i want to setup hardware raid on my Debian machine. i have two identical hard disks having 500 GB space, and amd processor and motherboard having raid supported feature. suggest from the initial steps . thanks

I think hardware raid is configured in BIOS. but keep in mind that software raid has some advantages.

+1 for software-RAID...

Note: for a RAID to be truly redundant with only 2 disks, RAID 1 (known as mirroring) is the only option. Any other config risks loosing your data when (not if, because it'll happen!) either disk fails.

My advise: install Debian on a single disk, then install Webmin and use its web-interface to configure your RAID. It's easier, especially for novices A better setup would be a separate system disk (SSD!) and the disks you have as RAID 1 data disks. Choose a 30-40 GB SSD, these are relatively cheap and large enough to hold the operating system. It's pretty much what I've done on my desktop and servers

It should be noted that most motherboard raids are not genuine raid setups, rather they are a form of software raid in the bios. (often refered to as fakeraid)

Even dedicated hardware raid cards suffer from the problem of often requiring a like for like replacement in the case of a card failing, but these cards are far more resielent hence the huge price increase over cheap sata port cards offering a raid option.

This can cause all sorts of problems if there is a bug or a problem occurs with the mother board as there is no guarentee that a replacement motherboard impliments the raid in the exact same way and so you would be unable to get at the data on the disks.

Software raid is more managable and although bugs or regressions do sometimes occur it is possible to get at your data from any machine just by plugging in the drives and/or using a recovery/live CD and also tehe help provided by the people who wrote it is fantastic. (I know as I've occasionaly had a question about it and have found the mailing list to be excelent)

I suggest reading a lot about the difference between hardware RAID and software RAID before you set it up.

Hardware RAID is more expensive. All you need is the right hardware to make it work. Debian installer should not even see the two drives. It will appear that there is only one.

I have set up software RAID 10 with four 1TB drives with the Debian installer. I even pulled a drive out, formatted it, then put it back in. The machine actually still ran with only 3 drives!!! When I put the drive back in I was able to see the fourth drive rebuild itself! It took about 1 1/2 hours. It was so cool.