[WBEL-users] Intel ICH5R SATA RAID

[Bob Ramstad]

I am building a new WBEL3 system which has a motherboard with the
Intel ICH5R SATA RAID chipset.

>From what I can tell, this is "fake raid" i.e. RAID1 is accomplished
through software drivers.

http://users.pandora.be/TheBlackUnicorn/linux/

It looks like the appropriate drivers are available in 2.4.26.

>From my end, it looks like respin1 treats the SATA drives as if they
were SCSI.  Even if I have them combined in the ICH5R setup as if they
are RAID1, they show up as two separate SCSI drives.

I have a few questions, wondering if anyone else has any experience with this...

1) Given that the ICH5R RAID1 is software RAID, should I expect
similar performance using Linux software RAID i.e. /dev/mdX?

2) If so, any reason to prefer ICH5R RAID1 or Linux RAID1 over the other?

3) If ICH5R RAID1 is preferred, any simple strategies for installing
WBEL other than waiting for respin2 or installing respin1 to a
traditional IDE drive first, upgrading the kernel and copying over?

My inclination is to leave the two drives as separate SATA drives, let
them be recognized as SCSI drives by respin1, and use Linux software
RAID.  I do have a slight concern / fear that this is suboptimal, or
won't work, hence my questions.

Thanks in advance for any help.

-- Bob