fc5 : raid array does not appear as one drive?

[Bruno Wolff III]

On Mon, Aug 28, 2006 at 11:43:20 -0600,
  Robin Laing <Robin.Laing at drdc-rddc.gc.ca> wrote:
> 
> What is the benefit of battery backed cache when on a UPS?  I have never 
> understood the reasoning behind this.

Because power can fail in a lot of ways, some of which are after the UPS.

> I am debating getting a full RAID card or using software RAID for a new 
> storage box.

The battery backed cache is nice for databases because when they commit
they need to wait for the data to be on permanent storage. Trusting the
battery backed cache can relieve a big bottleneck.

For other purposes this isn't as big of a deal.