raid on linux with x399 MB

[SciMunk]

Hi, 

I'm currently running a windows installation and I wish to move to linux for performance reason, but I can't find a single bit of information on installing amd raidXpert on linux for a x399 motherboard (running a TR1950x), the few thread that talk about it usually link to dead page.

this is the last issues that prevent me from doing the move, do anybody know if it even possible ?

 

Thanks!

[Granular]

RAID on Linux is typically done with md.

[Sauron]

4 minutes ago, Granular said:

RAID on Linux is typically done with md.

If you really have to, that is... zfs is much better.

 

Which brings me to the answer to the actual question; if you need raid on your system, I recommend you backup your data, format everything and make a zfs pool.

 

If you really want to keep your current array (though your should still back it up) you might be able to do it if 1) you have a dedicated raid controller card, in which case it should be basically plug and play, or 2) you're using the motherboard's dedicated controller, in which case it should be plug and play but I wouldn't necessarily bet on it. If you're using some kind of software raid, it's pretty much a lost cause.

 

As food for thought, generally speaking if you need redundant storage I would recommend going for a separate storage server on your network. It solves all sorts of migration problems as every OS supports network file systems well enough and there's no need for potentially dangerous tinkering.

[Granular]

32 minutes ago, Sauron said:

 zfs is much better.

It's more complicated, doesn't come with any distro out of the box and strongly recommends running ECC RAM.

Sure, you get snapshots and deduplication, but deduplication especially takes a lot of resources. For a dedicated storage server, it may be better, but for a workstation, I wouldn't bother with ZFS.

[SciMunk]

my current RAID is backed up daily on a separated drive, what I need is the read/write speed that come with having 4 drive in raid 0.

 

I'm doing 3D work and usually write/read lot of file that weight hundred of mb up to few gb.

I cannot use a dedicated raid controller card as all my pci slot are used, but formatting and redoing the array is fine as I have lot of different backup.

 

I have an extreme Zenith and to create the current array, I first had to enable RAID mode in the bios and install RaidXpert on windows, assuming raidXpert it just a software to control the internal raid contorller of the MB, how I would do that on linux.

and if ZFS is not recommended for workstation, what else can I use to create a raid on linux ? 

 

Thanks for your info!

[Sauron]

4 hours ago, Granular said:

It's more complicated, doesn't come with any distro out of the box and strongly recommends running ECC RAM.

Sure, you get snapshots and deduplication, but deduplication especially takes a lot of resources. For a dedicated storage server, it may be better, but for a workstation, I wouldn't bother with ZFS.

Depending on what he needs he could get away with BTRFS, either way if he has a 1950x I would assume he has RAM to spare. DDR4 has some built in error correction even if it's not explicitly ECC so I wouldn't worry about that.

 

Either way as I said I'd recommend a separate storage server.

[Sauron]

3 hours ago, SciMunk said:

my current RAID is backed up daily on a separated drive, what I need is the read/write speed that come with having 4 drive in raid 0.

 

I'm doing 3D work and usually write/read lot of file that weight hundred of mb up to few gb.

I cannot use a dedicated raid controller card as all my pci slot are used, but formatting and redoing the array is fine as I have lot of different backup.

 

I have an extreme Zenith and to create the current array, I first had to enable RAID mode in the bios and install RaidXpert on windows, assuming raidXpert it just a software to control the internal raid contorller of the MB, how I would do that on linux.

and if ZFS is not recommended for workstation, what else can I use to create a raid on linux ? 

 

Thanks for your info!

Just saw this after my last reply...

 

So yeah, as I said BTRFS is another option that isn't as resource intensive as ZFS (though for raid 0 ZFS doesn't really use a lot of resources), other than that there is md - a bit lacking in features in my opinion, but easy enough to setup.

 

For raid 0 I really wouldn't bother with the motherboard's hardware controller, it makes no difference.

 

For more information you can read the arch wiki, this information is pretty much universal across all distributions (except for the exact package names):

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/RAID

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Btrfs#RAID

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ZFS