enable (Convert a volume into a single disk RAID set)

update (Update the settings of an existing RAID)


diskutil appleRAID <raidverb> with no options will provide help on that verb


Mac-Pro:~ $ diskutil appleRAID create

Usage: diskutil appleRAID create mirror|stripe|concat setName

filesystemType MemberDeviceNames|NestedRAIDSetUUIDs ...

Create a RAID set. All existing data on the drives will be lost.

Ownership of the affected disks is required.

Example: diskutil AppleRAID create mirror MirrorName JHFS+ disk1 disk2

Ahh—but then I read you are using an Apple Hardware RAID. Hmm.

 

[jer2eydevil88]

Thanks for the share!

Apple Enterprise Support said Software RAID is supported from the command line. The Raid Utility sees my array but the installer and Disk Utility do not see the Hardware RAID 5 array on this machine.

Waiting for Apple to respond. I'm in a holding pattern until then.

 

[nekton1]

From the Developer Apple File System Guide:

Can RAID be used with Apple File System?

Yes. Apple File System does not directly implement software RAID; however APFS-formatted volumes can be combined with an Apple RAID volume to support Striping (RAID 0), Mirroring (RAID 1), and Concatenation (JBOD). APFS-formatted volumes can also be used with direct-attached hardware RAID solutions.

I suppose it hinges on what exactly "direct-attached" means.

 

[jasminetroll]

I suppose it hinges on what exactly "direct-attached" means.

Perhaps that APFS volumes on Fibre Channel (and iSCSI, though I'm not aware of any first-party Apple support for iSCSI in the first place) SAN LUNs are not supported?

In other words, volumes created by SAS or SATA RAID controllers connected via PCIe or Thunderbolt interfaces are supported, along with, presumably, USB and FireWire external RAIDs, to mention only things that Apple has sold or supported at some time or another on systems capable of running High Sierra. Though I can't think of any obvious reason anything that presents itself to the OS as a SATA or SCSI (SAS, USB, FireWire, Fibre Channel, iSCSI) block device wouldn't work, in exactly the same way it works with HFS+, notwithstanding lack of official support, though I imagine you'd have trouble booting from a volume provided via most of the possibly-unsupported options (Fibre Channel being the one possible exception, as I believe some systems can boot from some of the Apple FC cards).

As a data point, I can at least confirm that APFS conversion (via the Disk Utility GUI) works fine for non-boot, FileVault-encrypted* volumes on an Areca ARC-8050T2 Thunderbolt RAID, or rather, that conversion worked on the GM candidate build, and that the resulting volumes continue to work fine after upgrading to the GM.

While I haven't done any formal testing, the only things on my internal drive are the OS, applications, and "the small stuff" in my home directory (I symlink large files and folders to the Areca); everything else is on an Areca SSD RAID 10 volume**, so I have been hitting it pretty hard for the week or so since I converted it, and haven't seen any obvious problems or performance regressions.

One thing that's worth noting is that I've seen no indication (in Disk Utility or System Information, say) that the OS or APFS can tell the difference between pure SSD RAID volumes on the unit and volumes that contain mechanical hard drives — I have one of each — so I assume any special SSD-specific behavior*** will not apply to any volumes on the Areca, which, for the record, I'm okay with.


* While I have no reason to believe non-encrypted volumes would fail, there are significant differences between the conversion process for encrypted and non-encrypted volumes, so this qualification is worthwhile.
** Which I can't help but point out is somewhat faster for all combinations of random and sequential reads and writes I've tested than the factory 256GB MacPro6,1 SSD. Especially combined with a 10m Thunderbolt cable that allows me to relocate it out of earshot (not that it's particularly loud in comparison with any system in Apple's current lineup other than the MacPro6,1) I have nothing but praise for the RAID, which I've been using for several years now without so much as a hiccup.
*** The only such behavior I'm personally aware of is TRIM — or rather, UNMAP, because the Areca is SAS, not SATA — which isn't supported by the Areca in the first place, but it's certainly possible that APFS optimizes things differently for SSD and non-SSD cases.

