[clug] Hardware Assisted RAID (RAID through BIOS/Chipset RAID)

[Peter Barker]

On Wed, 10 Oct 2012, steve jenkin wrote:

> +1.
>
> Much more succinct than my reply, too.
>
> I missed the obvious Andrew has pointed out:
> you need a recovery system when the BIOS is fried.
>
> In 3-4 years, will you be able to get a motherboard with that chipset?
> If not, All Your Data Are Belong to... Nobody. It's just rust.

Well... not quite.  There's a man-page for that:

From: http://www.linuxmanpages.com/man8/dmraid.8.php

---
dmraid discovers block and software RAID devices (eg, ATARAID) by using 
multiple different metadata format handlers which support various formats 
(eg, Highpoint 37x series
---
"dmraid -l" lists all supported metadata formats with their names along 
with some descriptive information, eg:
hpt37x : (+) Highpoint HPT37X
hpt45x : (+) Highpoint HPT45X
isw : (+) Intel Software RAID
lsi : (0) LSI Logic MegaRAID
pdc : (+) Promise FastTrack
sil : (+) Silicon Image(tm) Medley(tm)
dos : (+) DOS partitions on SW RAIDs
(0): Discover, (+): Discover+Activate
----


That being said, I would suggest Linux software RAID in most 
circumstances.

I'm happy - I've just eliminated a hardware RAID device which 
under-performed all its life, and was a sore-thumb in terms of 
single-point-of-failure.

Yours,

Peter


>
> Andrew Janke wrote on 10/10/12 3:17 PM:
>> Hi David,
>>
>> On 10 October 2012 13:42, David Pisk <ykds4795 at tpg.com.au> wrote:
>>> I have done some research, and it
>>> appears that BIOS RAID is superior to operating system RAID.
>>
>> Can't say I agree. If anything the opposite.  Certainly SW linux raid
>> is faster (on any reasonable hardware setup) than any "BIOS raid" I
>> have seen.  The major advantage of SW raid is that when your BIOS raid
>> dies you are stuffed unless you can find the same motherboard or a
>> compatible version.
>>
>> With SW raid, any linux machine will do for recovery.
>>
>>
>> a
>>
>
>
> -- 
> Steve Jenkin, Info Tech, Systems and Design Specialist.
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>
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Peter Barker                          |   Programmer,Sysadmin,Geek.
pbarker at barker.dropbear.id.au	      |   You need a bigger hammer.
:: It's a hack! Expect underscores! - Nigel Williams