[TriLUG] Ubuntu FakeRAID or Software

[Brian Blater]

Hi everyone,

I could use some help/advice. I recently picked up an MSI motherboard
with 9 SATA ports to test several things. The first was setting up a
SATA RAID. The board claims 0/1/5/10 RAID capabilities via the BIOS
with an Intel Matrix. After getting the board I discovered this will
really not create a true hardware RAID, but what is called a FakeRAID
- I'll call it FR. So, I continue anyways.

I configured the BIOS for RAID and proceed to install Ubuntu Server
10.04 LTS. I have an additional harddrive as the primary drive for
installing the OS with /boot, / and other partitions, so the OS is not
installed on the FR. Everything installs fine. I'm able to update the
OS etc. I then check /dev/mapper and I see the isw### device listed. I
then run cfdisk /dev/mapper/isw### and create a swap partition on the
drive. I run dmraid -r. After that is done I reboot the machine and I
just get a blank/black screen with a flashing cursor. No matter how
long I leave the machine on, nothing ever happens.

So, now the questions. What am I doing wrong here? All the google
searches I've looked through don't mention doing anything different.
Anyone have any suggestions?

Now I'm wondering if I would be better off ditching the FR and going
with a Software RAID - I'll call it SR? Is there any benefit of the FR
over the SR? One other thing I would like to try and test is
ATA-over-Ethernet. Would FR or SR provide better performance for the
AoE? I'm a little concerned about using SR as a couple of colleagues
have problems where the RAID has failed after a few months or so and
has to be rebuilt. Not sure what others experience has been with a SR?

Anyways, thanks for any help/advice you all can give me.

Brian