No RAID for VT8237?

[Ash]

Mike Jakubik wrote:
> Can someone tell my why there is no RAID support for the VT8237 SATA
> controller, when the chipset is listed as supported in the ata man page?
> I've wasted enough money and time buying hardware and hoping that a
> particular onboard ATA raid chips is supported. I understand that the
> manufacturers may not release the data required to write a driver, and
> that they keep changing specs around, but if we could at least have
> documentation stating which of the common onboard raid chipsets are
> supported. The motherboard in question is a gigabyte GA-K8VM800M. FreeBSD
> 5.3 detects the chipset, but shows the drives individually, not as an ar
> array.
> 
> 

Mike,

I'm not sure what the status of RAID on a VT8237 is, but is it possible 
the array(s) is(are) there and you are not noticing them?

Most of these lower end PATA/SATA "RAID" controllers are doing their 
work in software. As such you will be able to see (not to mention mount, 
modify, etc...) the physical RAID components in addition to the actual 
array.

For example, I have a Promise controller in my system with two RAID 1 
arrays defined:

   ~ > ls /dev/ar?
   /dev/ar0        /dev/ar1
   ~ > sudo atacontrol status ar0
   ar0: ATA RAID1 subdisks: ad4 ad6 status: READY
   ~ > sudo atacontrol status ar1
   ar1: ATA RAID1 subdisks: ad5 ad7 status: READY

However, I can also physically see the components:

   ~ > ls /dev/ad?
   /dev/ad4        /dev/ad5        /dev/ad6        /dev/ad7
   ~ > sudo atacontrol list
   ATA channel 0:
       Master: acd0 <SONY DVD RW DRU-700A/VY02> ATA/ATAPI revision 5
       Slave:       no device present
   ATA channel 1:
       Master: acd1 <TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-R1202/1020> ATA/ATAPI revision 5
       Slave:       no device present
   ATA channel 2:
       Master:  ad4 <Maxtor 6Y120P0/YAR41BW0> ATA/ATAPI revision 7
       Slave:   ad5 <MAXTOR 6L080J4/A93.0500> ATA/ATAPI revision 5
   ATA channel 3:
       Master:  ad6 <Maxtor 6Y120P0/YAR41BW0> ATA/ATAPI revision 7
       Slave:   ad7 <MAXTOR 6L080J4/A93.0500> ATA/ATAPI revision 5
   ATA channel 4:
       Master:      no device present
       Slave:       no device present
   ATA channel 5:
       Master:      no device present
       Slave:       no device present

IIRC sysinstall shows the RAID components before the arrays, when it 
comes time to choose a disk or disks to install on.

-Ash