raid configuration help

Dear all

I want to practice how raid disks configuration works but i don't have raid controller on my pc. I have hard disks and pcs. Is there any way to configure raid in virtual environment or without raid controller. please help

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rwmidl

If no RAID controller you will need to use software RAID. What OS are you running in the VM?

jibbajabba

rwmidl wrote: »

If no RAID controller you will need to use software RAID. What OS are you running in the VM?

^^ that ...

On Windows
Windows Software RAID Guide

and Linux
The Software-RAID HOWTO

The latter is a bit mind blowing - so it is good to have some experience with the Linux filesystems and LVM configurations in order to avoid blowing your system into pieces ..

So before going even deeper into specifics we really need some more infos as rwmidl suggests ..

MentholMoose

Software RAID is fine for learning about RAID. Once you understand the key concepts (e.g. what the different RAID levels are and when to use them), configuring RAID on a physical card is a simple matter of reading the instructions or just poking around in the configuration utility. If you really want to work with hardware RAID and you have spare hard drives, you could get a cheap used RAID card on eBay, but it really is not that useful since knowing the concepts is what matters. For example, during an interview you will never get asked how to configure a RAID 5 array on an Areca 1320, but you might get asked about the difference between RAID 1 and RAID 5 and the pros and cons of each.

jibbajabba

MentholMoose wrote: »

Software RAID is fine for learning about RAID. Once you understand the key concepts (e.g. what the different RAID levels are and when to use them), configuring RAID on a physical card is a simple matter of reading the instructions or just poking around in the configuration utility. If you really want to work with hardware RAID and you have spare hard drives, you could get a cheap used RAID card on eBay, but it really is not that useful since knowing the concepts is what matters. For example, during an interview you will never get asked how to configure a RAID 5 array on an Areca 1320, but you might get asked about the difference between RAID 1 and RAID 5 and the pros and cons of each.

Very true - plus there is no point in getting "a" Raid card to play with it.. You can save yourself the money. Simply because the interfaces are highly different.

Some interfaces are dangerously unintuitive - like the LSI - where it is easy to wipe an existing array in order to add a new one, unless you know what you are doing (so "poking around" could have nasty consequences). Areca is basic but work, Adaptec is yet again different completely and rock solid - you can even accidentally delete the arrays from the bios and re-create them and your data is still there (IF the arrays were created with the exact same size) - 3Ware - again, complete different concept (especially when it comes to creating multiple arrays).

All that doesn't / won't tell you anything, I know. But my point is, learn to walk before you try to run

MentholMoose

jibbajabba wrote: »

Some interfaces are dangerously unintuitive - like the LSI - where it is easy to wipe an existing array in order to add a new one, unless you know what you are doing (so "poking around" could have nasty consequences).

Yes, definitely be cautious if you are using RAID and have important data on the array. Inadvertently deleting an array is bad news.