Using software RAID 5 to survive hardware failures?

elfoozo · 08-16-2008, 03:56 PM

I'm working with debian amd64 and an Intel DX38BT motherboard with an ICH9R on-board.

The BIOS has RAID 0,1 and 5 options but seems to be OS driver based RAID because when an array is defined Debian sees the SATA disks individually.

This got me to thinking... if an array is defined either on this motherboard or another "real" RAID add-in card, the array is still subject to data loss when the controller dies.

I started hunting for docs on how to do RAID 5 as a boot device but so far am coming up short. Is (software) RAID 5 even do-able as boot?

paulsm4 · 08-16-2008, 04:10 PM

From Intel's web site:
http://www.intel.com/support/motherb...811.htm#sysreq

Quote:

Note: There are no RAID drivers available for Linux* or Windows Server* 2003 Server for Intel® Desktop Boards.

These links might also help:
http://linux-ata.org/faq-sata-raid.html
http://linux-ata.org/software-status.html

elfoozo · 08-16-2008, 04:41 PM

Hey thanks for your reply. I'll read the links shortly but; to be a little more clear, I'm not asking how to get RAID working with my hardware.

I'm asking from a more generalized approach with debian in regards to software RAID 5 as a bootable Linux volume.

My thinking is that if I utilize a software array and my hardware dies I can pick up the disks and stuff them into some other system (so long as the disks stay in order) and boot the array.

This would seem more portable, no?