first time trying RAID (sata 150) ... tips? howtos?

GenTimJS · Guru Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 406 Location: NH, USA

I confess that I have never done much with RAID in the past, at least not on x86.

What ive got:

Asus A8V Deluxe mobo (amd64 cpu, but will be running x86 gentoo install) with onboard promise SATA raid controller
2 200gb sata150 drives

I'd like to get them doing raid0

tips?
what do i need in kernel land?
fstab?
_________________
-Tim Smith

golloza · Guru Joined: 14 Mar 2004 Posts: 427

Is it a real hardware RAID controller?

GenTimJS · Guru Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 406 Location: NH, USA

Yes, hardware RAID

if i understand properly, these things typically show up to linux as a different type of device than a "normal" sata disk? /mda or something rather than /sda ?
_________________
-Tim Smith

SpecvWillis · Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 1:53 pm Post subject:

If it's onboard Sata Raid, I seriously doubt it's hardware based. It's another one of those software raid chips. I may be wrong, but I don't think you can create a bootable linux drive on software Raid0, only Raid1.

SpecvWillis · Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 1:54 pm Post subject:

Yes, in linux the drives will show up as /dev/sda or /dev/sdb

GenTimJS · Guru Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 406 Location: NH, USA

not worried about booting.

I have an IDE ata133 drive for boot and for my / filesystem, the sata drives are going to be just for data storage (its a network file server after all)

so assuming i setup the (software i guess?) raid properly in the bios, will the array show up as one device in linux land?
can it be that simple?
_________________
-Tim Smith

SpecvWillis · Posted: Wed Jun 01, 2005 2:20 pm Post subject:

Nope, because these are software based Raid controllers, it will always look like 2 devices to Linux. I have a similar system but with a VIA Sata Raid controller. I didn't setup any raid in the BIOS, I just used software Raid to create a Raid 0 set. You should take a look at either dmraid, or raidtools