 

[jer2eydevil88]

Good data points. In my case I have an Apple OEM RAID card purchased from an Apple Authorized Reseller. This is not a third party product.

My system has four 480GB Intel SSD drives that were installed circa 2012.

The system has these in a RAID 5 array.

I see the array in the RAID Utility.

The Mac OS X Installer cannot see it.

I'm waiting for Apple Engineering to call me back next week to see if we can resolve it.

It's important to me that I'm running the latest version of OS X so I'm going to purchase a 1TB SSD as a backup plan to keep using this rig until they release a Mac Pro that isn't a trash can.

Hopefully, at some point in the future, Apple realizes some of their customers need expandability in a desktop.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP:

I have a possible answer for you.

Do this:
1. You will need to use an external platter-based hard drive. Or, perhaps even an internal drive will work -- so long as it's a platter-based spinning hard drive.

2. You will need to create a bootable USB flash drive installer. A 16gb (or larger) flash drive will do.

3. You'll need either "Install disk creator" or "DiskMaker X" with which to create the flash drive. Or, it can be done using the terminal app.

4. Once you have your USB flash installer ready-to-go, do this:

5. Shut down. Connect external hard drive. Connect USB flash installer.

6. Now boot with the option key (to invoke startup manager), and choose the USB installer.

7. Once booted, re-initialize the external target hard drive to HFS+ with journaling enabled.

8. Next, launch the HiSierra installer, "aim it" at the hard drive, and "let 'er go".

9. When done, you should be able to boot from the hard drive (assuming that the Mac Pro you have -can be booted- into HiSierra).

10. DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT do ANYTHING yet. DO NOT begin the setup process. Just politely press the power-on button until the MacPro shuts down. Or pull the plug out of the wall.

11. Now you need CarbonCopyCloner. If you don't already have it, CCC is FREE to download and it's FREE to use for the first 30 days. So... download it.

12. Now you need to boot from another source that is capable of booting the MacPro and re-initializing the internal RAID.

13. Boot from this boot source. You need to "prepare the RAID drive" by re-initializing it. OF COURSE, you have to back it up first. But you're a Macintosh Pro user and you know about all this, right?

14. Once the RAID drive is "prepped, empty, and waiting", launch CCC.

15. Now, set up the "hard drive install" of HiSierra as your source, and the internal RAID as the target.

16. Let CCC do its thing. You probably also want CCC to clone over the recovery partition, as well.

17. When done, you should have an "as yet untouched" virgin install of HiSierra on the RAID (in HFS+ format), along with the proper recovery partition as well.

18. Now, the "moment of truth". Does it boot? Do you get to the setup process?

19. If the answer is "yes", begin setup. At the appropriate moment, "aim" setup assistant at your backup (again, I recommend CCC to create a bootable cloned backup), and let 'er go. May take a little while, depending on how large it is.

I'll bet this "gets you where you want to go", where other methods have failed!

 

[LewisChapman]

OP:

I have a possible answer for you.

Do this:
1. You will need to use an external platter-based hard drive. Or, perhaps even an internal drive will work -- so long as it's a platter-based spinning hard drive.

2. You will need to create a bootable USB flash drive installer. A 16gb (or larger) flash drive will do.

3. You'll need either "Install disk creator" or "DiskMaker X" with which to create the flash drive. Or, it can be done using the terminal app.

4. Once you have your USB flash installer ready-to-go, do this:

5. Shut down. Connect external hard drive. Connect USB flash installer.

6. Now boot with the option key (to invoke startup manager), and choose the USB installer.

7. Once booted, re-initialize the external target hard drive to HFS+ with journaling enabled.

8. Next, launch the HiSierra installer, "aim it" at the hard drive, and "let 'er go".

9. When done, you should be able to boot from the hard drive (assuming that the Mac Pro you have -can be booted- into HiSierra).

10. DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT do ANYTHING yet. DO NOT begin the setup process. Just politely press the power-on button until the MacPro shuts down. Or pull the plug out of the wall.

11. Now you need CarbonCopyCloner. If you don't already have it, CCC is FREE to download and it's FREE to use for the first 30 days. So... download it.

12. Now you need to boot from another source that is capable of booting the MacPro and re-initializing the internal RAID.

13. Boot from this boot source. You need to "prepare the RAID drive" by re-initializing it. OF COURSE, you have to back it up first. But you're a Macintosh Pro user and you know about all this, right?

14. Once the RAID drive is "prepped, empty, and waiting", launch CCC.

15. Now, set up the "hard drive install" of HiSierra as your source, and the internal RAID as the target.

16. Let CCC do its thing. You probably also want CCC to clone over the recovery partition, as well.

17. When done, you should have an "as yet untouched" virgin install of HiSierra on the RAID (in HFS+ format), along with the proper recovery partition as well.

18. Now, the "moment of truth". Does it boot? Do you get to the setup process?

19. If the answer is "yes", begin setup. At the appropriate moment, "aim" setup assistant at your backup (again, I recommend CCC to create a bootable cloned backup), and let 'er go. May take a little while, depending on how large it is.

I'll bet this "gets you where you want to go", where other methods have failed!

Really appreciate this mate but I was a bit lost from step 12. I will have a proper look at this later.

Do you think this issue will be fixed in a later iteration of High Sierra so that users can just install the update on an existing RAID setup or is this issue by design?

Again, much appreciated!

 

[jer2eydevil88]

OP:

I have a possible answer for you.

Do this:
1. You will need to use an external platter-based hard drive. Or, perhaps even an internal drive will work -- so long as it's a platter-based spinning hard drive.

2. You will need to create a bootable USB flash drive installer. A 16gb (or larger) flash drive will do.

3. You'll need either "Install disk creator" or "DiskMaker X" with which to create the flash drive. Or, it can be done using the terminal app.

4. Once you have your USB flash installer ready-to-go, do this:

5. Shut down. Connect external hard drive. Connect USB flash installer.

6. Now boot with the option key (to invoke startup manager), and choose the USB installer.

7. Once booted, re-initialize the external target hard drive to HFS+ with journaling enabled.

8. Next, launch the HiSierra installer, "aim it" at the hard drive, and "let 'er go".

9. When done, you should be able to boot from the hard drive (assuming that the Mac Pro you have -can be booted- into HiSierra).

10. DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT do ANYTHING yet. DO NOT begin the setup process. Just politely press the power-on button until the MacPro shuts down. Or pull the plug out of the wall.

11. Now you need CarbonCopyCloner. If you don't already have it, CCC is FREE to download and it's FREE to use for the first 30 days. So... download it.

12. Now you need to boot from another source that is capable of booting the MacPro and re-initializing the internal RAID.

13. Boot from this boot source. You need to "prepare the RAID drive" by re-initializing it. OF COURSE, you have to back it up first. But you're a Macintosh Pro user and you know about all this, right?

14. Once the RAID drive is "prepped, empty, and waiting", launch CCC.

15. Now, set up the "hard drive install" of HiSierra as your source, and the internal RAID as the target.

16. Let CCC do its thing. You probably also want CCC to clone over the recovery partition, as well.

17. When done, you should have an "as yet untouched" virgin install of HiSierra on the RAID (in HFS+ format), along with the proper recovery partition as well.

18. Now, the "moment of truth". Does it boot? Do you get to the setup process?

19. If the answer is "yes", begin setup. At the appropriate moment, "aim" setup assistant at your backup (again, I recommend CCC to create a bootable cloned backup), and let 'er go. May take a little while, depending on how large it is.

I'll bet this "gets you where you want to go", where other methods have failed!

Definitely an option. I am concerned though that High Sierra won't be able to detect the array even if booting off USB.

I'll give this a try later this week and report back.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I am concerned though that High Sierra won't be able to detect the array even if booting off USB."

