I posted a question about possibly upgrading my OWC Thunderbay 4 that I purchased in 2015 as I was facing the second 'mandatory' upgrade fee in 2 years of over $100. Reading more, it appears OWC may be moving towards an annual subscription (though they argue it's not that) and am now hoping to caution anyone considering them and looking for alternatives.
From OWC:
Are You Upgrading to macOS 13?
If you are going to upgrade to macOS 13 Ventura, SoftRAID 7 is required. SoftRAID 7 brings full support of the new OS with powerful management and monitoring features and well as the new Upgrade + Support Plan.
Regarding subscriptions:
While a lot of the software industry is moving to subscription license, we don’t feel this was appropriate for storage software. Why should you have to pay monthly to use your storage hardware you have just bought. So we will continue to provide a perpetual software license for SoftRAID.
OWC is introducing Upgrade + Support Plan, which will give you access to future SoftRAID upgrades and our world class customer support. If you received SoftRAID as part of a bundle with an OWC storage enclosure, you will be automatically enrolled in the Upgrade + Support Plan for the length of your hardware warranty. If you purchase SoftRAID software separately, you will be enrolled for a year. You can then pay an annual fee to remain enrolled in the Upgrade + Support Plan.
If you are using SoftRAID that came with an OWC enclosure, you may be entitled to a free upgrade to SoftRAID 7 XT, depending on your warranty status.
If you are using a standalone copy of SoftRAID or your software is out of warranty you can take advantage of special upgrade pricing before November 30, 2022.
SoftRAID 7 Lite: $29.99 over 40% off (reg. $49.99)
SoftRAID 7 Pro: $99.99 over 45% off (reg. $179.99)
SoftRAID 7 XT: $119.99
So, yes, I technically have a 'perpetual' license for SoftRAID 6 but that locks me into staying on macOS Monterey. I don't consider that a real license. And who is to say that this scenario of having to update to 7 for use on Ventura won't repeat with each new OS update
Anyone else concerned about this move from OWC?
Any suggestions for reliable external storage of photos? I am using RAID5 for parity (but also have 2 local and 1 cloud backups). I am considering moving the 6TB of photos to an enclosure with 4x2TB NVMe drives but not sure if that move would do well as a JBOD setup which I believe the Mac's Disk Utility can turn into a single volume.
Any other suggestions of monitoring for file errors/bit rot?
It’s not uncommon to have to upgrade software periodically. Some upgrades (typically major versions) have a cost and some don’t. Perpetual licenses are pretty much non-expiring license to use the product in perpetuity, but they don’t necessarily include perpetual upgrades. That’s different from subscriptions, which lose some amount of functionality when the subscription runs out.
With SoftRAID you’re being given a choice: continue using version 6 in perpetuity, or upgrade for a fee for major new versions. That’s what Capture One and a number of other vendors do. Further, perpetual licenses don’t necessarily come with perpetual tech support. And it’s not unusual to have to upgrade complicated/critical software when an OS upgrade breaks something (which I’ve found Apple to do pretty regularly).
Reading OWC’s note, it looks like they’re offering you a way to upgrade + get tech support for a fee. I don’t see a requirement that you take advantage of the offer. It’s just an offer. They’re also offering you a more traditional way to buy an upgrade. So unless I’m missing something, they’ve actually done something that looks reasonable.
All good points Abbott and I appreciate your response.
My concern is that I had those thoughts with the move from Version 5 to 6. There was undoubtedly a lot of work with a change to the OS filesystem and move to new chips.
But OWC has been anything but transparent about what is so new about Ventura that necessitated a major version increase after 1 year.
And if they won't explain that, how can anyone know whether this will repeat in a year's time.
As opposed to C1 or other software programs, OWC sells hardware and 'includes' their SoftRAID program to offer increased functionality and, arguably, lower cost (vs a hardware RAID solution).
My pessimistic view is that they see this as a new revenue source and plan to follow a yearly upgrade plan.
If I'm wrong, great. If not, I really don't want to have to pay $120/year for the privilege of being allowed to update my Mac OS and maintain read/write access to my date on an enclosure that I paid full price for.
Softraid 6 never worked as advertised with MacOS Monterey. OWC has claimed it was an Apple bug, but the bottom line is that a RAID 5 volume would frequently kernel panic after booting your Mac. There are sticky threads on the Softraid forums about this. This has supposedly been fixed in Ventura. I already paid for the SoftRaid 6 upgrade which I couldn't use due to the bug, but I don't think I'll pay more $$ to go to SoftRaid 7. This upgrade is really to support the new MacOS release. Unlike other paid software upgrades, it doesn't look like there's much as far as new features. While I've had generally good and responsive support from SoftRaid, that has not been the case with OWC hardware and their support, but perhaps I'll save that for another post.
@eyal, I'd be interested in what alternative you find.
SOFTRaid is awful. I bought a Thunderbolt 4 drive enclosure thinking I could make a direct connected RAID 5. It was so slow and buggy I just use it JBOD and will never buy any of their RAID stuff again. I wasted a ton of money on this thing.
