Sony Srx 320 LMT 300 Raid help

[Edward Torres]

good morning everyone, I've been looking for help with a sony srx 320 lmt 300, I have many concerns regarding formatting the raid that I hope someone can help me with. - if they have formatted the raid, what exact steps should be followed? - Do I connect my equipment through the CTR IN or DATA IN port?

- the marriage and security status should be Ok ? projector closed ?

- In "software update" check the box "initialize setup application default"?

- What raid file do you apply? (I have raid 2.0 and 3.05) in what order?

the sony guide says
1- raid builder 1.0
2- soft reboot 1.0 or reboot mb 2.0?
3- once reboot apply raid formatter until status is complete,
4 - reboot software or reboot mb 2.0 5 - shutdown equipment shutdown
6- start and raid done

I follow these steps but my raid is always 85 mb of capacity I had the server damaged for 6 months and 15 days ago I just turned on and tried it and raid was satisfactory ... strangely. until yesterday that the raid was broken due to a failure of ups

[Marco Giustini]

It escapes me why Sony kept things so unnecessarily complicated with the LMT-300.
The RAID on a LMT-300 should be RAID-6 with hot spare if memory serves. You need two disks to go before the RAID fails. Even a UPS failure might not be enough to break it.

Are you sure you have enough working disks in that server? You can test them on a standard PC. I recommend Hard Disk Sentinel to inspect the SMART table and do some basic tests.
Also, I was told that only Sony sourced HDDs would work on the LMT - that was to avoid customers to install their own HDDs apparently...
And somehow ONLY 500GB HDDs. It escapes me why the RAID was not scalable to bigger disks.

Finally, 6 months unpowered might be enough for the mediablock to fail?

[Leo Enticknap]

Someone who used to work for Sony told me that there are some bytes that have to be written to the MBR of a drive that a Sony server looks for to determine if the drive is "legal" to use. It is possible to write these manually to a non-Sony drive, apparently, but I've forgotten the details as to how (assuming that he ever gave me the necessary detail). In short, using non-Sony supplied drives in a Sony server is like flashing a Barco ICP for use in an NEC, or vice-versa: it's doable, but a nontrivial process.

[Edward Torres]

hello, thanks for your answer, I have 2 servers, one with 6 green disks - the other with 6 and one in gray as hot backup, all with green light on the front of the server.
All the discs were on the servers and they came from Sony!

- Both servers were damaged for 6 months, about 15 days ago I tried to raid and it worked without problem. Now the raid is broken due to power outages and it seems like bad manipulation....

- I ask the exact process of doing raid since a few days ago it worked for me, but I have the doubts mentioned above

- I've really done it so many times that the day it worked I didn't know what steps I followed

[Edward Torres]

Someone who used to work for Sony told me that there are some bytes that have to be written to the MBR of a drive that a Sony server looks for to determine if the drive is "legal" to use. It is possible to write these manually to a non-Sony drive, apparently, but I've forgotten the details as to how (assuming that he ever gave me the necessary detail). In short, using non-Sony supplied drives in a Sony server is like flashing a Barco ICP for use in an NEC, or vice-versa: it's doable, but a nontrivial process.

Hello, thanks for your answer, all the discs that I am using are directly from sony, regarding what you say I also read that someone reviewed byte by byte and at the end of the formatting that sony sends from the factory in his hdd comes a text file as a digital signature with some specific words in reverse, noitaroproc ynos something similar...

[Marco Giustini]

at the end of the formatting that sony sends from the factory in his hdd comes a text file as a digital signature with some specific words in reverse, noitaroproc ynos something similar...

Yes, that sounds very much Sony!

[Ioannis Syrogiannis]

So, in theory, cloning an LMT drive would create one working.
People were so looking forward for larger than 500GB drives on SRX-R320s, once there was an update on SRX-R500s that would allow them.

[Marco Giustini]

I can't imagine what they did to prevent that from happening. I am not a developer but I guess some hardcoded settings which would stop working if the size of the RAID was changed.
It's a RAID 6: it should be scalable as it's been scalable anywhere else!

[Carsten Kurz]

The Sony RAID uses a special RAID accelerator card. They very much control what's happening and what is allowed.
Just as other manufacturers could, if they'd want, simply read disk device types, compare them to a list, and stop working if they find one that is not on the list. Some external RAID units for DCI servers do that. It's easy to hack that list usually, though.

The SONY ID on the SONY OEM drives to my knowledge does not stop a non-SONY drive from being used. The ID is used for a quick drive integration into a working RAID6. If you do a full reformat, other drives without an ID can be used on the LMT-300. But that full format takes ages to finish, in part due to the more complex RAID6 nature.
The ID on the drive only makes sure that the server knows it's a prepared drive for immediate integration.

Unfortunately, this is not documented too well, other than e.g. with Dolbys and Doremis. And few Sony users ever had to format their RAID, so, experience is not there.
But some IMS as we know are also picky.

[Edward Torres]

Hello, thanks for your answers... I have read so much about this topic and I try everything to try to make it work but it keeps failing.

