Asus P5MT-MX/C - Manual (Page 97)

ASUS P5MT-MX/C 5-1
5.1 RAID configurations
The server system/motherboard comes with the Intel ® ICH7R and the
LSI Logic Embedded SATA RAID technology built-in the Intel ® ICH7R
SouthBridge chipset that allows you to configure IDE and Serial ATA hard
disk drives as RAID sets. The motherboard supports the following RAID
configurations:
5.1.1 RAID definitions
RAID 0 (Data striping) optimizes two identical hard disk drives to read and
write data in parallel, interleaved stacks. Two hard disks perform the same
work as a single drive but at a sustained data transfer rate, double that
of a single disk alone, thus improving data access and storage. Use of two
new identical hard disk drives is required for this setup.
RAID 1
(Data mirroring) copies and maintains an identical image of
data from one drive to a second drive. If one drive fails, the disk array
management software directs all applications to the surviving drive as
it contains a complete copy of the data in the other drive. This RAID
configuration provides data protection and increases fault tolerance to the
entire system. Use two new drives or use an existing drive and a new drive
for this setup. The new drive must be of the same size or larger than the
existing drive.
RAID 5 stripes both data and parity information across three or more hard
disk drives. Among the advantages of RAID 5 configuration include better
HDD performance, fault tolerance, and higher storage capacity. The RAID 5
configuration is best suited for transaction processing, relational database
applications, enterprise resource planning, and other business systems. Use
a minimum of three identical hard disk drives for this setup.
RAID 10 is a striped configuration with RAID 1 segments whose segments
are RAID 1 arrays. This configuration has the same fault tolerance as
RAID 1, and has the same overhead for fault-tolerance as mirroring alone.
RAID 10 achieves high input/output rates by striping RAID 1 segments. In
some instances, a RAID 10 configuration can sustain multiple simultaneous
drive failure. A minimum of four hard disk drives is required for this setup.
Intel
® Matrix Storage. The Intel ® Matrix Storage technology supported by
the ICH7R chip allows you to create a RAID 0 and a RAID 1 set using only
two identical hard disk drives. The Intel ® Matrix Storage technology creates
two partitions on each hard disk drive to create a virtual RAID 0 and RAID
1 sets. This technology also allows you to change the hard disk drive
partition size without losing any data.
If you want to boot the system from a hard disk drive included in a
created RAID set, copy first the RAID driver from the support CD to a
floppy disk before you install an operating system to the selected hard
disk drive. Refer to section “6.1 RAID driver installation” for details.