NASLite Network Attached Storage

I have a NSD7800 by VIA that supports 8 drives, separated by 2 raid controllers. I've just added 4 1TB drives to the 'North' bridge', which controls the top 4 drives.

I setup the array in the bios. But when I view the storage configuration, it shows all 4 drives separately. As this is my first raid setup, and I perhaps doing something wrong? The machine boots and shows the raid configuration, but I'm seeing 4 separate drives, so unsure its configured properly or not.

Thanks
PT

Search the forums for "fake RAID" ... I am not the RAID expert, but on this forum there are many discussions about REAL hardware RAID versus software RAID (which requires drivers NASLite does not provide). I am not aware of any on-board-the-motherboard REAL hardware RAID ... it is usually provided with a PCI card. Also be careful with the hardware reference manual, which may list a particylar RAID card as being supported by NASLite ... but in some (many?) cases (as at least one forum member found out recently the hard way) it only supports the basic IDE or SATA function (individual drives), not the manufacturer-advertised RAID function, because it is a "fake" (software) RAID card.

"mikeiver1" will definitely be able to add to this info ...

For example:

See here: http://www.adaptec.com/en-GB/products/C ... SA_faq.htm
and here: http://www.adaptec.com/en-GB/products/C ... AR-1420SA/

Adaptec's "HostRAID" is software RAID ...

So ... it won't work (in RAID mode) with NASLite ...

And see comments on your system here (notice the mention of software or pseudo RAID): http://www.techpowerup.com/81686/VIA_La ... e_Use.html

You have the basics covered there Georg, not much I need to add.

Just do a bit of searching and there is plenty of info I and others have posted on this here in the forums.

Mike

I'm not sure what your referring to with Adaptec, as the machine I'm using has 2 separate, built in hardware raid controllers. One is controlled by the "Onboard RAID controller is the Via VT8251 which operates the top 4 bays" and the "Second is the Marvell 81xxx RAID controller that operates the bottom 4 bays"

I've setup the a raid5 (with 4 drives) in both bays, but naslite is then seeing them as 4 separate drives. I don't want to start adding data until I'm sure the raid configuration is setup properly.

The onboard RAID that you have on your motherboard will not work with NASLite. It is softRAID or fakeRAID - it requires the CPU on the motherboard to do most of the work.

A true hardware RAID card has an onboard processor to carry out the grunt work of RAID.

Even though they claim the chipset is RAID my guess is that it is in fact a software RAID implementation. If it had a dedicated Xor engine, processor, and cache they for sure would have been trumpeting about it. I did put in a request for the actual engineering data sheets for the chipset, we will see if they grant it to me. This will tell all.

Mike

My Adaptec reference was provided to illustrate how "deceptive" the RAID claims from a Hardware Manufacturer (even an established one) can be ... ok, let's not call it "deceptive", let's call it "confusing". It certainly might achieve the claimed RAID objectives, but "user beware" of what is really being provided -- true hardware RAID or a dependency on software and necessary drivers compatible with whatever O/S you have chosen ...

The basics are this. When a hardware RAID card is used and a valid logical drive array is built using the RAID cards on card utility from the BIOS the array will appear as just another drive coming off of yet another storage interface card. There will be no hint to there being multiple drives as members of the presented array. The OS layed over it has nothing to do with the array coming up. In fact if you were to load a different OS it would see the array just fine as long as it could read the FS layed down on the array.

With software RAID it requires the OS to load the kernel, bring up low level drivers for the drive interface, initialize the array, and finally the array will come on line. All this is via the processor and drivers specific to the interface chip.

Mike

Yeah, thats sort of where I get confused. If I'm seeing the raid configuration in the bios, prior to naslite (or any OS) booting up, I would think that your using hardware raid. I'll start reading up on fake/soft raid as well, to see if helps me understand better.

If it is true hardware raid, then, I would think that naslite should be seeing the 4 drive, Raid5 array as 1 drive.

Correct, the RAID5 should look like one drive to NL.

Mike

Right, it is confusing (or misleading). But basically "caveat emptor", because even my very basic Dell Inspiron 530 (Core2Duo) has an option in the BIOS where you can select [IDE] or [RAID] mode ... and I know for sure it's NOT true Raid. ( I'm not near the PC at the moment so I can't verify ... what further confuses the issue in my case is that there aren't even any IDE ports on the PC! ) I've never tried the RAID selection and am not about to, since it could mess up my production PC ...

Allot of older machines had a bridge for the SATA to ATA. This was hell to deal with since they didn't have real SATA to PCI chips at the very start and there were no chipsets with SATA interfaces, only ATA133.

In addition to the bios having the option to choose between [IDE] and [RAID] mode, I also have the options on a boot up to hit control-y for the top controller, or control-m for the bottom marvel controller.

In each of those setting, I then have the ability to select and setup the raid array, choosing between, Raid0, 1, 5 or jbod, and choosing which drives to include in the array.

I also asked on the VIA forums, and it 'appears' its hardware raid, but perhaps I'm missing something.

http://www.viaarena.com/forums/showthread.php?t=40644

Ok, I just took another look through the reference guide, and seems the current VT8251 SB chip isn't supported (at least yet anyway), and only the VIA VT6420 and VT6421 raid controllers are currently supported.

So I think I'm out of luck right now in setting up a raid array. I can use all the drives, which a big plus over FreeNas, since they didn't even support the marvel raid controller either.

Hopefully, it makes it in future releases.