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I am just getting into the Raid world with my home server. what i have:
Asus M3A78-CM (may be wrong, cant remember for sure) Motherboard with 6 Sata2 Connectors
3 2TB Sata2 Drives
2GB of DDR2 Ram set in bank A
AMD Dual Core (i'll know what it is when i get the system booted)
What i am trying to figure out is when i build this system, I will put in the HDD's into Sata Ports 1-3 and in the BIOS i will setup a RAID 5 Array. Now, do i just format and partition like normal? Would it be better to have a smaller, and better performing Sata2 for the system so i can have the raid be only for file storage?
In what i have read about this, i need to format each drive into two partitions at least but i do not know what needs to be done, The guides just vaguely say something about two partitions and then move on (trick of the trade? keep all of us in the dark? LOL) I would like to have a raid for my storage and a faster disk for the OS and home directories. But if it cannot be done then thats how it is.
So do i put the TB drives in Sata Ports 4-6 and my other drive in Sata Port 1?
My preferred raid setup for home motherboards is raid 0 (striped) and an additional hard drive for storage and back up. Preferably, you have a script or program doing automatic back ups to that HDD, so you never have to think about it.
My preferred raid setup for home motherboards is raid 0 (striped) and an additional hard drive for storage and back up. Preferably, you have a script or program doing automatic back ups to that HDD, so you never have to think about it.
MOBO i believe supports Raid 5 http://commercial.asus.com/product/detail/21
(this does say it is a m3a78-vm csm mobo, so i guess i can maybe try a bios upgrade if i have not already upgraded)
and if i cannot get it working then i always have BSD Raidz for a software raid, it will most likely not be running a gui so i am not worried about performance. Do you know what i do for the raid? such as just build it and format per normal?
Because i would like to build a hardware raid for the this project.
Does anyone here have anything useful to say.
I need this question answered:
"After setting up the raid, do i just format like normal"
lets all focus on that instead of giving me more information on your thoughts that:
1. have nothing to do with what i am asking
(If my mobo will not allow for a hd or fake raid 5 then i will go software)
2. No useful information given.
I am afraid to ask about how to set up a encrypted home directory now and i think i will be happier with the thousands of confusing and incomplete texts i have found.
If its a true hardware RAID, it should be transparent to the operating system. Therefore, you shouldn't have to do anything special with the formatting. The operating system will see it as one partition and treat it as such. I had an MSI mobo a couple years ago and once I set up the RAID BIOS it was good to go. I didn't have to do anything else. If you have any problems, though, I would definitely recommend contacting Asus' tech support for further clarification.
We don't know whether you have true hardware RAID or fake RAID. That makes a big difference in how you set things up. I'm pretty sure it is fake RAID, but I am not certain.
We don't know your meaningful objectives (what is the RAID supposed to accomplish for you). I understand you specifically want us to answer internal details and not worry about any meaningful purpose. But it just isn't that sort of question.
Quote:
Originally Posted by o2cool
Would it be better to have a smaller, and better performing Sata2 for the system so i can have the raid be only for file storage?
I don't know about "better". But depending (on all the info you don't seem to want us to worry about) it might be necessary to have /boot on a different drive from your fake RAID 5.
I also wonder why you might think better performing should matter for the system drive. A modern system with lots of ram doesn't use the system drive much. Anything on the system drive that would be used a lot ends up staying in the file cache.
Quote:
In what i have read about this, i need to format each drive into two partitions at least
Where did you read that? I am not able to guess why that might be required, so I can't guess how/whether it might apply to your situation.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Omnicronos
If its a true hardware RAID, it should be transparent to the operating system. Therefore, you shouldn't have to do anything special with the formatting. The operating system will see it as one partition and treat it as such.
Even if it is a true hardware RAID, I think it might still require hardware specific drivers (I don't have much experience with true hardware RAID). The OS should see hardware RAID as one drive (not as one partition). The way you partition inside that combined drive should not depend on the fact that it is RAID.
We don't know whether you have true hardware RAID or fake RAID. That makes a big difference in how you set things up. I'm pretty sure it is fake RAID, but I am not certain.
We don't know your meaningful objectives (what is the RAID supposed to accomplish for you). I understand you specifically want us to answer internal details and not worry about any meaningful purpose. But it just isn't that sort of question.
I don't know about "better". But depending (on all the info you don't seem to want us to worry about) it might be necessary to have /boot on a different drive from your fake RAID 5.
I also wonder why you might think better performing should matter for the system drive. A modern system with lots of ram doesn't use the system drive much. Anything on the system drive that would be used a lot ends up staying in the file cache.
Where did you read that? I am not able to guess why that might be required, so I can't guess how/whether it might apply to your situation.
Even if it is a true hardware RAID, I think it might still require hardware specific drivers (I don't have much experience with true hardware RAID). The OS should see hardware RAID as one drive (not as one partition). The way you partition inside that combined drive should not depend on the fact that it is RAID.
I mean better as having a drive just for the OS (faster drive than the 5900RPM raid) and then i will most likely not have to worry about booting or breaking the raid, i am the kind of user that says "hmm.. i wonder what happens if i do X with the Kernel and recompile" And it is very useful for me to not have to figure out how to build a sw/hw raid (without an OS to deal with the raid) so i can get in via single user mode. I ended up going S/W Raid because i was too lazy to flash mobo for raid5 fake raid. I am just wanting the OS on its own drive for my own uses. So thanks.
I will try to find that doc that says to format drives into two partitions but it may have been 3 am and caffeine gave out. I just fdisked 1 full primary on all 3 drives then made mdadm build the array.
I have finally set up the Raid5 via sw raid with mdadm (8.5 hours to build and about 30 min to put on a filesys) now im worried about when i get in my next sata drive so i am not running on IDE at all if i can just do a mdadm --assemble /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1
Right now it is set as sda1 sdd1 and sde1 with 3 sata and 2 ide so i can move over what i have right now.
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Motherboard Hardware Raid 5 Setup
