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6-2 Chapter 6: RAID configuration
6.1 Setting up RAID
The motherboard comes with the following RAID solutions:
P5MT model
• LSI Logic Embedded SATA RAID technology embedded in the Intel
®
ICH7R
Southbridge supports up to two SATA hard disk drives and RAID 0, RAID 1,
and RAID 10 configurations.
P5MT-S model
• Adaptec AIC-7901 PCI-X SCSI controller supports SCSI hard disk drives and
RAID 0, RAID 1, and RAID 0+1 configurations.
6.1.1 RAID definitions
RAID 0
(Data striping)
optimizes two identical hard disk drives to read and write
data in parallel, interleaved stacks. Two hard disks perform the same work as a
single drive but at a sustained data transfer rate, double that of a single disk alone,
thus improving data access and storage. Use of two new identical hard disk drives
is required for this setup.
RAID 1
(Data mirroring)
copies and maintains an identical image of data from one
drive to a second drive. If one drive fails, the disk array management software
directs all applications to the surviving drive as it contains a complete copy of
the data in the other drive. This RAID configuration provides data protection and
increases fault tolerance to the entire system. Use two new drives or use an
existing drive and a new drive for this setup. The new drive must be of the same
size or larger than the existing drive.
RAID 0+1 is
data striping and data mirroring
combined without parity (redundancy
data) having to be calculated and written. With the RAID 0+1 configuration you get
all the benefits of both RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations. Use four new hard disk
drives or use an existing drive and three new drives for this setup.
JBOD
(Spanning)
stands for Just a Bunch of Disks and refers to hard disk drives
that are not yet configured as a RAID set. This configuration stores the same
data redundantly on multiple disks that appear as a single disk on the operating
system. Spanning does not deliver any advantage over using separate disks
independently and does not provide fault tolerance or other RAID performance
benefits.
If you want to boot the system from a hard disk drive included in a created RAID
set, copy first the RAID driver from the support CD to a floppy disk before you
install an operating system to the selected hard disk drive. Refer to Chapter 6
for details.