From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Wed Dec 14 14:17:09 2016 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 985C6C771F1 for ; Wed, 14 Dec 2016 14:17:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (wonkity.com [67.158.26.137]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "wonkity.com", Issuer "wonkity.com" (not verified)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 6D58E8FD; Wed, 14 Dec 2016 14:17:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by wonkity.com (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTPS id uBEEH1Go099841 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO); Wed, 14 Dec 2016 07:17:01 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from localhost (wblock@localhost) by wonkity.com (8.15.2/8.15.2/Submit) with ESMTP id uBEEH13O099838; Wed, 14 Dec 2016 07:17:01 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2016 07:17:01 -0700 (MST) From: Warren Block To: Matthew Seaman cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 3 disk Raid 5 on FreeBSD 11 In-Reply-To: <038663aa-a4a5-fd79-b360-37bad78f7acb@FreeBSD.org> Message-ID: References: <038663aa-a4a5-fd79-b360-37bad78f7acb@FreeBSD.org> User-Agent: Alpine 2.20 (BSF 67 2015-01-07) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.6.1 (wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Wed, 14 Dec 2016 07:17:01 -0700 (MST) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 14 Dec 2016 14:17:09 -0000 On Wed, 14 Dec 2016, Matthew Seaman wrote: > On 2016/12/14 11:39, Gerard Seibert wrote: >> I have an HP Envy 810-170st PC running Windows 10 Pro / 64 bit with a 3 >> disk raid 5 setup. Intel Rapid Storage Technology is handing the raid >> setup. >> >> Now, if I wanted to reformat the system and install FreeBSD 11, what >> would I have to do to get the system set up with raid 5 again? Intel >> doesn't have a driver that runs under FreeBSD for this as far as I can >> tall. > > You have essentially two choices here: > > * use the hardware RAID that you're currently using with Windows > > * use ZFS to create a RAIDZ pool > > The first option depends on having the right sort of support in FreeBSD. > You should be able to test that by downloading a USB install image and > booting from that to use the live FreeBSD filesystem. You should be > able to see if your Intel RAID is recognised by looking at the boot > messages and seeing what devices appear in /dev If that is motherboard RAID, graid(8) probably supports it. > If you can see the RAID device then you should be able to delete your > current Windows install and write FreeBSD onto the system in its place. > > Your other choice is to ignore the on-board RAID, and just have FreeBSD > access each drive individually and use what the OS provides to create > your disk arrays. If you want a RAID5 type of setup, then the realistic > choice is to use ZFS with RAIDZ. That would be my choice. ZFS is kind of the opposite end of the spectrum from motherboard RAID. It also doesn't go away when the array is moved to a different motherboard. (In fairness, graid(8) supports multiple types of motherboard RAID metadata, so it might be possible to access data even if the new motherboard does not have the same type.)