A hp server that i work on had two disks in a raid 1 array, one of my colleagues added an extra disk and made it a raid 5, the hardware raid device moved the data around as appropriate while the machine was running and the disk space was expanded without any downtime. As the comments on my recent post apples new kickbutt file system showed, some folks cant believe that software raid could. May 24, 2005 scott lowe responds to a techrepublic discussion and one members raid dilemma. Software raid can have trouble with dissimilar drives. When running basic io tests ddoflagdirect 5k to 100g files, hdparam t, etc. Hardware raid vs software raid windows 7 help forums. In a hardware raid setup, the drives connect to a special raid controller inserted in a fast pciexpress pcie slot in a motherboard. Hardware raid vs software raid and data recovery so i have been going back and forth between setups for my home web server and file server. Raid 5 with hot spare disks, raid 1 or 10 should be more tolerant. Hardware raid will cost more, but it will also be free of software raids. I used to have 2x 160gb hard drives in software raid 1 and a single 500gb hard drive for storage.
Processing is required to carry out those actions, and that can take place on the host servers os or in the storage array or controller. Hardware raid is far more expensive than software raid. Thus if the os fails the raid is gone and so is the data, whereas on a hardware level regardless of os the data remains. I have always used hardware based raid because it imho is on the right level feel free to dispute this, and because os failures are more common to me than hardware issues. What is a hardware raid protect your data with a raid array. If anything they should be advised to increase ram and be done with it. Software raid 1 using windows or hardware raid 1 using a raid controller. For instance, the highend disk controllers can be very costly. Difference between software raid and hardware raid in high level is presented in this video session. After many years of running software raid setups in linux ive never run into a bug that caused data loss.
But the real question is whether you should use a hardware raid solution or a software raid solution. The raid implementation in winxp in my opinion is flawed to the point of making it unusable. We list the pros and cons of hardware vs software raid to help you decide which one is best for you. You can easily move disks from a failed enclosure to a new one, and all your data is preserved. Raid 1e requires min of 3 disk, and raid 10 requires a min of 4 disk. Im about to start a new server build for home media storage.
Software vs hardware raid performance and cache usage. Hotswap support is spotty not all software raid implementations support hot swapping. Aug 09, 2007 well, i can not provide information via personal experience, as i have never ran any raid array off of the motherboard, but i have heard that the performance difference between software vs hardware raid 5 is drastic. Feb 28, 2018 raid redundant array of independent disks is one of the popular data storage virtualization technology. So upgrades and handling failures becomes trivial since the software controller can come with you to the new hardware. Comparing hardware raid vs software raid deals with how the storage drives in a raid array connect to the motherboard, and the. Sustained read throughput, if the controller or software is optimized for it. Software raid is a type of raid implementation that utilizes operating systembased capabilities to construct and deliver raid services. Software raid 5 vs hardware raid 5 anandtech forums.
Even if you dont go with one of the fancier software controllers like zfs or btrfs id still recommend going with a software raid. All you need to do is connect the drives and configure the raid level you want. I have scoured through articles written about tuning software and i have used linux software raid for over 10 years. Ive been hoping other people would post with some experience, because im in the middle of a decision and am leaning toward software but just basically fear the unknown. Jul 07, 2009 a redundant array of inexpensive disks raid allows high levels of storage reliability. It is a way to virtualize multiple, independent hard disk drives into one or more arrays to. Here are some tips on raid levels and some feedback on the software vs. Software raid is part of os, so no need to spend extract money. Hardware raid vs os raid solutions experts exchange. The software raid works on partition level and it can sometime increase complexity if you mix different partitions and hardware raid. Raid stands for redundant array of inexpensive disks. Dec 25, 2006 software raid is generally slower and less reliable than a hardware solution. Apr 28, 2017 there is also another type of raid that runs directly on your computer through software.
If you need more disk ports you can always get an hba host bus adapter card. While you might think the computer you are using is the most important part of your everyday and professional workflows, there is something even more important. The system cant function without a suitable and effective raid controller. Scott lowe responds to a techrepublic discussion and one members raid dilemma. But i am questioning whether raid 0 benefits from hardware in the case of the mp. Softwareraid gegen hardwareraid im benchmarkvergleich.
Reasons for using software raid versus a hardware raid setup. Hardware raid will cost more, but it will also be free of software raid s. Raid 5 vs raid 10 performance and other raid levels. To improve the performance, reliability, and capacity of your hard disk, the redundant array.