Then, boot from a current installation (might be LoSierra), and use that to clone from the "hard drive install" (as I mentioned above) to the RAID.

A savvy Mac user keeps MANY bootable drives around, of different versions of the OS, which can be used to boot his Mac...

 

[jer2eydevil88]

"I am concerned though that High Sierra won't be able to detect the array even if booting off USB."

Then, boot from a current installation (might be LoSierra), and use that to clone from the "hard drive install" (as I mentioned above) to the RAID.

A savvy Mac user keeps MANY bootable drives around, of different versions of the OS, which can be used to boot his Mac...

I don't think you understood.

The High Sierra installer can't detect the RAID 5 array.

I don't believe that if I install High Sierra to a USB drive it will fare any better at being detected.

If it isn't detected in High Sierra I cannot clone it using Super Duper or any other tool (e.g. dd).

If you need multiple bootable copies of MacOS floating around I think you are less savvy than you might give yourself credit for...

I have rarely ever needed to revert back to an older version of MacOS and I've been using Apple hardware since back before Marklar was much more than a rumor.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"I don't think you understood.
The High Sierra installer can't detect the RAID 5 array.
I don't believe that if I install High Sierra to a USB drive it will fare any better at being detected.
If it isn't detected in High Sierra I cannot clone it using Super Duper or any other tool (e.g. dd). "

I -DO- "understand".

That's why I posted a "workaround" above that circumvents the problem you mentioned above.

Go back and re-read my instructions, one step at a time.

The object is to install HiSierra onto a plain, ordinary platter-based hard drive.
You do this using a bootable USB flash drive with the HiSierra installer on it (not booting from RAID).

The RAID never even "comes in to play" this way. Like it "wasn't even there".

Then.... you clone this install over to the RAID.
Then see if the install boots that way.

No promises. This may not work, either, but then again, it might.
But worth a try if nothing else is working.

Don't write it off until you've tried it.

 

[jer2eydevil88]

We can write off your "workaround" now. Sometimes I hate being right but my hunch was correct. The installation of High Sierra onto a USB drive works without issue. After the installation the computer is still not able to detect any volumes created in Hardware RAID.

I even tried to create a new array using a new SSD I just purchased today. This is a JBOD configuration of a single disk instead of using the same four SSD's I was using before.

Here are screenshots from my computer showing that the system is able to detect and partition the three different USB drives attached, the RAID array I can see in the RAID Utility is not showing up:
https://imgur.com/a/ueTat
https://imgur.com/a/ufeLn
https://imgur.com/a/nuYAV
https://imgur.com/a/NYPHs

You cannot clone to a volume if the operating system doesn't see it.

OP wrote:
"I don't think you understood.
The High Sierra installer can't detect the RAID 5 array.
I don't believe that if I install High Sierra to a USB drive it will fare any better at being detected.
If it isn't detected in High Sierra I cannot clone it using Super Duper or any other tool (e.g. dd). "

I -DO- "understand".

That's why I posted a "workaround" above that circumvents the problem you mentioned above.

Go back and re-read my instructions, one step at a time.

The object is to install HiSierra onto a plain, ordinary platter-based hard drive.
You do this using a bootable USB flash drive with the HiSierra installer on it (not booting from RAID).

The RAID never even "comes in to play" this way. Like it "wasn't even there".

Then.... you clone this install over to the RAID.
Then see if the install boots that way.

No promises. This may not work, either, but then again, it might.
But worth a try if nothing else is working.

Don't write it off until you've tried it.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"We can write off your "workaround" now. Sometimes I hate being right but my hunch was correct. The installation of High Sierra onto a USB drive works without issue. After the installation the computer is still not able to detect any volumes created in Hardware RAID."

Ok, but something isn't clear to me.

Very VERY IMPORTANT question (after which I'll hold my peace):
After you did the install onto the external drive, did you boot from the new High Sierra install (on the external drive) and then go "looking for the RAID" while still booted up in HiSierra?

