SuSE + Software RAID -- what hardware will work?
We're trying to build a small server at my work that will run SuSE 9.1 and some sort of RAID. After doing quite a bit of reading, I'm thinking the best way to go is a software RAID.
Our motherboard is a Asus P4C800-E Deluxe, which has two RAID controllers on it -- one is an Intel the other is a Promise. I believe they are both hardware/BIOS RAID devices. They don't appear to suit our needs.
What we wanted to do was start with creating a RAID of 2 SATA drives while keeping the possibility of adding a 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc. drive in the future. Can we do this?
I was thinking about purchasing a PCI controller card for this -- since it's going to be a software RAID, it doesn't need to be a RAID SATA card, right? Any old SATA card will do? Can one software RAID be made off of drives on more than one card? Or will only drives on the same card work? That is, does it make a difference if I bought 2 2-port cards or 1 4-port card?
Lastly, does the brand of PCI card matter? Any recommendations?
Thank you in advance for your help.
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