S-ATA RAID Controllers Revisited

[Dr. Clark Mankin]

Hello, Everyone.

I have just completely replaced my server farm with new machines built around the Asus A7N8X system board which includes a pair of these RAID controllers on the board.  The Windoze driver supports RAID 0 interleaving for faster performance or RAID 1 to create mirrored pairs.

FreeBSD 5.1 found the RAID controller but failed to install a driver.  I'm not certain whether I might need to roll a custom kernel for that function or if I might find a 3rd party driver that will work.  Really all I want is RAID 1.  I have a file server and mirrored pairs meet my particular need best.

For those of you who might want to experiment a bit, two brand new hard drives by the same manufacturer and of the same size can be mirrored very satisfactorily using rsync.  This is not "RAID" in the strict sense of the word, however the end results are so similar that I doubt anyone blindfolded would know whether the drive had been mirrored with a RAID controller or with rsync.

Since I have the raid controllers I thought I'd try them - if I can get a driver.  If not then I'll use "plan b" and mirror a drive in each enclosure using rsync as a nightly procedure in addition to my regular backup routine.

If any of you intrepid Digital Pioneers know of an appropriate driver, please share your knowledge.

Thanks and I hope your day is filled with joy and prosperity.

D. Clark Mankin