[PLUG] software RAID

Aaron Burt aaron at speakeasy.org
Thu Oct 2 18:25:02 UTC 2003


On Thu, 2 Oct 2003, Derek Loree wrote:
> As far as I know, the only "real" hardware RAID controllers are SCSI,
> the IDE controllers that claim to be hardware RAID controllers are
> actually using software to do the controlling (I think this is inherent
> in the IDE control scheme, with most of the control on the drive, not
> the card).

Some IDE RAID cards do the work on the card and look like one big block
device, just like SCSI RAID cards.  3Ware makes ones like that.  Others
are simply multi-channel IDE cards with a special BIOS to ease booting
from software RAID devices.  Promise makes ones like that.

As an aside, I'd like to note that hardware RAID is not always faster
and easier to manage than software RAID.  It really depends on the card,
driver and application.

> For a robust configuration, hot-swap RAID, with SCSI drives is the only
> way to go.

That is indeed a good way to go when it fits budget, needs and usage.

A "different tools for different jobs" B





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