[K12OSN] New Building's LTSP Server

[Jeff Siddall]

On 04/19/2011 12:47 AM, Terrell Prude' Jr. wrote:
>> Do you have a preference for hardware vs software SATA Raid?
>>   
> 
> Yes.  I prefer hardware RAID whenever possible.  There are two reasons. 
> The first is that the work of maintaining the RAID falls to the RAID
> card's processor instead of your CPU.  The second is that the RAID card
> will abstract the array so that you don't need to worry about how to do
> /boot, for example.  It's just easier, especially for the next person
> coming in to maintain it.

Except...  if you are using the "hardware" RAID built into your
motherboard your drives may not work in another motherboard, so you have
to think carefully about possible failure scenarios and recovery.

Software RAID1 on the other hand will work on ANY hardware and you can
boot off it also so there are no worries there.  Since there is no
checksum to calculate there is no significant CPU load either.

I have been using software RAID1 for the better part of a decade now
with no issues.  Personally I would place more confidence in it than the
RAID built into a MOBO but others may disagree.

Also, like I said avoid RAID5 even if you have a real hardware
controller.  The loss of performance and reliability is just not worth
the savings given how large and cheap modern SATA drives are.

Jeff