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From: Tom Munro Glass <gentoo@tmgcon.com>
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Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 08:38:58 +1300
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Subject: Re: RAID on HP ML110 G5
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On Tue, 25 Mar 2008, Nejc =8Akoberne wrote:
> Hey Tom,
>
> > I would like to run FreeBSD 7 on a HP ML110 G5. I understand from past
> > posts to this list that the ML110 series is FreeBSD friendly, but what
> > about RAID 1 using the on-board SATA controller? Will this work and how
> > do you set this up?
>
> I have just configured a ML110G5 with FreeBSD 7 a few days ago. If you try
> to make a BIOS RAID (create an array in RAID controller BIOS), then FreeB=
SD
> won't recognize it as it does not understand the metadata format which
> controller BIOS uses to manage the arrays. What you have to do is (having
> RAID mode in BIOS still enabled) boot the server with FreeBSD 7 CD and th=
en
> go to Fixit utility. There you can create "hardware" (see previous posts
> about this being hardware RAID) RAID with "atacontrol" utility. This way,
> FreeBSD will use its own metadata format for the array and will recognize
> such arrays as "arX" devices. Restarting the box you can then install
> FreeBSD easily on these arX devices like on normal adX or daX devices. So
> remember, this is not the "real" FreeBSD software RAID since it is not
> controlled by FreeBSD kernel but by the SATA/RAID controller. For example,
> I have 4 drives and I created RAID-0 (stripes) with atacontrol and will
> merge them (in a few days) into a RAID-1 gmirror.
>
> Hope that helps,
> Nejc

Thanks to all who replied. Since it is possible to use the SATA RAID but it=
=20
isn't true hardware RAID, is it better to use the SATA RAID or use gmirror?

Regards

Tom