- Mar 23, 2011
- 35
- 0
- 18,540
I'm curious to know if anyone else has encountered this and gleaned some insight into the whys and wherefores. I have encountered many times scenarios where when attempting to run the onboard Intel RAID (RST or RSTe) alongside a hardware RAID card (HighPoint Technologies, Areca, LSI, Intel), the onboard RAID will exhibit a host of issues ultimately making it unstable or unable to be used.
In the most recent example, one of my file servers at home is running an ASUS P6T motherboard (i7-920, 48GB RAM). My storage setup is as follows:
2x WD800JD 80GB SATA 3Gbps in RAID 0 (Super Speed) on JMicron JMB322 (Drive Xpert) OS Drive
6x WD2003FYPS 2TB SATA 3Gbps in RAID 0 on Intel ICH10R (Intel RST)
4x WD5002ABYS 500GB SATA 3Gbps in RAID 0 on Intel SRCSASJV
3x WD5002ABYS 500GB SATA 3Gbps in RAID 0 on Intel SRCSAS18E
5x ST3300655SS 300GB SAS 3Gbps in RAID 0 on Intel SRCSAS18E
When I pull the SRCSASJV ans SRCSAS18E RAID cards, the 6x2TB RAID 0 functions perfectly fine. Intel RST software in Windows detects the heath of all of the drives and views the configuration as perfectly healthy. When the system boots I get the expected Intel RST RAID BIOS and Ctrl+I configuration option, everything works exactly as you'd expect.
However, once I add the SRCSASJV or SRCSAS18E RAID cards back in, the Intel BIOS no longer appears during boot (which is expected behavior in my experience, even if it's not desirable). More importantly, the Intel RST software views the RAID 0 array to be Incompatible (suggesting, unhelpfully, that I move it back to the system where it was created). Despite being considered incompatible, the array shows up in Windows and works fine.
I'm having a serious debate about using Windows Storage Spaces to manage the RAID 0 due to the instability in Intel RST, but before I commit to that, I'm curious if others have encountered this issue and might even have some further information or a fix.
For the record, I am moving the above configuration to:
2x WD800JD 80GB SATA 3Gbps in RAID 0 (Super Speed) on JMicron JMB322 (Drive Xpert) OS Drive
6x WD2003FYYS 2TB SATA 3Gbps in RAID 0 on Intel ICH10R (Intel RST) or Storage Spaces
8x WD2003FYPS 2TB SATA 3Gbps in RAID 10, 5, or 6 on Intel SRCSASJV
8x ST3300655SS 300GB SAS 3Gbps in RAID 0 on Intel SRCSAS18E
Also for the record, some of the other issues I've had include:
Intel DP35DP (ICH9R with Q9550 and 8GB RAM), OS disk on IDE, 6 disks on ICH9R, 4 disks on HPT RocketRAID 1740. System will not boot with Intel in RAID mode. Configure RAID in RST without HPT controller, set BIOS to AHCI, add HPT controller, both Intel and HPT arrays appear in Windows. Intel RST does not function in Windows.
ASUS Z9PE-D16 (C602 with 2xE5-2620v3 and 32GB RAM), OS on 2 disk C602 RSTe RAID 1, 4 disks on HPT RocketRAID 640. System will not boot with both RAIDs enabled, error about BIOS memory limitations. Disable Intel RAID in BIOS, system boots. Both arrays appear in Windows. Fastforward 2 years, upgrade RocketRAID 640 to RocketRAID 2740 and add 12 disks, Intel RAID 1 breaks and cannot be fixed without wipe and reload. Keeping a steady backup and dealing with the lack of redundancy in the OS drive for now.
In the most recent example, one of my file servers at home is running an ASUS P6T motherboard (i7-920, 48GB RAM). My storage setup is as follows:
2x WD800JD 80GB SATA 3Gbps in RAID 0 (Super Speed) on JMicron JMB322 (Drive Xpert) OS Drive
6x WD2003FYPS 2TB SATA 3Gbps in RAID 0 on Intel ICH10R (Intel RST)
4x WD5002ABYS 500GB SATA 3Gbps in RAID 0 on Intel SRCSASJV
3x WD5002ABYS 500GB SATA 3Gbps in RAID 0 on Intel SRCSAS18E
5x ST3300655SS 300GB SAS 3Gbps in RAID 0 on Intel SRCSAS18E
When I pull the SRCSASJV ans SRCSAS18E RAID cards, the 6x2TB RAID 0 functions perfectly fine. Intel RST software in Windows detects the heath of all of the drives and views the configuration as perfectly healthy. When the system boots I get the expected Intel RST RAID BIOS and Ctrl+I configuration option, everything works exactly as you'd expect.
However, once I add the SRCSASJV or SRCSAS18E RAID cards back in, the Intel BIOS no longer appears during boot (which is expected behavior in my experience, even if it's not desirable). More importantly, the Intel RST software views the RAID 0 array to be Incompatible (suggesting, unhelpfully, that I move it back to the system where it was created). Despite being considered incompatible, the array shows up in Windows and works fine.
I'm having a serious debate about using Windows Storage Spaces to manage the RAID 0 due to the instability in Intel RST, but before I commit to that, I'm curious if others have encountered this issue and might even have some further information or a fix.
For the record, I am moving the above configuration to:
2x WD800JD 80GB SATA 3Gbps in RAID 0 (Super Speed) on JMicron JMB322 (Drive Xpert) OS Drive
6x WD2003FYYS 2TB SATA 3Gbps in RAID 0 on Intel ICH10R (Intel RST) or Storage Spaces
8x WD2003FYPS 2TB SATA 3Gbps in RAID 10, 5, or 6 on Intel SRCSASJV
8x ST3300655SS 300GB SAS 3Gbps in RAID 0 on Intel SRCSAS18E
Also for the record, some of the other issues I've had include:
Intel DP35DP (ICH9R with Q9550 and 8GB RAM), OS disk on IDE, 6 disks on ICH9R, 4 disks on HPT RocketRAID 1740. System will not boot with Intel in RAID mode. Configure RAID in RST without HPT controller, set BIOS to AHCI, add HPT controller, both Intel and HPT arrays appear in Windows. Intel RST does not function in Windows.
ASUS Z9PE-D16 (C602 with 2xE5-2620v3 and 32GB RAM), OS on 2 disk C602 RSTe RAID 1, 4 disks on HPT RocketRAID 640. System will not boot with both RAIDs enabled, error about BIOS memory limitations. Disable Intel RAID in BIOS, system boots. Both arrays appear in Windows. Fastforward 2 years, upgrade RocketRAID 640 to RocketRAID 2740 and add 12 disks, Intel RAID 1 breaks and cannot be fixed without wipe and reload. Keeping a steady backup and dealing with the lack of redundancy in the OS drive for now.
Facebook
Twitter
Instagram