Re: Software RAID 0 and linux 2.6.8.1

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Date: Tue, 05 Oct 2004 22:16:52 +0200
To: debian-user@lists.debian.org

Promise Netherlands told me today that the kernel 2.6.x.x drivers
probably come next year. On a dutch forum they told me (2 secs ago) that
the name of a non-true hardware controller is a firmware controller. I
created a picture
http://www.xs4all.nl/~mghvl404/bin/fotos/got/RAID0uitleg.gif to explain
what I want with the promise fasttrack TX2 plus firmware raid
controller. How can I do this?

Paul Yeatman wrote:

>Well, definitely sounds like you know what you want :)
>
>Seems like my confusion between you saying "software" and "hardware"
>controller is, as Paolo was saying, the Promise FastTrak isn't a "true"
>hardware controller apparently. It still requires some software, ie.
>kernel module, on the software side to operate. This is, however,
>coNSIDerably faster than using strictly software RAID where no card is
>needed at all. From the description of your system, however, this
>wouldn't appear to be a problem.
>
>I'll opt out of the conversation at this point because your
>proposed setup is different enough from mine that I can't really
>helpfully comment on it. As I mentioned (and I believe even
>tried), the "partial source code" from Promise for the FastTrak
>doesn't compile (or at least isn't written to compile) for the 2.6
>kernel. If the drivers you know of are slow, maybe Paolo is right and
>you should go with either strictly a hardware RAID controller or
>strictly software RAID given that you have a slick system.
>
>As for the boot loader issue, I'm not sure how a large BIOS is a
>solution unless you can get your boot loader to use your BIOS which
>I've never heard of. Unless you are using a true hardware controller,
>I'm not sure where/how your boot loader will be read with no other
>disks other than the RAID 0'ed disks.
>
>Best wishes,
>
>Paul
>
>->>In response to your message<<-
> --received from Niels--
>
>
>>I shall explain my choises. I really want to buy a RAID 0 (striping)
>>controller, because my current harddisk is the bottleneck in my current
>>system. I have a dual XP-M 2800+ with 1Gbit NIC and 1GB memory. I have
>>read enough about RAID 0. I really want it! I know that it is not safe,
>>but I can backup my data.
>>
>>I choose for a software RAID controller because it is cheap. An hardware
>>controller would cost me six times more, but would be at most 10%
>>faster. That's not worth it. Installing this RAID card is easy under Win
>>XP, because I can just put a disk in my pc with the drivers at setup
>>time and it will work.
>>
>>I know this will be another story for debian. I've read stories of
>>people who got the Promise drivers working under 2.6.8, but those
>>drivers are not fast. I use 2.6.8 because I have a SMP setup. I want no
>>other drives than the two of my RAID setup in my pc because I hate noise.
>>
>>I buy a software RAID controller because the price difference between a
>>software RAID SATA controller and a SATA controller is < �10,-
>>
>>What are the troubles I will run into? I can load things in my BIOS,
>>because I have 2MB BIOS memory (MPX2).
>>
>>The adress you gave me was wrong,
>>http://www.1U-Raid5.net/HowTO/SW-Raid-HOWTO.txt this one is correct.
>>
>>Alvin Oga wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>On Mon, 4 Oct 2004, Niels wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>I want to buy a Promise Fasttrack TX2 plus RAID 0 controller with two
>>>>SATA hard disks. The controller is a software controller. I want no
>>>>other hard disks than these two in my PC. Can I boot of this setup with
>>>>the 2.6 kernel?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>yes...
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>Is it possible to put Windows XP and Debian Linux on the
>>>>same RAID 0 array?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>yes
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>>Is it difficult to install?
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>no
>>>
>>>-- trick is to install windoze on the 1st partition so it thinks its C:
>>>
>>>--- bigger problem ...
>>>
>>>- why use 2 disks in raid0 ( aks stripping ) which might allow you to read
>>>faster but also makes 2 disks look like 1 bigger disk
>>> - if one disk dies... both disk are useless
>>>
>>>- i think you want to use (sw or hw ) raid1 ( mirror )
>>> - if one disk dies ... all your data is still intact on the other
>>> disk
>>>
>>>- gazillion raid howtos urls
>>> http://1u_raid5.net/HowTo/SW-Raid-HOWTO.txt
>>>
>>>
>>>c ya
>>>alvin
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
>>
>
>
>

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• Previous message: Andrew Schulman: "Re: Nvidia + 2.6 kernel"
• In reply to: Paul Yeatman: "Re: Software RAID 0 and linux 2.6.8.1"
• Next in thread: Alvin Oga: "Re: Software RAID 0 and linux 2.6.8.1"
• Reply: Alvin Oga: "Re: Software RAID 0 and linux 2.6.8.1"
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