Re: Software RAID 0 and linux 2.6.8.1
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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--
Paul Yeatman (858) 534-9896 pyeatman@ucsd.edu
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