High Sierra Installation on Existing RAID 0 Array

Hello,


I have the development beta of macOS 10.13, however I cannot install the upgrade because of the SSD RAID 0 I set up earlier this year to increase R/W speeds. The exact error message from the installation utility is "You may not install to this volume because it is part of a AppleRAID."

It is a software RAID done through Disk Utility on a MacBook Pro 9,2 with 2x Crucial MX300 275GB SSDs. I remember I had to create two separate partitions from each of the two drives, and RAID two of them together as a main drive and the others as a recovery drive in order for the operating system to install.

I am currently running Sierra, and the only other modification the laptop has is a memory increase (4GB to 16GB).

I would like to preserve my files in the same fashion as a regular installation of a new OS onto a single drive system. What would be the easiest way to do this? I have access to two 1TB hard drives I could RAID together to use as a backup system, and do a clean installation of High Sierra, and then transfer over the files from before. This is a bit tedious, and I am unsure about how to do this with a beta software which can't be pulled from the online recovery system during startup. So, if there are any more convenient ways to go about this issue, I would really appreciate the advice. Thank you!

Replies

If you created the RAID 0 using Disk Utility GUI in latest beta, then I think you don't have APFS as a choice.
But you can have an APFS Raid 0 volume using Terminal:


diskutil appleRAID create stripe "HighSierra" apfs disk3 disk4


Don't forget to replace [disk3] and [disk4] with your correct disk id´s


This way you will end up with an APFS RAID 0 (stripe) and then you do the same you did with Disk Utility to restore your previous HS instalation and if that doesn't work with APFS for some reason, then do it like I did with Carbon Copy Cloner V5

Actually I did the steps you mentioned above, but used disk utility instead of CCC to restore the system. (I also tried time machine restore)

With JHFS+ it boots straight away, but with APFS, the partition is showed but it restarts automatically while it boots. The partition was working as I tested it by copying large file to it, it just wont boot. I am happy with JHFS+ at the moment, I will try again with the public release I guess.

I don't have any problem booting from my Raid 0 APFS but this is a not very good way to do it because on next update I will have to repeat the same steps to get it working if apple doesn't allow us to use Raid 0 with APFS

Even with JHFS+, I have no luck updating the system. It can download and install the update, but the version doesn't change at all apparently. I guess I need to break the RAID for the future until we find ways to avoid that. 😐

OK, so booting macOS 13 from APFS RAID 0 volume not supported! GOT IT!

I have the same issue. Mac Mini with two internal 500MB HDDs in Raid 0. Can't upgrade to High Sierra 😢

Oh, this is terrible news. I'm currently running Sierra from a SSD RAID0 I setup during a clean install using Disk Utility, and then installing Sierra.

What does this mean now? I won't be able to simply upgrade to HS?

Any luck?

Someone from the more general forums pointed me here, just the place I want to be. Exact same situation as most, running Sierra from a RAID 0 on a pair of SSDs (on a PCI card no less) in a cheesegrater.


So we see 2 very different messages from Apple... honestly, what they have publically posted MUST be what they deliver. The only question following their statement as quoted above is "Can DIsk Utility make a RAID on 2 APFS formatted volumes?" They DO say you can't USE APFS to create the RAID, that makes sense.


According to that, as I have a clone of my boot drive (SSD RAID), theoretically I can upgrade that to HS, break the array, APFS each SSD, create the RAID then clone my updated first clone back to the array. BUT I'd lose my **** completely if I then saw it say it can't boot that way or some stuff like that.


How do we get Apple to really give us a definitive answer?

https://bugreport.apple.com/


I saw in the APFS Guide FAQ that APFS supports RAID configurations: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/releasenotes/General/RN-macOSSDK-10.13/index.html


There is no mention that AppleRAID support was dropped from the macOS High Sierra Release Notes: https://developer.apple.com/library/content/releasenotes/General/RN-macOSSDK-10.13/index.html


I filed a bug: 34756034

and one more note:

SSD startup drives get converted to APFS during high sierra install, but not Fusion drives. Internaly they work like Raid's i guess and therefor they stay as HFS+ but the high Sierra install succeeds. I wonder why Apple didnt choose the same path for Software Raid's, if there is still an issue with APFS and Raid volumes … real bummer for my several MacMini Servers that all run SSD Raid1 startup drives for reliability.

I am stunned there is no migration path docs released by Apple, how to convert from AppleRAID to APFS RAID.. Looks like it was all forgotten in the cut and dry transition.

Just for anyone else searching, it appears that a clean install of High Sierra with newly made APFS RAID 0 will not work either.


I have a 2012 Mac Mini with 2 Samsung 850 PROs that ran Raid 0 on El Capitan. I'm morbid + I have the luxury of all my data being backed up elsewhere so I wiped the raid array, installed High Sierra via bootable USB on an external SSD, booted from there and then created a new APFS raid with the two Samsungs. Previously, the High Sierra installer would not even let me select the El Capitan created Raid partition at all. However, once I made it a APFS raid, it allowed me to select the drive. Install went 100% until the very end where I get the error message "Could not create a pre-boot volume for APFS install".


I'm trying internet install for ***** and giggles but I'm fairly sure I will get the same result. I hope this saves someone a few hours 🙂

That kinda suspiciously sounds like a different issue, the fact the OS will not create a recovery partition when installing onto a RAID array. Again, how can we get them to speak to us about this issue?

Just found this thread and did exactly the same attempt to install after booting to external flash drive and creating APFS RAID on my previous Apple Raid setup. Haver early 2011 MBP with RAID) setup on 2 - 275GB Crucial SSDs.


10.3 will get to 100% and then get error message.


Resored back to my old set up (RAID0) on 10.11.6. Never updated to Sierra.


Figure will have to wait for Apple to update with solution. Just hope will one day be able to update OSX once again.