Cheapest "software" RAID card
Hi all,
I have been investigating cheap "software" or "host-based" RAID cards.
They tend to be magnitudes cheaper than real hardware RAID cards like
3ware/AMCC. But for some purposes, you don't care about the CPU overhead,
but do want something hardware (not md software raid) especially when your
on-board controller is crap.
In any case, I was wondering which of the "software" RAID cards are best
supported in the 2.6 Kernel? I've been checking out (and even purchased)
Silicon Image Sil3112 RAID card and Promise FastTrak TX4200. Both can be
detected but you CANNOT use the RAID function at all, as in each HD is
detected as a completely separate disk, not part of an array. It is not
detected as an array even if you set it up in the RAID card's BIOS, they
are still detected as independent disks at best.
I haven't bothered going further as I realize it is simply not a solution
to go and buy all these cheapy cards to find out the true state of their
support in the Kernel, especially the Debian stock 2.6 kernel.
Could anyone tell me which cheap "software" RAID card works best right
now, in that I can put in a Debian install disk and the stock kernel
detects the RAID card and the array on it (more or less like you would
with a 3ware or other cards, but without the better performance)?
Thanks in advance!
Jason
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