nVidia Raid vs Linux Software RAID

Im building a new server (I say server, it's just a glorified PC).

I don't know whether to go down the nVidia Raid route or Linux Software RAID route. I hear anything on chip like the nVidia stuff is just software raid anyhow and the Linux variant can be faster.

Any thoughts?

I have had an odd experience with nVidia RAID.

Configuring the Mirrored RAID, and Linux won't install. It needs a driver, but doesn't like any of the nvidia/ata/sata/ahci drivers I try and get it to load - says it can't find the disks. But if I leave the Mirror in place and switch off RAID in the Bios and use either AHCI or IDE, the array presents to Linux as one drive and Linux reports nVidia mapper.

I have to actually reenable RAID, and go into the RAID manager to remove the mirror, then my Fedora 9 installation sees sda and sdb!

Any thoughts on this too?
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Relevant Pages

  • fedora-list-request@redhat.com
    ... Anybody have any experience with RAID controllers under ... >> is not found on that server. ... > If nVidia were to do something silly I could swap the card in a matter ... > the usb drives and then reboot to linux to get them working properly. ...
    (Fedora)
  • Re: mirroring
    ... *Migrating an Existing Linux to RAID1* ... Change the partition type on the existing non-raid disk to type 'fd' ... Changed system type of partition 1 to fd (Linux raid autodetect) ...
    (RedHat)
  • Re: FYI: RAID5 unusably unstable through 2.6.14
    ... since my main system is running on that array ... because I've started the system and booted Linux from the array ... Adaptec controller found an inconsistency on the position somewhere in the ... RAID 5, so no problem) and reinstalled both systems in Array 2, and now it ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • Re: Problems installing FC4 on Dell Optiplex GX620
    ... Whether Linux presently ... Windows does the same better/worse is hardly the issue for Linux users. ... issue than whether XYZ brand SATA RAID controller works with Fedora. ... RAID controllers but really are software RAID controllers with drivers ...
    (Fedora)
  • Re: fc5 : raid array does not appear as one drive?
    ... Fakeraid not working in linux is a driver issue. ... Promise raid cards being one of them. ... the linux software raid is just as performant. ...
    (Fedora)