> On Nov 17, 2020, at 1:07 AM, hw <hw@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> On Mon, 2020-11-16 at 18:06 -0500, H wrote:
>> On 11/16/2020 01:23 PM, Jonathan Billings wrote:
>>> On Sun, Nov 15, 2020 at 07:49:09PM -0500, H wrote:
>>>> I have been having some problems with hardware RAID 1 on the
>>>> motherboard that I am running CentOS 7 on. After a BIOS upgrade of
>>>> the system, I lost the RAID 1 setup and was no longer able to boot
>>>> the system.
>>> The Intel RST RAID (aka Intel Matrix RAID) is also known as a
>>> fakeraid. It isn't a hardware RAID, but instead a software RAID that
>>> has a fancy BIOS interface. I believe that the mdadm tool can examine
>>> the RAID settings, and you can look at /proc/mdstat to see its status,
>>> although from what I remember from previous posts, it's better to just
>>> let the BIOS think it's a JBOD and use the linux software RAID tools
>>> directly.
>>>
>> I see, thank you. Right now I am running off one of the disks because of the mishap, I am also waiting for a systemboard replacement at which time I can decided whether to go with Linux software RAID, ie mdadm, or back to the Intel BIOS RAID.
>>
>> The latter lacks any progress indicators in BIOS when rebuilding an array which took around 20 hours for a 256 GB RAID 1 setup and it is annoying not to know the status of the rebuild etc. Could mdadm in a command window helped me answer that question?
>>
>> Also, it seemed that the BIOS RAID damaged the partition table on the disks - should I expect that this happens? My guess would be no but what do I know...
>
> I'd use software raid rather the fakeraid. One of the advantages is that
> you are not limited to the mainboard and can use the disks in another machine
> if you need to. If you need to replace the board, you are not limited to
> one that provides a compatible fakeraid.
>
> Using software raid with mdadm will give you indication about the progress
> of rebuilds and checks by looking at /proc/mdstat, and you can automatically
> get an email in case a disk fails if so configured. Being informed about
> disk failures is relevant.
>
> I've used Linux software raid for at least 20 years and never had any problems
> with it other than questionable performance disadvantages compared to hardware
> raid. When a disk fails just replace it, and I've recently found that it
> can be impossible to get a rebuild started with hardware raid, which makes it
> virtually useless.
>
> I've never used the (Intel) fakeraid. Why would I?
>
> If you don't require Centos, you could go for Fedora instead. Fedora has btrfs
> as default file system now which has software raid built-in, and Fedora can have
> advantages over Centos.
>
There are advantages in a bleeding edge one can find useful. There is some bleeding too, plausible, so don’t be surprised.
Valeri
>
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