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

Martijn van Oosterhout kleptog at svana.org
Wed Oct 10 13:04:40 MDT 2012


On Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 02:42:20PM +1100, David Pisk wrote:
> I am in the process of setting up a business. I know that RAID can be
> configured through the chipset (it seems to be referred to as chipset RAID,
> BIOS RAID, or hardware assisted RAID) or through the operating system (I'm
> using Debian). I have outsourced the building of the web design and all
> aspects of its integration. The contractors can set up operating system
> RAID, but can't remotely set up BIOS RAID. I have done some research, and it
> appears that BIOS RAID is superior to operating system RAID.

I guess in contrast to others here I'm going to side with the hardware
RAID, but only under certain conditions.  There are dismally crap BIOS
RAID controllers and compared to one of those, Linux SW RAID is heaven.

But hardware RAID can have advantages, for example Battery Backup on
your RAID card with onboard RAM will do wonders for your fsync rate,
which will make your RDBMS very very happy. They can have external
connectors which let you attach 30+ HDDs on a single controller.

But if, as you say, you only have 2 disks, chances are you don't need
to spend the money on a good RAID controller, just go for Linux
software RAID.  It's reliable and definitly faster that any random BIOS
controller you're likely to have.

Have a nice day,
-- 
Martijn van Oosterhout   <kleptog at svana.org>   http://svana.org/kleptog/
> He who writes carelessly confesses thereby at the very outset that he does
> not attach much importance to his own thoughts.
   -- Arthur Schopenhauer
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 828 bytes
Desc: Digital signature
URL: <http://lists.samba.org/pipermail/linux/attachments/20121010/a9af39d4/attachment.pgp>


More information about the linux mailing list