On Board RAID Sil 3114 - is it any good?
Ian R
Hi
My current motherboard (ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe) has an on board Sil 3114
controller.
I'm currently using it in RAID1 mode.
Are these on board controllers any good?
If not why not and any suggestions for an alternative?
Thanks
Ian
Arno
> Hi
> My current motherboard (ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe) has an on board Sil 3114
> controller.
> I'm currently using it in RAID1 mode.
> Are these on board controllers any good?
Depends on what you want. Typically these are hard to monitor
automatically, so they are reliable only on a machine that
gets booted frequently (and so the RAID status is checked
at least on bootup).
If the board breaks, you euither have to buy recovery software or
a board with the same controller to get your data again.
> If not why not and any suggestions for an alternative?
If you use Linux or FreeBSD, by all means move to software
RAID. Not tied to specific hardware, fast, all reasonable
RAID levels, free, reliable. Don't know about OS X,
but the same should be possible there.
For Windows, I don't know. My current employer uses Linux
boxes for servers for the above reasons and runs Windows only
virtualized, a strategy I agree with completely.
Arno
Christian Franke
> Ian R <...> wrote:
>
>> My current motherboard (ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe) has an on board Sil 3114
>> controller.
>
>> I'm currently using it in RAID1 mode.
>
>> Are these on board controllers any good?
> If the board breaks, you euither have to buy recovery software or
> a board with the same controller to get your data again.
>
RAID1 is an exception if the firmware/driver of the controller places
the RAID configuration data at the end of each disk. Then the data can
later be accessed also by another non-RAID controller.
IIRC, this is the case for the SiL 3114.
If this does not work: Linux 'dmraid' (not 'mdraid') understands some
vendor specific RAID configuration data formats and may be able to
rescue the data.
> If you use Linux or FreeBSD, by all means move to software
> RAID. Not tied to specific hardware, fast, all reasonable
> RAID levels, free, reliable. Don't know about OS X,
> but the same should be possible there.
>
> For Windows, I don't know.
>
AFIAK, the RAID is actually a software RAID in BIOS and Windows driver.
The Sil 3114 (unlike some of the Promise chips) does not provide any
RAID support in hardware.
--
Christian
Arno
> Arno wrote:
>> Ian R <...> wrote:
>>
>>> My current motherboard (ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe) has an on board Sil 3114
>>> controller.
>>
>>> I'm currently using it in RAID1 mode.
>>
>>> Are these on board controllers any good?
>> ...
>> If the board breaks, you euither have to buy recovery software or
>> a board with the same controller to get your data again.
>>
> RAID1 is an exception if the firmware/driver of the controller places
> the RAID configuration data at the end of each disk. Then the data can
> later be accessed also by another non-RAID controller.
Indeed. As Linux software RAID does, but unfortunately many
Hardware RAID controllers do not.
> IIRC, this is the case for the SiL 3114.
Possibly. One way to actually test it, is to remove one drive,
connect it to a regular interface and see whether its contents
can be accessed.
> If this does not work: Linux 'dmraid' (not 'mdraid') understands some
> vendor specific RAID configuration data formats and may be able to
> rescue the data.
Again true. Sorry I forgot about that. But test this _before_ there
is a problem.
>> If you use Linux or FreeBSD, by all means move to software
>> RAID. Not tied to specific hardware, fast, all reasonable
>> RAID levels, free, reliable. Don't know about OS X,
>> but the same should be possible there.
>>
>> For Windows, I don't know.
>>
> AFIAK, the RAID is actually a software RAID in BIOS and Windows driver.
> The Sil 3114 (unlike some of the Promise chips) does not provide any
> RAID support in hardware.
Ah, the good old FakeRAID. Never undertsood the point of that,
besides it being a rip-off.
Arno