You have to firstly tell your system to stop using the disk and then replace the disk. Dec 21, 2005 the biggest difference you are likely to see between the two is that software raid tends to be slower than hardware raid. Implementing hardware raid is a lot more difficult than its software counterpart, but once you get it up and running, it can provide you with high performance when compared to a software raid or single disk setup. With cheaper hardware raid you can also lose data if theres a power outage. One of the first questions we felt needed to be answered was what exactly hardware raid cards do.
Regarding raid1e and 10 the main difference between 1e and 10 is that 1e uses an odd number of disk for providing protection, where as 10 uses an even number of disk. What is the difference between a software and hardware raid. Raid is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical disk drive. Where that processing occurs can be important depending on the complexity of your raid setup. Therefore both are susceptible to bugs in software. Fazit softwareraid gegen hardwareraid im benchmark. Imho, im a big fan of kernel developers non directly related to zfs, so i really prefere mdadm to hardware raid. As far as fault tolerance goes, ill respectfully disagree. Nov 16, 2007 another limitation of linux software raid is expanding raid groups. It combines multiple inexpensive, small disk drives into an array of disks in order to provide redundancy, lower latency maximizing the chanc. It is used to improve disk io performance and reliability of your server or workstation. However, you are likely to find that putting an additional cpu in your server to speed up software raid is less expensive than implementing hardware raid on custom hardware. Comparing hardware raid vs software raid setups deals with how the storage drives in a raid array connect to the motherboard in a server or pc, and the management of those drives.
A raid can be deployed using both software and hardware. I personally avoid marvell integrated raid like the plague due to extremely poor performance worse by far than windows raid, but some of their actual hardware solutions are alright. May 05, 20 in this video from the lustre user group 20, alan poston from xyratex presents. Dedicated hardware controller doing the processing vs. I would generally agree with a preference for hardware vs. When your raid controller fails, you have to find a compatible one to replace. Jul 06, 2011 reasons for using software raid versus a hardware raid setup. What is the difference between hardware and software raid. My experience with hardware and fake hardware raid is that as long as you stay with the same vendor, the raid metadata will be recognized ive seen this when moving drives between various hp, areca and lsi hardware raid controllers, and with intel, amd and even via hostraid i was pretty surprised when i connected a 250gb hard drive from some old amd desktop box to a hp g1 microserver, and. Difference between hardware raid and software raid.
Replacing failed disk in the software raid is a bit more complex. Hardware raid and implications for the future youtube. Windows software raid vs hardware raid ars technica. I do agree though, that hardware raid is the best choice on business class windows servers or even important. Hardware redundant array of inexpensive disks raid and software raid are two main ways for setting up raid system. Ive ordered an areca 1280ml 24 port sata controller. Choosing between software raid and hardware raid depends on what you need to do and cost. With software raid your data can be split across different enclosures for complete redundancy one can completely stop working and your data is still ok. The only extra computation that needs to be done by the cpu is to determine which drive to readwrite the stripe fromto a simple math equation. Benefits and drawbacks of hybrid, hardware assisted software raid. Jan 10, 2008 for raid levels other than 0 i would agree with you. If a hardware raid controller is not capable of nesting linear jbod with raid n, then linear. Software raid does its processing on the server motherboard. A brief history of raid raid has been around since 1970s 1989 berkeley paper was a taxonomy 1989 witnessed the first raid5 in software 1990s saw many hardware raid3, 5s lsi, 3ware, maxstrat, highpoint, intel 1990s also saw the introduction of raidframe mdraid came along in 2001.
Whether software raid vs hardware raid is the one for you depends on what you need to do and how much you want to pay. This is a method of improving the performance and reliability of your storage media by using multiple drives. The different ways that mirroring, striping and parity are used defines the different raid levels. For software raid i used the linux kernel software raid functionality of a system running 64bit fedora 9. It is generally fine, however, to use windows software raid on simple storage.
Windows raid vs intel rst vs raidz vs hardware raid. Additionally, hardware assisted software raid usually comes with a variety of drivers for the most popular operating systems, and therefore, is more os independent than pure software raid. Jun, 2016 comparing hardware raid vs software raid setups deals with how the storage drives in a raid array connect to the motherboard in a server or pc, and the management of those drives. The more hard drives means more cpu cycle will go to software raid instead of your apache postfix or mysql server. In this video from the lustre user group 20, alan poston from xyratex presents. Do either of them allow you to move the drive to another computer.
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