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software RAID?

M

Megalomaniac

2[H]4U
Joined
Jul 27, 2004
Messages
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OK, im not sure i really realized it really but here goes.

Software RAID is OS dependant, so when you loose the OS the RAID is also lost?

any way around this?
 
Not really, as long as you dont put the OS on the array. If you kill the OS, just reinstall it, and mount the array again. With linux, the array will be hot swappable from computer to computer as well.
 
Software RAID sucks. Period. It basically takes any performance benfit of RAID out of the equation. Also, it offers no redundancy. Don't use it. :)
 
Software raid is not horrible if you are using it for redundancy on storage disks. However the advantages of raid are limited since software raid is not as much a safety net for your operating system partition.
 
Brahmzy said:
Software RAID sucks. Period. It basically takes any performance benfit of RAID out of the equation. Also, it offers no redundancy. Don't use it. :)
Click to expand...
No redundancy from software raid5? Can I have some of what you've been smoking?
Also there isnt much of a performance benefit from raid5 - bit slower on the writes, bit faster on the reads. Main difference between software and hardware raid is with a hardware raid card the card has a chip that does parity calculations, and with software raid, the CPU and system memory are used for calculations.
 
simple place to store my files with the knowledge that a failed drive wont loose them is all i need. software raid is perfectly good for that. (i had 2 drives fail on me, thats more than enough)

raid5 ala intel storage matrix.

i have read their users manual and i didnt understand a few things, but this is one of the worries that i had.

I have my main OS drive and a RAID 5 array.
now, what if i want to reinstall the OS, reformat the OS drive and do it nice and clean?

1) do i loose the array?
2) when winXP pro is reinstalled will I be able to get it back?

3) yeah yeah, thanks to u_m i now know how to set up a linux EVMS array and i know it works great...
 
Megalomaniac said:
simple place to store my files with the knowledge that a failed drive wont loose them is all i need. software raid is perfectly good for that. (i had 2 drives fail on me, thats more than enough)

raid5 ala intel storage matrix.

i have read their users manual and i didnt understand a few things, but this is one of the worries that i had.

I have my main OS drive and a RAID 5 array.
now, what if i want to reinstall the OS, reformat the OS drive and do it nice and clean?

1) do i loose the array?
2) when winXP pro is reinstalled will I be able to get it back?

3) yeah yeah, thanks to u_m i now know how to set up a linux EVMS array and i know it works great...
Click to expand...

No, you dont lose the array.
 
"Software RAID sucks. Period. It basically takes any performance benfit of RAID out of the equation. Also, it offers no redundancy. Don't use it."

Does it suck? No. Is there a performance difference? Yes. Is it significant? Not really. If you're looking at using this for a home server setup the speed difference is insignificant. It does offer redundancy and plenty of 'benfits'. Not everyone wants to have a SAN in their basement to store the family photos on.
 
Software raid is also a heck of a lot more portable, from what I have read (about to set up an arry myself in the next week). In linux it is controlled by a single (fairly simple) config file, as logn as you label your stuff, you should theotically eb able to ahve the arry running on a new system very quickly. That said, it is software, it will use system resources, and with raid 5 it can be considerable, especially for older processors. Unless absoloutly nessecary, I would avoid it on my main system.

Although I would not reccomend it, there are ways to make a software raid arry bootable. Something about a persistent superblock. I need to read up on it some more
 
The portability aspect is correct.
Software RAID is more portable. Both the Linux and Windows Server 2003 versions of software RAID can be moved from one machine to the next and be almost automatically recognized.

With hardware RAID you are very dependant on the controller types and manufactuers. Though I did move a RAID-0 array that was created on a promise controller to a Sil3114 controller and the 3114 recognized the array, even though I had the order fo the drives backwards. It just took a defrag and everything was fine. But I had backed everything up just in case.

After doing some reading, and if I understand what Microsoft was trying to say, If you created a software RAID array on a Server 2003 machine then you could move the drives to a Windows XP machine and the XP machine would recognize the array and mount it. XP just can't create an array. I haven't tried it though.

unhappy_mage is the Linux RAID guru around here and he'd be more than happy to help with any questions you might have.

Also - Do not get into the Software RAID on XP discussion. This violates your EULA and will not be tolerated around here. The only legal way to do this is to create the RAID array on a Windows Server 2003 box and then try to physically move the array to an XP box. And I haven't tested this and I don't know anyone that has, so YMMV. But XP is supposedly able to access an Array that was created on a 2K3 system.

 
RAID on the 965 chipset...(975?)
that would be a software or hardware RAID?
Intel Storage Matrix...
i guess its hardware?
 
Megalomaniac said:
RAID on the 965 chipset...(975?)
that would be a software or hardware RAID?
Intel Storage Matrix...
i guess its hardware?
Click to expand...

It's kinda both....
True hardware RAID has it's own processor for the parity calculations.
The On-board RAID implementations use the CPU to do all of the calculations just like a software setup does. The difference in that one is a BIOS implementation and the other is a OS implementation. The BIOS setups seem to be a little faster than a OS based RAID but they still are not as fast as a RAID card with it's own processor.


 
right, so that the soft-hardware RAID under win XP that i am looking to do. :p
But as i said, I read through the Intel Storage Matrix Manual and FAQ and from the looks of it, the BIOS sets up the RAID, but you can do it in Win also. SO my biggest fear (maybe i misunderstood something) was that if I blow away the OS drive, then I also blow away the RAID array. (OS drive for games and OS+ Raid for storage)
 
Megalomaniac said:
right, so that the soft-hardware RAID under win XP that i am looking to do. :p
But as i said, I read through the Intel Storage Matrix Manual and FAQ and from the looks of it, the BIOS sets up the RAID, but you can do it in Win also. SO my biggest fear (maybe i misunderstood something) was that if I blow away the OS drive, then I also blow away the RAID array. (OS drive for games and OS+ Raid for storage)
Click to expand...

If you put the OS on a completely seperate drive then all you would have to do is re-install XP with the drivers for the RAID controller.

If the OS is on the array, but on a seperate partition, then you would just re-install XP to that partition. The old hit F6 to provide Windows install with the drivers from a floppy.

Both those situations would let you recover your data from RAID storage.

As long as the array itself wasn't nuked.
And they make a SiL3114 RAID 5 card for less than $20 so you could get a redundant array pretty cheap.


 
rodsfree said:
If you put the OS on a completely seperate drive then all you would have to do is re-install XP with the drivers for the RAID controller.

Click to expand...

Yep yep, i will have a Raptor + Raid 5 Array and thats all.
As i said, thats one reason for me to get the Intel chipset, Raid 5 capabilities and 6 SATA drives possible... 1 for Raptor and 4 for Raid.

Thanks for the clear up. As i said, i wasn't sure how the Raid would be handled, and since i would want to upgrade to Vista, or just "clean" windows after a year or so, then i would be afraid the current windows partition.
 
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