NVRaid or Software for Mirroring?

[zandor]

I just retired the pile of old SCSI & FC-AL drives in my file server box and replaced them with a pair of 1TB SATAs I intend to run in a mirror. In the past I've just used Linux software raid for mirrors, which worked fine. Is there any reason to use NVRaid (NForce 4, S393 A64 3200+)? It seems like it would just cause trouble and, being a fake raid, offer no performance improvement. That said, performance is of little concern as it's mostly just a storage system. My crusty old SCSIs were still plenty tolerable.

Just in case you're curious about the old setup...
120GB WD1200JB PATA - Still running since it's full of stuff I need to copy to the new drives.
9GB 10k rpm Quantum SCSI, purchased fall 1999.
18GB 10k rpm IBM Ultrastar SCSI, purchased spring 2001.
18GB 7.2k rpm Seagate SCSI from 1999-2000 or so (got it free in the mail from a former employer after they laid me off... wtf? Later they gave me a Sun Ultra 10... WTFx10!?)
10 18GB 10k rpm Fibre Channel drives I got cheap off eBay in an external case. Actually, I got 30 of them cheap off eBay and never got around to spending actual $ to put the other 20 in service. A couple of them died, but I think I have 27 or so left. I'm leaving the external box with the FC-AL drives in it where it is but powered off for now. I'm using the case as a shelf for my networking gear, and if I got rid of it I might have to buy furniture.

 

[Shaggy3zx]

Using MD is better than a fake raid. Its more flexible, more robust and has proven reliability. Also if you have a problem you have a chance at fixing the issue. If a fake raid becomes corrupted you may be up a creek. Of course you should have a current backup for those moments.

 

[zandor]

That's what I figured. You'd think if they did it right a Raid-1 would just look like a single drive if you pulled it and stuck it in another machine. The only possible advantage of fake raid over MD that I can really think of would be more seamless booting off the mirror if disk 0 dies. Worst case I'd have to pull the drive and stuff it into my main rig, but that's unlikely. Most likely the only hassle I'd suffer in the event of a single disk failure is if disk 0 puked and I had to boot from CD to fix GRUB on disk 1.

I'd mess around and find out if I had more time, but alas law school classes start again on Monday and I just don't want to mess with it. I've been using MD for years, and it does what I need. After not getting any responses last night I just went ahead and installed using MD.