There is an option to convert the SoftRAID to AppleRaid which will eliminate the need to use SoftRAID (I believe). Just not certain how AppleRAID stacks up.
schlotz wrote:
There is an option to convert the SoftRAID to AppleRaid which will eliminate the need to use SoftRAID (I believe). Just not certain how AppleRAID stacks up.
In my experience SoftRAID has been terrible and buggy. I dumped it for Apple's built-in RAID a couple years ago and its been rock-solid. You couldn't pay me to go back to SoftRAID.
amv8 wrote:
Softraid 6 never worked as advertised with MacOS Monterey. OWC has claimed it was an Apple bug, but the bottom line is that a RAID 5 volume would frequently kernel panic after booting your Mac. There are sticky threads on the Softraid forums about this. This has supposedly been fixed in Ventura. I already paid for the SoftRaid 6 upgrade which I couldn't use due to the bug, but I don't think I'll pay more $$ to go to SoftRaid 7. This upgrade is really to support the new MacOS release. Unlike other paid software upgrades, it doesn't look like there's much as far as new features. While I've had generally good and responsive support from SoftRaid, that has not been the case with OWC hardware and their support, but perhaps I'll save that for another post.
schlotz wrote:
There is an option to convert the SoftRAID to AppleRaid which will eliminate the need to use SoftRAID (I believe). Just not certain how AppleRAID stacks up.
Apple only does raid 0 or raid 1. That said, if you have a good back up strategy and are aware of the risks, it can be a viable route. No worries about bugs or incompatibilities with Softraid, and guaranteed support.
amv8 wrote:
While I've had generally good and responsive support from SoftRaid, that has not been the case with OWC hardware and their support, but perhaps I'll save that for another post.
I'd be interested in what alternative you find.
After lots of consideration including TrueNAS, Qnap, Terramaster and NVMe vs SSD vs more spinning disks, I'm pretty sure I have my plan; though I don't love it.
1. Purchase a new OWC Thunderbay 4 Mini for $350 - this gets me 3 years of included SoftRAID updates for the current Thunderbay 4 full size. I plan to fill the Thunderbay Mini with 2-3 4TB Samsung 870 EVOs pending BF sales. I will transfer all photos and movies here and will have this set as a JBOD with Mac creating a single volume (No RAID). Should get fast, silent and have backups to 3 local and 1 Backblaze.
2. Keep the old Thunderbay 4 now daisy chained which will serve as RAID5 backup to the Mini and will keep the 5 year old disks in there. Everything backed up so not concerned about loss. My Plex data currently is not backed up so will see about getting it backed up here.
Not a perfect answer but I think makes the most sense.
What I am unsure of is if Mac will be able to grow the Mini volume if I add a fourth SSD in the future...
The other thing to check with OWC is if you change computers can you move the Softraid from one to another. I know you cannot add it to a 2nd machine (you need to buy another license). I bought a TB4mini from them some time ago and found that out after wanting to move it back and forth between desk and laptop. I ended up just using Windows Disk Manager and going JBOD, 4 drive volumes rather than a single volume.
mcbroomf wrote:
The other thing to check with OWC is if you change computers can you move the Softraid from one to another. I know you cannot add it to a 2nd machine (you need to buy another license). I bought a TB4mini from them some time ago and found that out after wanting to move it back and forth between desk and laptop. I ended up just using Windows and going JBOD, 4 drive volumes rather than a single volume.
I definitely was able to move SoftRAID from my old iMac to my current MacBook Pro last year. But yes, limited to single device at a time and would be too big a pain to transfer a license repeatedly.
eyal wrote:
Yes and somehow I was able to get a free upgrade maybe based on buying a thinderbolt device in the past year.
I have been posting on their forums and they have done a good job of explaining the change. The updated SoftRAID 7 page and links reflect that.
Yes, I just went through that process too. My upgrade to SoftRAID 7 from 6 was free too. Just took me some fiddling to figure out how to find the old serial number and then upgrade.
So far all back to normal with SoftRAID 7 on macOS Ventura. I'm using with the OWC Thunderblade
eyal, thanks for the alert on the upgrade to SoftRAID required by updating the OS. In the past SoftRAID was buggy and awful. Lately it hasn't been so much of a PITA. I hope that the required upgrade will go well when I finally decide to update my MacOS. I will wait to do that as I have some trips coming up.
eyal wrote:
I posted a question about possibly upgrading my OWC Thunderbay 4 that I purchased in 2015 as I was facing the second 'mandatory' upgrade fee in 2 years of over $100. Reading more, it appears OWC may be moving towards an annual subscription (though they argue it's not that) and am now hoping to caution anyone considering them and looking for alternatives.
From OWC:
...
If you are using a standalone copy of SoftRAID or your software is out of warranty you can take advantage of special upgrade pricing before November 30, 2022.
SoftRAID 7 Lite: $29.99 over 40% off (reg. $49.99)
SoftRAID 7 Pro: $99.99 over 45% off (reg. $179.99)
SoftRAID 7 XT: $119.99
... ...Show more →
Where did you see/find this pricing? I have SoftRaid 5, just bought a Mac Studio, and need to go to SoftRaid 7, but my license does not provide any "upgrade" pricing options.
