On Sun, Feb 22, 2009 at 7:05 PM, Ian Forde ian@duckland.org wrote:
RAID in software, whether RAID1 or RAID5/6, always has manual steps involved in recovery. If one is using standardized hardware, such as HP DL-x80 hardware or Dell x950 boxes, HW RAID obviates the need for a "recovery procedure". It's just easier. You can still boot from a single drive, since that's what the bootloader sees. There are no vendor instructions or utilities needed for recovery. Nor is there a backup controller needed.
If I have to do hardware raid, I'll definitely spec in a backup controller. Learnt this the hard way when my raid 5 controller died years after I first got it and I could no longer find a replacement.
For high budget projects, having the extra raid controller as insurance isn't a big deal. But for most budget setup and cost conscious clients, soft raid obviates that hardware dependency.