[nycbug-talk] AMD Raid question. . .

[Mikel King]

On Oct 24, 2005, at 9:10 PM, George R. wrote:

> I just got a new 2u Opteron that I'm putting a BSD on. . .
>
> I'm doing hardware RAID (leave me alone with any software raid  
> pro's), and for some reason, the raid firmware only comes up with  
> Raid 0, 1, and 10 (and spare).  There are three x 300g SATA drives  
> in this box, so why doesn't Raid 5 show up?  Isn't three the  
> minimum for all controllers for raid 5?
>
> More info below. . .
>
> Yes, I'm calling AMD tomorrow. . .
>
> g
>
> this is the raid controller:
>
> pciide0 at pci2 dev 5 function 0 "CMD Technology SiI3114 SATA" rev  
> 0x02: DMA


George,

     Have you checked the AMD site fo an bios updates for the main  
logic board? It's possible that they encountered a bug when the board  
was shipped and left that out rather than suffer numerous support  
calls. But you are correct that 3 drives is the minimum required to  
support raid 5. If for some funky reason they do not/will not support  
raid 5 then you'l pretty much be left adding your own controller to  
do it. That is unless you can live with 10 or 1, if your backup  
strategy is sound meaning you evaluate the risk properly and can live  
with it then 10 can work for you.

     It really all depends on your requirements.

cheers,
m