Need help with RAID.

[AstroBenny]

I'm new to raid and I'm a bit confused with all the terminology!

 

What's the difference between hardware and software raid?

What's the difference between RAID in Windows and Raid in the BIOS?

What's motherboard RAID?

What's a raid controller?

What's a secondary raid controller?

 

Cheers!

[EmeraldFlame]

1. Software RAID, is just that, a RAID that is controlled only by software running on your computer. An example of this would be Windows' built in RAID utility. This is often slower than hardware RAID, and also causes a small amount of CPU overhead, but for simple RAIDs such as 0, 1, or 10 it will typically have good enough performance. Hardware RAID is where your RAID setup has dedicated hardware, as in a RAID card/controller, to support it instead of taking up CPU cycles. Performance is typically better on hardware controllers, especially for modes that require parity calculation like 5 and 6.

2. Setting up a RAID in Windows will always be a software solution. Setting up on a RAID in the BIOS/UEFI really depends on the motherboard you have. Some boards do have legitimate RAID controllers built in for hardware RAID, but most of them are just a software RAID. Even still, setting it up through the BIOS will normally net better performance then through Windows because it has a bit lower level access.

 

3. Motherboard RAID is just another word for a RAID that is set up through the BIOS/UEFI that is installed on your particular motherboard.

 

4. A RAID Controller is a dedicated chipset, typically found as a PCIe add-in card, but also occasionally found integrated into motherboards. This chipset handles any and all calculations that need to happen for the RAID along with passing commands to the individual drives that make up the RAID. Some RAID Controllers are a little bit simpler in that they are really just cards with SATA ports on them that come with a software package to setup a software RAID through that expansion card.

 

5. A Secondary RAID Controller is used almost exclusively in server environments. A single raid card may be able to have 16+ storage devices plugged into, but if you need more drives than that, you can buy a second RAID card, to add another 16+ storage devices to it. You can kinda think of it as SLI/Crossfire for RAID cards. However, not all RAID cards support this, and it typically requires cards be identical models.

[AstroBenny]

1. Software RAID, is just that, a RAID that is controlled only by software running on your computer. An example of this would be Windows' built in RAID utility. This is often slower than hardware RAID, and also causes a small amount of CPU overhead, but for simple RAIDs such as 0, 1, or 10 it will typically have good enough performance. Hardware RAID is where your RAID setup has dedicated hardware, as in a RAID card/controller, to support it instead of taking up CPU cycles. Performance is typically better on hardware controllers, especially for modes that require parity calculation like 5 and 6.

2. Setting up a RAID in Windows will always be a software solution. Setting up on a RAID in the BIOS/UEFI really depends on the motherboard you have. Some boards do have legitimate RAID controllers built in for hardware RAID, but most of them are just a software RAID. Even still, setting it up through the BIOS will normally net better performance then through Windows because it has a bit lower level access.

 

3. Motherboard RAID is just another word for a RAID that is set up through the BIOS/UEFI that is installed on your particular motherboard.

 

4. A RAID Controller is a dedicated chipset, typically found as a PCIe add-in card, but also occasionally found integrated into motherboards. This chipset handles any and all calculations that need to happen for the RAID along with passing commands to the individual drives that make up the RAID. Some RAID Controllers are a little bit simpler in that they are really just cards with SATA ports on them that come with a software package to setup a software RAID through that expansion card.

 

5. A Secondary RAID Controller is used almost exclusively in server environments. A single raid card may be able to have 16+ storage devices plugged into, but if you need more drives than that, you can buy a second RAID card, to add another 16+ storage devices to it. You can kinda think of it as SLI/Crossfire for RAID cards. However, not all RAID cards support this, and it typically requires cards be identical models.

Thanks a bunch!

I was hoping someone would go into that much detail