I'm wanting to setup a hardware SCSI RAID 5 array for a audio/video workstation... though currently I could get by with RAID 1... it's primarially for integrety...

basically the only RAID I've ever setup was a Compaq Smart Array on a ProLiant 6000... It had a bootable CD for the configuration of the array... I'm looking for a PCI compatable SCSI controller with a similar utility so I don't have to deal with windows based utilities... I could go with a DOS boot disk. What cards with similar utilites are available in the Ultra160 range? I would expect to buy these used off ebay...


OR

I also have onboard SATA which I don't currently use on an Asus A7VBX-LA mobo... but I have absolutly no idea how to set it setup Is there supposed to be a menu accessable during/after posting?

XOR

Bearing in mind this is currently for DV25 video and audio production... is regualr software RAID acceptable? The processor is a AMD Semptron 3000+ (2Ghz) with 768MB RAM... if performance doesn't take too much of a hit I'd be willing to say screw it and just do a software raid. ... though I don't think when I get started into HD video that software RAID will be acceptable...

any ideas?

You can put two identical SATA drives on that controller, and whenever you want an exact image from one drive to the other you:

dd if=/dev/sda of=/dev/sdb bs=4k conv=notrunc,noerror

And the sda drive will mirror to sdb. Usually this is done with a live CD, but you can stay in the local os and do it. When you just want to copy a file for backup, use cp. If you want the drive to image itself every day, use the cron program and schedule dd to run every night. That way you can never lose more than a days work. It is less expensive, too. 2 SATA drives will cost you $300.00.

I took a look on eBay, and there are many controller cards, arrays, and drives. If a person has the savvy to set it up, eBay might be the place to go. You have to take a look for yourself. I learned a lot in 10 minutes looking.

it looks like I'm finding some adaptecs with their own bootdisks...

unfortunatly I can't wait to backup data once a day because of the nature of the workstation being used as a DTE video capture device... even loseing an hour could be either irreplacable or hopelessly expensive.