linux RAID 1 issue

[erosnemesis]

I have a TYAN S5350 motherboard using the onboard SATA raid controller. I have 2 250gig hard drive in RAID 1. I am trying to install fedora core 3, but whenever i get to the point where i need to create my partitions the hard drives show up as 2 seperate hard drives. can someone help

[WMD]

I think you have to specify RAID when you see the two drives.  Go to create a partition, and there should be an option to make a RAID array.

[toadlife]

These cheapo "raid controllers" that you find on motherboards require drivers to handle the RAID arrays - in the same way that "Winmodems" require software to emulate real hardware modems. It could be that the linux kernel in your fedora core 3 distro doesn't fully support your mobo's raid chipset. I've seen this with FreeBSD and a cheap $50 ATA "raid controller". Instead of seeing the RAID volume I had created, FreeBSd just saw two hard disks.

My solution was to buy a nice little 3Ware Escalade RAID controller.

[toadlife]

My advice. Look up what RAID chipset your motherboard uses and then do some googling or go to the fedora website and look up that raid chipset. Unfortunately, you'll probably find that it's not fully supported...but you might find a driver for it!

[erosnemesis]

I actually did download the drivers from their website and tried doing it that way, but that failed so i ended up going out to my local computer store and purchasing an Adaptec SATA RAID controller and hopefully it works out. THe card goes anywhere from 50-85 dollars and i have always trusted adaptec.
If you are curious what card i got it is the Adaptec Sata RAID 1210sa

[toadlife]

Adaptec is a very popular brand so you'll probbaly not have too much trouble. I had to get the 3Ware myself because it was one of only two or three ATA Raid controllers that FreeBSD supported.

[erosnemesis]

i just got another issue, the stupid card doesnt have support for fedora core 3. Anyother tips?

[Dark_Me]

Use another distro?

[erosnemesis]

well maybe, i will have to think about it. What distro do you guys think i should use for a DNS because i am opening my own side business for shared hosting.

[solemnwarning]

Ick, dont use redhat for a server its way to bloated.

i use LFS on my server but if you are just starting with linux building and configuring lfs might be hard, maybe try debian 3.1 minimal netinstall.

[WMD]

You could just use software RAID.  You don't need a RAID card at all for that.  I think the Fedora partitioner lets you set that up.

[erosnemesis]

yes but onboard RAID is not that good because power isnt isolated. If you use a seperate card then the power is isolated and gives you better reliability.