do I need a RAID card?

[icomputer]

hi,

I want to install on my suse linux server some raid. I want to do raid 1 mirror of two ide harddrives, and I can only fit 2 HDDs in my system btw.

I found this card: http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=33743

but the reviews say I don't need it and I can setup software raid in linux, but I thought software raid needed an OS drive, and then the two raid drives...

any help?

thanks

[jl123]

Here's a lot of reading you can do.

I've never done it but I'm pretty sure software raid 1 wouldn't be a problem. Just read up and I'm sure it's there somewhere. Wish I could give you an easy answer.

~Joel

[sechs]

You can do a RAID 1 set in Linux without too much fuss.

Why do you want to use RAID 1 (versus a good backup scheme)?

[icomputer]

hi,

I'm making a mini-itx based server and I have 2 harddrives 120Gb, but I had 3 but one died on me so I'm a bit wary of them but can't afford to loose data but for the extra £20 or so for a raid card or even free software raid there isn't really a problem..

I suppose my question is can I setup software raid on two drives on linux with linux already installed on one of the drives?

thanks

[Foggy]

" I'm a bit wary of them but can't afford to loose data "

I don't know about software raid but with a pci card the act of creating the raid array will wipe out your drives.

[icomputer]

well I have the data backed up so in the process of creating the raid I can delete the stuff. I just dont want to have a drive fail and have to rely on a week old backup or something...

[sechs]

If you're highly paranoid about data loss, then definitely go with a hardware controller -- and not a cheap one.

[icomputer]

okay, but what kind do I need? every thing I've said says I don't need one for linux but I'm confused...

[sechs]

No, you don't. However, software RAID is dependent upon your operating system. If there is a problem or you switch, your data may be toast.

[icomputer]

okay so if I connect up:

primary master: hdd1
primary slave: hdd2
secondary master: dvd-rom

and make sure I have a temporary floppy drive if I need one then I can install linux on hdd1 then setup hdd2 to be a raid1 mirror of that drive without having to reinstall again?

if I can avoid the hardware raid card it would be good as I can get a gigabit ethernet card in instead...
[edit]
this actually contains a lot of info that might help me [/edit]