Hardware RAID setup

[Bill Moseley <moseley@hank.org>]

Anyone done an installation on a hardware RAID 1 array lately?

I'm looking for an overview of how hardware RAID works, and what to expect
at installation time.  I'm just getting confused by the RAID howtos not
knowing if they are referring to software RAID or not, and also how up to
date they are.

I bought parts for a new machine a while back and finally have time to
build it.  I purchased a 3Ware IDE Escalade two-port hardware raid card.
My plan is to install two drives in RAID 1 configuration.  

I do not plan on having any drives connected to the motherboard IDE
connectors.  Thus, the plan is to install to and boot from the RAID 1
array.

Not having experience with hardware raid, I kind of assumed that the array
would be somewhat transparent to the OS -- in other words look like a
single drive.  From googling I think that is not true, so I'm trying to
get a idea of what it does look like.  Which is why I'm posting...

I understand I'll need SCSI support and 3ware Hardware ATA-RAID support
(CONFIG_BLK_DEV_3W_XXXX_RAID) enabled in the kernel.  I'm not clear what
that driver provides, though.  My boot CD is based on the bf2.4 floppies
which has SCSI and CONFIG_BLK_DEV_3W_XXXX_RAID=y, so I should have the
kernel support needed during installation.

I'm also not clear how the installation process will go -- which is really
my question.  Again, I kind of expected it to be a normal install, as if I
was installing to a single drive.

Can someone clear up my confusion?

Thanks,





-- 
Bill Moseley moseley@hank.org