[plug] Raid 0 software? hardware?

[Cameron Patrick]

Craig Ringer wrote:

> You're very dependent on the drivers and the particular controller in 
> the semi-hardware RAID provided by most chipsets built in to
> motherboards.

I believe there's a "dmraid" driver which provides a layer on top of
the standard Linux software RAID system, allowing it to access data
stored in the proprietary format that the "RAID" card firmware uses.
I've never used it so I'm not sure how it compares to pure Linux
software RAID, but I'd imagine it would be as least as good as any
drivers supplied by the card vendor.

> I'm also kind of concerned that you mention that you're using RAID 0. 
> RAID 0 across four disks is a death sentence to your data, even with 
> high quality "enterprise" SCSI/SATA disks. With "consumer" level 
> ATA/SATA disks I'd expect total loss of all data on the array within a 
> year - at least going by my luck with disks.

It's worth noting that you should keep backups even if you are using
one of the "reliable" RAID levels.  However losing 1 in 4 drives in a
year sounds a lot worse than my luck with cheapo ATA drives.  Perhaps
Brad Campbell could comment on how often his drives die, he seems to
have a lot more of them than most people? :)

Cameron.