Here are some tips on raid levels and some feedback on the software vs. When storage drives are connected directly to the motherboard without a raid controller, raid configuration is managed by utility software in the operating system, and thus referred to as a software raid setup. Raid 1e requires min of 3 disk, and raid 10 requires a min of 4 disk. Ive been hoping other people would post with some experience, because im in the middle of a decision and am leaning toward software but just basically fear the unknown. It just has a boot helper to go along with it in the bios. Explanation about raid, hardware raid and software raid.
For software raid i used the linux kernel software raid functionality of a system running 64bit fedora 9. One of the first questions we felt needed to be answered was what exactly hardware raid cards do. The only point in using raid, is to handle a drive failure, without causing downtime. Feb 28, 2018 raid redundant array of independent disks is one of the popular data storage virtualization technology. Again, for the average joe and mary website or server this is far beyond their reality. I do agree though, that hardware raid is the best choice. Having given both a fair go in various flavors over the years, i have come to generally prefer one over the other, and for my own reasons. Therefore both are susceptible to bugs in software.
As the software for monitoring is standardized, you can use the same ways to monitor the health and performance of all your servers. To the people who want to use raid, youd better make it clear that what raid is and what the kinds of raid are, what the different features of raid are, then you could choose the proper raid to use. With software raid your data can be split across different enclosures for complete redundancy one can completely stop working and your data is still ok. It combines multiple inexpensive, small disk drives into an array of disks in order to provide redundancy, lower latency maximizing the chanc. That is to say, it is hardware independent without needs to be tied to hardware vendors. Hardware raid vs software raid, is hardware raid portable. However raid 5 might need a lot of proccessing power. Hardware raid presents logical disks that are already configured to the system or the san, mirrored and ready to go. What is the difference between a software and hardware raid. Imho, im a big fan of kernel developers non directly related to zfs, so i really prefere mdadm to hardware raid.
Obviously, hardware raid is pricier compared to software raid, due to the extra hardware that you need to purchase. Raid 5 with hot spare disks, raid 1 or 10 should be more tolerant. A brief history of raid raid has been around since 1970s 1989 berkeley paper was a taxonomy 1989 witnessed the first raid 5 in software 1990s saw many hardware raid 3, 5s lsi, 3ware, maxstrat, highpoint, intel. But the real question is whether you should use a hardware raid solution or a software raid solution. Software raid is a type of raid implementation that utilizes operating systembased capabilities to construct and deliver raid services. But with budget favoring the software raid, those wanting optimum performance and efficiency of raid will have to go with the hardware raid. Zfs is software management of disks, including raid. A hp server that i work on had two disks in a raid 1 array, one of my colleagues added an extra disk and made it a raid 5, the hardware raid device moved the data around as appropriate while the machine was running and the disk space was expanded without any downtime. Ive ordered an areca 1280ml 24 port sata controller.
I personally avoid marvell integrated raid like the plague due to extremely poor performance worse by far than windows raid, but some of their actual hardware solutions are alright. The raid implementation in winxp in my opinion is flawed to the point of making it unusable. After many years of running software raid setups in linux ive never run into a bug that caused data loss. Software vs hardware raid here in rhomelab, ive come to realize that there are a lot of stronglyopinionated people out there on the hardware software raid topic. Dec 25, 2006 software raid is generally slower and less reliable than a hardware solution. Plan to use software raid veritas volume mgr on c1t2d0 disk. Hardware raid if provided by the enclosure as opposed to an adapter in your server can vary by vendor. In a hardware raid setup, the drives connect to a special raid controller inserted in a fast pciexpress pcie.
So upgrades and handling failures becomes trivial since the software controller can come with you to the new hardware. Windows software raid vs hardware raid ars technica. I do agree though, that hardware raid is the best choice on business class windows servers or even important. Jun, 2016 comparing hardware raid vs software raid setups deals with how the storage drives in a raid array connect to the motherboard in a server or pc, and the management of those drives. In a hardware raid setup, the drives connect to a special raid controller inserted in a fast pciexpress pcie slot in a motherboard. A raid can be deployed using both software and hardware.
