Nick said:
We want to replace an old HP proliant server with RAID 5. HPS server
bios allows config of an unused standby drive to automatically kick in
if any active drive in the array fails.
Regular consumer MBs seem to all support RAID 5 but this is not
documented. We are thinking of a gigabyte board. Do these support a
similar standby drive to be used for automatic recovery of a failed
RAID 5 array drive?
The best way to do this analysis, is to find all the
various chipset manufacturer's version of RAID,
then dig up the manual.
Intel's version is called either Matrix RAID (old name)
or RST (Rapid Storage Technology). Intel supports
migration, so you can change a RAID5 from three
disks to four disks or to five disks on the fly. But they
don't seem to show a hot spare in their documentation.
They've released user manuals in the past, that
describe the software capabilities.
http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/sb/CS-020784.htm
Nvidia calls their version Mediashield. It supports
migration. It also seems to support a hot spare
or a shared hot spare (one drive can be used to
spare for two arrays, with the first failed array
getting to use it).
(Spare disk allocation, page 10)
http://www.nvidia.com/attach/889883?type=support&primitive=0
(Mediashield User Manual)
http://www.nvidia.com/attach/1393125?type=support&primitive=0
When I look at the ATI documentation, some of the
pictures remind me of Promise Technology products.
It looks like they may have contracted out or
decided to purchase some Promise software for
their RAID array. I haven't seen any fancy manuals
for it. I think their feature set is pretty basic.
Once you've identified a chipset type, then you can
go through the Gigabyte catalog and pick something out.
One disadvantage of motherboard RAID, is what happens
if the motherboard fails. You'd need a replacement
motherboard that can run the same software, to get
your data back. (Or, invest in RAID recovery software,
that knows how to reconstruct the data.) If instead,
you install an add-in RAID card, in the event of
a motherboard failure, you can move the RAID card
to a new machine. (I've known some people, to buy
two RAID cards, for the express purpose of protecting
themselves against an add-in card failure, but for
the more expensive RAID cards, that's going to hurt.
I suppose you could buy two identical motherboards.)
Paul
