Definition of RAID

[Vincent Trouilliez]

> Personally, I chose software RAID and didn't even bother with hardware RAID.

I don't understand how RAID 0 can be done in S/W ?
If Linux handles it, then I guess it done at the kernel level, or just
above ?
But to me it's a chicken and egg situation... to load the kernel file,
you need all the bits of the file, but the bits are spread over two (or
more) disks, and you can't put the bits together into a meaningful file
until said file/kernel has be executed.

I cna understand how Raid 1 is different, it's just a mirror, so you can
load the kernel from either disk. But raid O.... I don't get it. :-/

Also, how much CPU load does handling the array require ?

More importantly, how to trust S/W for this highly sensitive low-level
I/O stuff like RAID 0 ? I anything goes wrong in the system (program
crashing or otherwise misbehaving, bugged etc), how that might impact
the RAID driver ? If a program misbehaves, anything can happen, and if
it affects the RAID driver in whatever way, it could cause it to
ruin/corrupt all your data in a micro second, horror ! :o(((

To me,  H/W controller = simplicity (from the OS/user side) +
performance + PEACE OF MIND (the most important !! :o)

At least, people have the choice. I don't think Windows XP would let you
do S/W RAID would it ?.... long live Linux :o)


Vince