NASLite Network Attached Storage

I just installed V 2.6 of NASLite-2. I had a problem with the previous version recognizing a raid volume created with a Highpoint "RocketRaid 454" controller card. The bios setup utility for this card lists it as HPT374. The hardware compatibility list shows HPT374 and the driver as HPT366. When NASLite loads it loads this driver. But under storage configuration it sees the raid drives as individual drives. When I go to map network drives on one of my client computers, the raid drives shows up as individual drives. Can anybody tell me what I need to get NASLite to recognize this raid volume?

NAS: Gateway Pentium III 500Mhz, 640Mb ram, Boot drive WD 20Gb IDE, storage = 2 x120Gb WD IDE HDs, 8 x 250Gb WD IDE HDs configured as a Raid 5 volume by Highpoint controller card. NIC is a Netgear GA311.

That's not a hardware RAID card.

I'm sorry, I don't understand. If it isn't a hardware raid card, then what is it? And again, how do I get NASLite to recognize the raid volume?

There are two types of RAID cards, those like the one you have. These are essentially nothing more than a controller chipset with drivers that implement the RAID functionality in software using the power of the processor to get the job done. RAID0, RAID1, and RAID10 are all low in overhead and if a RAID card supports only these then it is a very good bet that the card is not a "Real" RAID card.

The second type of RAID card has it's own processor, memory for cache, and RAID BIOS/ firmware on the card. These are generally fairly expensive new. They will support RAID levels 0 up to 50 and even 60 sometimes for the new high dollar cards.

The short answer to the second part of your question is that you don't. At least not right now with the current version of the release. Tony and Ralph are going to be adding software RAID sometime in the future, but that is in the future. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news on that one.

There are allot of good, real, RAID cards to be had on Ebay every day. They work well and are generally sold at a fraction of new if you look and are patient.

Mike

Hey Mike, thanks for the info. My only question now is, how do I tell if a card is a hardware or software raid controller?

Thanks for your help.

Loren

Generally it is a hardware RAID card 99% of the time if it supports RAID5 or above. This requires a fair amount of I/O and is somewhat calculation intensive and is seldome carried out on the host processor.

As a general rule and of the 3Ware cards are hardware based RAID. Some of the higher end Adaptec cards are also hardware RAID. I am not a fan of Adaptec any more, Their customer support sucks now. If the card has cache then it is likely a hardware RAID card.

Mike