BIM Server error reading external RAID drive files

[Anonymous]

We have a Mac Mini running as our bimserver with an external thunderbolt drive with RAID 0 to store the Project Data and Library Data. It has been running fine for several months. When we started it up this morning, the bimserver application started before the hard drive (bad connection) and now the data is not being read properly by the application.

Specifically, the existing project files give the message "Project is not shared" when they are opened. Also project backup information is not viewable and the Bimserver libraries are not visible in the Server Manager. All of the files appear to be saved fine in the RAID drive.

We can restore the project files from locally saved .PLN files but how can be the Bimserver libraries be restored? Do we need to reinstall the Bimserver module?

[Laszlo Nagy]

Can't you just simply Stop the BIM Server, then start it again?

If not, somethingelse needs to be done.
But the rest I am writing here is just speculation.

I am not an IT guy but I think there may be a way to set the services related to the BIM Server to check if other services (like the external HD driver) to be loaded and running before they start or something like this.
I think there should be some tools that let you define such dependencies.
So basically the idea is that the system lets all the BIMServer services start only when all other services needed for them to be able to access the external HD are already loaded and running.
Maybe someone with more MacOS system knowledge can chime in.

[KenMcN]

golmerdanger wrote:
We have a Mac Mini running as our bimserver with an external thunderbolt drive with RAID 0 to store the Project Data and Library Data. It has been running fine for several months. When we started it up this morning, the bimserver application started before the hard drive (bad connection) and now the data is not being read properly by the application…

We had this problem a while ago… desperately trying to remember the detail of how this was solved!

The issue is that the BIM server is looking for the RAID and when it can't find the old one it creates a new link to a Volume with the old name. This means the RAID can't get this name even after a restart when they drive loads in the correct order (sorry, not an IT specialist, terminology may be rubbish).

In Terminal on the mini if you type "cd /Volumes" then "ls" you will get a list of the volumes it knows. There may be two with the same name but a different number–i.e. RAID and RAID0, if you look inside RAID it should have the BIM server data structure but no actual files, they should be in the other one.

IF you delete RAID and restart the other volume should now be correctly named RAID and the BIM server can find it. But DO A BACKUP OF THE SYSTEM FIRST!

Not sure how much sense this makes or how familiar you are with Terminal. Let me know how you get on and if I can be of any more help.

[Anonymous]

We ended up going to our backup .PLNs to create new Bimserver files, but after loading the new files, I noticed the RAID had a "1" added to the name. Our fix was to relocate the Project Data path in the Bimserver preferences.

I think I will delete the extra RAID directory that was created, after backing up the system.

Thanks!