[nylug-talk] Subject: Re: How to set up Raid 1 on Ubuntu

[masimko at optonline.net]

> > Message: 9> Date: Thu, 31 May 2007 20:05:39 -0700 (PDT)> From: Carlos Alfaro > Subject: Re: [nylug-talk] How to set up Raid 1 on Ubuntu,	Or > > The reason I ask how important it is, you can invest under $100 > in a TRUE RAID Hardware card which can be used by both windows > and linux.> > I know I might get some mail contradicting my suggestions - but > that is all they are, suggestions.> > There are adaptec cards (true hardware raid) for under $100 - > and u can find them cheap in ebay.  That can help you in both > the windows side and linux side.  > > 3ware has expensive hardware cards - over $150 and have a web > server built in for the management.> > I just started playing with the pny s-cure storage card with the > netcell chip.  Works without having to install a driver in > windows 2k with sp3 and above.  in xp with sp1 and 2003 server.  > The raid 1 i am using is nice, linux only sees the one hdd once > I create the raid set.  I can go ahead and install linux ubuntu > server/desktop on it.  the down side is big - netcell went out > of business, so there is no support on the web unless you go to > the XFX web site, they have support for the netcell processor > and there are other sites with firmware and the management > utility for the windows side.  There is a CLI utility, but will > not work (I am not sure any way) on debian based distros, you > need opensuse or redhat fedora for it.  The cli will work with them.> The nice thing about the netcell based card, you can find a new > one for $40 in buy.com or newegg.com> > I like it because is not mission critical what i am using it > for, and it serves its purpose for my needs.> > I do have the 3ware card installed, and i have to say, its more > expensive, but it is no nice and fast and easy to manage.> > If you want to keep both wind and lin in the box - need 2 > drives.  one partion on each drive for the software raid for win > and the same for lin.> > I have my reservations about software raid, but it works, i just > rather have something like the 3ware interface that i can access > via a web browser from another machine and check on it or make > changes.> I am sure you will get more answers/suggestion from the more > experience lin users in the mailing list.  Listen to them, they > know a lot.The downside to hardware raid is that should the card fail, is your data lost. This is probably not such an issue with RAID 1, but with RAID 5, I'd rather have software raid if the slower access times are acceptable. The disks can go from system to system without a problem.I have a brand new RAID card on the shelf, unused. It was sent by the vendor in error. I was looking for an ide ata card to build software RAID 5. If the card goes bad, I can move the disk over to one of the original 2 channels.Also, the tools in mdadm work by themselves. They won't help if you have a proprietary RAID card.> > Are u limiting urself to ubuntu? or would u consider other > distros?  CentOS and opensuse are nice and are rpm based,etc but > that is another topic> I've set up RAID in Fedora, but now am using Debian. Ubuntu is similar and should be fairly easy.