If so, that wasn't what I recommended.
No, not at all.

You should have booted from an OS "earlier than" HiSerra. This would be an OS that can "see" the RAID.
And then... CLONE the drive that has the HiSierra install to the RAID inside the Mac Pro.

The whole idea is... IF you can move the HiSierra OS from the external drive to the RAID "without HiSierra knowing that it's been moved", you might coax it to booting from the RAID'd drives.
This is "the key".

I will admit upfront that I don't have a Mac with a RAID in it.
So even if you can clone HiSierra onto an existing RAID that is HFS+, it might still have trouble booting -- perhaps because of drivers?

My line of thought is that if you can just get the HiSierra install ONTO the RAID using LoSierra to "do the move", then HiSierra might not care about where it's booting from.
But I don't know that and can't test it. You can.

If you didn't try this yet, try it, and then let us know.

If it STILL doesn't work, then you have to make a choice:
1. Use a different boot drive in the MacPro
or
2. Go back to LoSierra (until Apple provides a solution).

 

[jer2eydevil88]

In your first post you recommended installing High Sierra to the external USB device. With your latest post I think you are proposing something far more interesting.

That is an interesting proposition and one I want to test.

My first guess is that the system will not see the Raid Volume as bootable. However, if it does then I imagine it will kernel panic on boot.

I'm installing OS X El Capitan now (last version I can download from the Apple Store for some reason) to a different USB hard drive.

After it's done installing I will attempt to clone the High Sierra disk over to the internal Raid Array using Super Duper.

OP wrote:
"We can write off your "workaround" now. Sometimes I hate being right but my hunch was correct. The installation of High Sierra onto a USB drive works without issue. After the installation the computer is still not able to detect any volumes created in Hardware RAID."

Ok, but something isn't clear to me.

Very VERY IMPORTANT question (after which I'll hold my peace):
After you did the install onto the external drive, did you boot from the new High Sierra install (on the external drive) and then go "looking for the RAID" while still booted up in HiSierra?

If so, that wasn't what I recommended.
No, not at all.

You should have booted from an OS "earlier than" HiSerra. This would be an OS that can "see" the RAID.
And then... CLONE the drive that has the HiSierra install to the RAID inside the Mac Pro.

The whole idea is... IF you can move the HiSierra OS from the external drive to the RAID "without HiSierra knowing that it's been moved", you might coax it to booting from the RAID'd drives.
This is "the key".

I will admit upfront that I don't have a Mac with a RAID in it.
So even if you can clone HiSierra onto an existing RAID that is HFS+, it might still have trouble booting -- perhaps because of drivers?

My line of thought is that if you can just get the HiSierra install ONTO the RAID using LoSierra to "do the move", then HiSierra might not care about where it's booting from.
But I don't know that and can't test it. You can.

If you didn't try this yet, try it, and then let us know.

If it STILL doesn't work, then you have to make a choice:
1. Use a different boot drive in the MacPro
or
2. Go back to LoSierra (until Apple provides a solution).

 

[GuilleA]

This is why I'm not upgrading to HS on my mini yet. I've two SSDs in RAID0 working perfectly fine under Sierra and it seems that HS has a lot of issues with RAID. I'm hoping it'll get sorted out in 10.13.1 or 10.13.2.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"In your first post you recommended installing High Sierra to the external USB device. With your latest post I think you are proposing something far more interesting.
That is an interesting proposition and one I want to test."

Please go back and read my reply #12 again, one step at a time.
Print it out if necessary.

You need to do this:

1. Create a bootable USB flash drive with the High Sierra installer on it.

2. Have close-at-hand another bootable drive with Low Sierra (NOT High Sierra) on it, as well.

3. ANOTHER external drive to serve as your "temporary High Sierra" install.

Now, you boot from the USB installer and put an "absolute virgin copy" of High Sierra onto the EXTERNAL drive. An "HFS+ installation", NOT APFS.
Pay no attention to the RAID at this point, as if it wasn't even there.