11111111.png

The SONY ID on the SONY OEM drives to my knowledge does not stop a non-SONY drive from being used. The ID is used for a quick drive integration into a working RAID6. If you do a full reformat, other drives without an ID can be used on the LMT-300. But that full format takes ages to finish, in part due to the more complex RAID6 nature.
The ID on the drive only makes sure that the server knows it's a prepared drive for immediate integration.

With respect to what you mention, I also read in this forum about the digital signature of Sony on its HDDs (LMT300). Today it is easier to find and add it. However, I still do not have the correct storage, the contact with Sony is null. I share this information here maybe someone will be of use to you

Captura de pantalla 2023-07-13 211120 (2).png

[Carsten Kurz]

I have seen it previously as 'sti a DDH of ynoS' - and repeated a few times at the end of the disc. A german colleague was able to copy these strings to a pair of plain vanilla 500 GB discs of the same type (Hitachi), and they were immediately detected as hot spares and integrated into his RAID. But it took 32hrs to finish (two discs). Another colleague has a Sony supplied spare on the shelf, they now seem to use Seagate Barracuda (same series as used in SRX-R5xx/8xx, but not 1TB, but 500GB capacity).


I assume your signature is from a disc that has been in operation in an LMT300? The signature of a factory-fresh replacement disc (hot spare) may be different. The server needs to be able to tell a hot spare from a working disc.

Are you sure all your batteries have been replaced? The RAID also needs backup batteries to work.

I understand this is a nuissance. I have never seen any tech document from Sony explaining this fully. And very few people ever had the need to do a full RAID reinit AND make proper notes about the process and software versions used.

[Edward Torres]

I assume your signature is from a disc that has been in operation in an LMT300? The signature of a factory-fresh replacement disc (hot spare) may be different. The server needs to be able to tell a hot spare from a working disc.



I understand this is a nuissance. I have never seen any tech document from Sony explaining this fully. And very few people ever had the need to do a full RAID reinit AND make proper notes about the process and software versions used.

Hello everyone, after a long time and many ways of doing it, I somehow achieved a Raid of 815 GB... it has been fully functional for 1 month now... copying the signature to new disks works without problem, they are added to the raid immediately.... right now I only have "RTC error" apparently I have a time mismatch between the SMS and the mediablock... does anyone know the clock update password? thank you !

image.pngimage.png

[Ioannis Syrogiannis]

A RAID6 with 7 disks of 500GB don't seem to add up to 815GB. Not even with 6 (disks).
My guess is that the initiating would start from Sony CineWatch. I am a bit rusty there. But the capacity sum doesn't seem right.

[Stefan Scholz]

Within the initial sectors reversed A HDD OF SONY is expected for a "microcode modified drive", as Edward Torres showed nicely. I wasn't sure before seeing it , if it was "ITS A SONY" or "A HDD OF SONY" was correct. Thanks for posting.
Otherwise standard market disks of the same brand and type/ version can work. But a RAID format/ REBUILD eventually takes a handful of days, before it's back to life. And you should not be scared by not seeing any perceived progress. It takes a lot of time. I did years ago. Leaving it for a week, and when returning on site, it was there.

To be fair to the construction, the LMT 300 is practically the older LMT 100 combination in the SRX 220 unit built projection system, dating back to 2007. So from technology even older, probably 2003.
LMT 300 is everything, just in one box, SMS server, storage server, network switch/ router/ bridge and graphics. With the technological limitations of the time, when 500 GB was a substantial size for a HDD.
Did competitors offer higher storage amounts?

We haven't answered the questions of the thread starter so far.
This meaning, I have to bring my Win XP computer from the time of Sony 220/ 320 with the documentation and tools.
AFAIR the setup of SMS/ storage components have different access. SMS server to be updated/ modified over the internal network. The external ports are not bridged or forwarded. Port 8081 to be used.
LMT/ MB updates or modifications go over the external network port (maintenance port) on Port 41902.
edit: According to my notes, a gateway to the internal network from external network connection is provided from FW version 5.121 onwards, so you can use the same connection.

Showing just 85 MB of capacity, this is the remainig space on the internal system disk. It does not see the RAID storage cluster. The cause could be multiple. Either a corrupted storage cluster, which might be restructured with the procedure given below. Or faulty hardware, which after 17 to 20 years is also likely to be the case, as it is lead free soldering used in manufacturing.

There are 2 tools I have. A RAID-Builder-1.00.elp and a RAID-Formatter-3.00.elp, to be used with LMT 300.
According to my notes from the trainings, following procedure is done:

1) LMT has to be in steady state, "Ready". Meaning READY LED with steady light. No Play/ Pause or Ingest mode running.
2) Navigate with web browser to the external address http://XXX.XXX.XXX.XXX:41902. Any firewall to be deactivated!!!!
3) Identify user passwd
4)Raid-Builder.elp upload, do not tick "initialize" !!!!!
5)When "Software update complete" appears in browser, complete POR to be done by selecting "shut down" in TPC.
6) Turn on, wait until steady state is indicated by steady "Ready" LED.
7) Reconnect and authenticate with browser as before. Start uploading "Raid-Formatter.elp".
8) Wait for "Software update complete", power on cycle as before using TPC shutdown.
9) Start system, let it run until "Ready" is continuously on.

To reinitialize both tools must be used. Remember all stored data on the Raid is wiped out and must be reingested.