Spanning Array over Multiple Controllers

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Infin1ty

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Mar 14, 2012
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I couldn't find an answer, or perhaps didn't search well.
I was wondering if it's possible to create a raid array spanned over multiple controllers, for example taking 4 x MegaRAID LSI, and creating RAID10 array using disks on all the 4 controllers.
I know it's possible using software raid (for obvious reasons), but is it possible for example using with hardware raid (be it LSI, Adaptec, Areca, etc...)?
 
Areca SAS PCIe HBAs support spanning arrays over multiple adapters.
 
Yes, it supports having multiple cards in one system, but I take it your striped volume is on the OS level? I never saw any options to span arrays across multiple controllers when I had multiple HBAs in each system.
 
Blue Fox said:
Yes, it supports having multiple cards in one system, but I take it your striped volume is on the OS level? I never saw any options to span arrays across multiple controllers when I had multiple HBAs in each system.
Click to expand...

Yes, it is not supported at the BIOS level, these are striped (as opposed to spanned) at the OS level. The last card that did array spanning (reliably) were the Raidcore series of boards from c. 2005 and later the broadcam controllers based on the Raidcore IP.
 
Well, doing it on an OS level isn't really Areca exclusive. You can pretty much do that with any RAID HBA (even if they aren't the same)
 
Blue Fox said:
Well, doing it on an OS level isn't really Areca exclusive. You can pretty much do that with any RAID HBA (even if they aren't the same)
Click to expand...

Well, you can span across dissimilar arrays, but you can only stripe like arrays (meaning exact sizing.. Differences of a single meg will cause failure to create the volume.. Some cards support size truncation which makes it easier to match but in general like arrays are suggested.
 
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