[wellylug] My new linux server

[Abhinav Keswani]

Hi!

> Umm... if you install Linux & partition with one drive & no motherboard RAID,
> things will get very screwy after you add a second drive. Most motherboards
> don't implement a full hardware RAID, & the OS will typically use different
> drivers in a RAID & non-RAID system, even with the same controller chip.

Mmmm I am very confuscious.  I thought the OS was talking to the RAID
controller and not actually aware of the disk subsystem below.  The
physical arrangement of disks is abstracted from the OS and all it
sees is a metadevice or a volume (or whatever you want it to be
called).

Here's how my simple brain thinks of it:

I build the box with one drive.  I subsequently want to add another
drive and want to mirror it.  I shut the machine down and physically
insert the second drive and then via the BIOS utils I can select to
mirror data from original drive to the second and voila I have a
mirrored pair of disks.
 
OS comes up still talking to the RAID controller and sees the same old
metadevice.

Am I living in fairy-tale land?

I've worked with some pretty high end RAID controllers before and this
is how they have worked - but they have hot swap capabilities - dunno
if I am expecting too much from my new motheboards RAID controller...

> 
> Enjoy...
> 

I ordered it today.  I'm already enjoying it (except the dent in my
wallet) - thanks for the input so far!

-A