[Pc_Support] RAID

[Bryan J. Smith]

"Austin (Ozz) Denyer" <ozz at ozz.is-a-geek.net> wrote:
> Scenario:
> Tyan K8WE mainboard with built-in nVidia SATAII RAID
> controller.

FRAID.

> RAID not configured in BIOS.

Not that it matters, once the 32/64-bit OS boots, it's 100%
in software.  The 32/64-bit OS sees the raw ATA channels at
all times.

> 2 identical SATAII hard drives, one partitioned and
> formatted for Linux (Debian AMD64, 2.6.14-2 kernel) the
other
> drive blank.
> Is it possible to set up RAID-1 mirroring on this (either
> using the on-board controller

No RAID controller, 100% FRAID (software).

> or software) without blatting and re-installing the o/s?

Yes and no.  Yes, it might be possible to use Linux's
MultiDisk (MD) support using the existing filesystems.  I've
never done so.

Another option might be to see if the LVM2/Device-Mapper now
has nVidia 4xx series SATA FRAID support.  I.e., the current
LVM2/Device-Mapper work can read some FRAID mirror/stripe
organization and support.  So if the BIOS supports mirroring
an existing disk, the experimental LVM2/DM work might be able
to read it.

But I wouldn't trust the current LVM2/DM work.

> If so, how would I go about it?  Any pointers to a good
> how-to would be greatly appreciated.

Don't have one for 'ya.  I've been using rsync on my 2 SATA
drives on my nForce4 mainboard.


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