>> > I have no direct experience but I was asking some questions on this >> > list recently. One disadvantage of software RAD would be that >> > partition management tools like parted may not (or WILL not) do >> > resizing on a software RAID but will (or should!) on hardware RAID. If >> > you go with software RAID and later decide that a partition needs to >> > be moved, resized, etc., then you may not be able to do it. >> > >> > I would suggest finding a good, if inexpensive, hardware RAID card >> > or possibly play a bit with the RAID stuff on your motherboard to see >> > if parted can work with it. >> >> What makes motherboard RAID such crap? I don't think I'll ever want >> to resize partitions. Mine are very simple root, boot, and swap and >> I've never wanted to change them. Is it slow, unreliable? > > Motherboard RAID tends to be one of those things where corners are cut. It is > not true RAID either in low-end boards - it is two drives that are always > visible anyway and you use some crappy "driver" (that no-one can debug) to > form a *software* RAID, usually very limited in scope and usually very > limited in performance. > > So, if you are going to end up using some vendor's crappy driver, you might as > well use a proper software RAID driver that comes with the kernel, that can > be debugged, that is a known quantity and that is proven to have excellent > performance. In-kernel software RAID also has an impressive array of working > features, and often out-performs even decent hardware RAID cards. > > Which isn't to say that hardware RAID is a bad thing, there are some > spectacular cards out there. They do tend to be pricey though.
That's a great explanation, thank you very much. - Grant