DON"T TRY TO BOOT FROM THIS NEW INSTALL YET.
When the installer finishes you'll be presented with the setup screen for High Sierra but DON'T do anything yet, JUST REACH OVER AND PRESS THE POWER ON BUTTON UNTIL THE MAC SHUTS DOWN.

Next, you boot from the close--at-hand drive that has Low Sierra on it, get the Mac up-and-running that way.

NOW... you use Disk Utility (running under low Sierra) to reinitialize (erase) the RAID, as an empty HFS+ volume with journaling enabled. Now the RAID is "empty and waiting"...a blank slate.

Finally, you use CarbonCopyCloner (DO NOT use Superduper for this one) to "clone over" BOTH the High Sierra install -and- the recovery partition from the external hard drive.

The result will be:
You'll have a "never yet run" HFS+ copy of High Sierra sitting there on the RAID, recovery partition and all.

OK -- now for the moment of truth:
Try to boot it.
What happens?
(waiting to find this out)

 

[jer2eydevil88]

Followed your instructions.

Used CarbonCopyCloner instead of Superduper.

Here is what happens when I try to boot off the RAID array: https://imgur.com/a/Osp8D

It boots up to a cross out circle.

I have some other news from today.

I spoke with a Senior Advisor at Apple within AppleCare Enterprise who is working on my case. He said that they are reproducing my issue on their own equipment. The question they are asking the Engineering team is if they are going to fix this.

I don't see how they advertise compatibility with this Mac Pro mid-2010 model hardware and then strip away supporting it's RAID functionality.

Time will tell. I will be updating this thread as I learn more.

OP wrote:
"In your first post you recommended installing High Sierra to the external USB device. With your latest post I think you are proposing something far more interesting.
That is an interesting proposition and one I want to test."

Please go back and read my reply #12 again, one step at a time.
Print it out if necessary.

You need to do this:

1. Create a bootable USB flash drive with the High Sierra installer on it.

2. Have close-at-hand another bootable drive with Low Sierra (NOT High Sierra) on it, as well.

3. ANOTHER external drive to serve as your "temporary High Sierra" install.

Now, you boot from the USB installer and put an "absolute virgin copy" of High Sierra onto the EXTERNAL drive. An "HFS+ installation", NOT APFS.
Pay no attention to the RAID at this point, as if it wasn't even there.

DON"T TRY TO BOOT FROM THIS NEW INSTALL YET.
When the installer finishes you'll be presented with the setup screen for High Sierra but DON'T do anything yet, JUST REACH OVER AND PRESS THE POWER ON BUTTON UNTIL THE MAC SHUTS DOWN.

Next, you boot from the close--at-hand drive that has Low Sierra on it, get the Mac up-and-running that way.

NOW... you use Disk Utility (running under low Sierra) to reinitialize (erase) the RAID, as an empty HFS+ volume with journaling enabled. Now the RAID is "empty and waiting"...a blank slate.

Finally, you use CarbonCopyCloner (DO NOT use Superduper for this one) to "clone over" BOTH the High Sierra install -and- the recovery partition from the external hard drive.

The result will be:
You'll have a "never yet run" HFS+ copy of High Sierra sitting there on the RAID, recovery partition and all.

OK -- now for the moment of truth:
Try to boot it.
What happens?
(waiting to find this out)

 

[Fishrrman]

OK, I'll guess there is some problem "at the disk driver level" that is giving you the "no entry" sign. No way to know this, until you tried it.

Best solution (until they fix it, IF they decided to fix it):
Install an SSD to be the boot volume and use that instead.

 

[Wookman]

I spoke with a Senior Advisor at Apple within AppleCare Enterprise who is working on my case. He said that they are reproducing my issue on their own equipment. The question they are asking the Engineering team is if they are going to fix this.

I'd be curious if you've had an update and/or resolution to this yet. Have the same problem, Apple Raid Card in a MacPro5,1. Stuck at Sierra for now.