Software Or hardware RAID?

[Teilhard Knight]

Hi:

How could I know whether my motherboard comes with a software or a hardware
RAID? For the knowledgeable, my motherboard is the Asus A7V333. I tried to
install SUSE in one partition of one of my HDs, and the installer tells me I
have a software RAID, and that if I dear to install, all data in the RAID
will be lost. Now, I have a primary and a secondary channel as any computer,
and the RAID with anther primary and secondary channels. In the RAID I am
supposed to plug only HDs, and I have one HD in the regular primary channel
as master, and another HD in the primary RAID channel, also as master. The
SUSE installer detects both HDs in the RAID, which makes me wonder whether
the ordinary channels are part of the RAID.

As you can notice, my knowledge about hardware is poor, so any help will be
appreciated.

Teilhard.

 

[Mike Walsh]

The biggest difference between hardware RAID and software RAID is you can't load your OS from software RAID since the OS must be running to load the RAID drivers. RAID always consists of more than one disk in an array, so the single disk you have on the RAID adapter is not configured as RAID.

 

[Teilhard Knight]

The biggest difference between hardware RAID and software RAID is you
can't load your OS from software RAID since the OS must be running to load
the RAID drivers.

I don't quite follow you here. Are you saying that I need to load an OS in a
HD on one of the regular channels to be able to load the drivers to
habilitate the RAID? If you couldn't do this I would see the situation as an
impasse. No drivers, no OS; no OS, no drivers.

< RAID always consists of more than one disk in an array, so the single disk
you have on the RAID adapter is not configured as RAID.>

So, I actually do not have a RAID configuration, huh? Would you say that I
could carry on with installing SUSE without blowing all my data?

I appreciate your feedback.

Teilhard.

 

[Mike Walsh]

I don't quite follow you here. Are you saying that I need to load an OS in a
HD on one of the regular channels to be able to load the drivers to
habilitate the RAID? If you couldn't do this I would see the situation as an
impasse. No drivers, no OS; no OS, no drivers.

Yes, you could e.g. install the OS on a normal (non RAID) drive and use software RAID for a large data base or video files.

< RAID always consists of more than one disk in an array, so the single disk
you have on the RAID adapter is not configured as RAID.>

So, I actually do not have a RAID configuration, huh? Would you say that I
could carry on with installing SUSE without blowing all my data?

I would be wary of installing an OS on a drive that is not recognized correctly. Maybe there is something wrong with your RAID adapter configuration. Even a real (hardware) RAID adapter can be configured as non-RAID.

 

[Teilhard Knight]

Thanks a lot for your help.

Teilhard.

Yes, you could e.g. install the OS on a normal (non RAID) drive and use
software RAID for a large data base or video files.


I would be wary of installing an OS on a drive that is not recognized
correctly. Maybe there is something wrong with your RAID adapter
configuration. Even a real (hardware) RAID adapter can be configured as
non-RAID.