What is the difference between hardware raid and software raid. Oct 30, 2015 while the intel raid controller blows the software raid out of the water on sequential reads, surprisingly the windows software raid was better in nearly every other respect. The hardware is typically expensive, and adds a substantial amount to the cost of the whole system. Configuration is still required, but that configuration takes place outside the system. Difference between hardware raid and software raid. Nov 16, 2007 another limitation of linux software raid is expanding raid groups.
It seems that no matter if you use a hardware or a software raid controller, you should expect to lose performance when youre duplicating every write, which makes sense. A redundant array of inexpensive disks raid allows high levels of storage reliability. As computer hardware become cheaper and cheaper, many users begin to use raid and larger hard disks. Software raid is part of os, so no need to spend extract money. After format and label the disk, still not able to detect u the unix and linux forums. Hardware raid also makes no guarantees about data durability.
Even if you dont go with one of the fancier software controllers like zfs or btrfs id still recommend going with a software raid. If you can handle your system being down, for a drive replacement, and worst case, a reinstall, then you dont need raid. The software raid works on partition level and it can sometime increase complexity if you mix different partitions and hardware raid. Processing is required to carry out those actions, and that can take place on the host servers os or in the storage array or controller. Software raid works relying on the operating system. The w7 software raid doesnt seem to notify the user when a disk fails. But then i dont know x raid which might have the same processing requirements. If you need more disk ports you can always get an hba host bus adapter card.
Whether software raid vs hardware raid is the one for you depends on what you need to do and how much you want to pay. Software raid can have trouble with dissimilar drives. Hotswap support is spotty not all software raid implementations support hot swapping. It is generally fine, however, to use windows software raid on simple storage. With cheaper hardware raid you can also lose data if theres a power outage. Benefits and drawbacks of hybrid, hardware assisted software raid. Consumer nas all use software raid and hence completely ignore them. It is used to improve disk io performance and reliability of your server or workstation. As far as fault tolerance goes, ill respectfully disagree.
On the flip side, the cheap software raid can impair the host computer. Given that you can safely move the entire enclosure from one server to another with the raid intact but youd have to make sure your new server knew to use it e. While you might think the computer you are using is the most important part of your everyday and professional workflows, there is something even more important. Raid 1 vs backup and software raid 1 vs hardware raid 1 h. Dec 21, 2005 for hardware raid, that cpu can be in a disk array or in a raid controller. Jul 18, 2011 the features these so called enterprise drives or raid drives have are only meaningful for hardware raid. If anything they should be advised to increase ram and be done with it.
Additionally, hardware assisted software raid usually comes with a variety of drivers for the most popular operating systems, and therefore, is more os independent than pure software raid. However, ive been seeing lots of threads all over the place and have simply wondered, what are the known advantages of using onboard raid compared to a dedicated hardware raid card. The different ways that mirroring, striping and parity are used defines the different raid levels. Hardware raid vs os raid solutions experts exchange. Hardware raid will cost more, but it will also be free of software raid s. Reasons for using software raid versus a hardware raid setup. You can easily move disks from a failed enclosure to a new one, and all your data is preserved. A brief history of raid raid has been around since 1970s 1989 berkeley paper was a taxonomy 1989 witnessed the first raid5 in software 1990s saw many hardware raid3, 5s lsi, 3ware, maxstrat, highpoint, intel 1990s also saw the introduction of raidframe mdraid came along in 2001. I would generally agree with a preference for hardware vs. Under software raid, that configuration is performed in the. Mac for more than 25 years and larry is here to explain the difference between a software raid and a hardware raid. I know what advantages there are for buying into and setting up a hardware based storage array using raid technology.
Jul 06, 2011 reasons for using software raid versus a hardware raid setup. Hardware redundant array of inexpensive disks raid and software raid are two main ways for setting up raid system. Software raid, as you might already know, is usually builtin on your os and unlike a hardware raid, you will need to spend a little extra on a controller card. May 30, 2015 i did a lot of reading on this and kind of conclude software and the fake hardware aka bios raid on my chipset are not really useful. Jul 07, 2009 a redundant array of inexpensive disks raid allows high levels of storage reliability. Owc is both a reseller and developer, supporting all things mac for more than 25 years and larry is here to explain the difference between a software raid and a hardware raid, and how to.