Will Dyson on 2 Oct 2006 16:55:04 -0000


[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: [PLUG] RAID cards


On 10/2/06, Austin Murphy <austin.murphy@gmail.com> wrote:
1. #2 is also called "fakeraid" by the linux kernel devs.  Instead of
using hardware logic or the linux multidisk code, it (poorly)
implements it's own code in a binary blob.  It's kind of like a
winmodem.

Yeah. The one advantage of this scheme is that, when the card BIOS can understand how the array is put together, it can allow you to boot from the array.

A while back, I remember seeing a proposal for a standardized on-disk
format for hardware and software raid. I had thought that the major
vendors were on-board with the idea, but I haven't heard anything
since (from card vendors or the Linux MD/DM maintainers).

It is a shame it has gone no-where, as if both the card and Linux
supported the standard on-disk array format, it would solve some of
the main irritations of using Linux software raid. Namely, being able
to boot from a raid volume, and being able to use the card BIOS to
configure the array (while still using the superior Linux software
raid drivers).

--
Will Dyson
___________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group         --        http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug