SetupRecommandattions:RAID

Raid

We recommend HarwareRaid, RAID 1 or RAID 5, to build disk failure tolerant servers. Be careful not to buy servers with FakeRAID. Vendors are advertising their servers as RAID servers, but make sure that it is true HarwareRAID, or else it could be preferable to buy your servers with no RAID at all, and use Linux Software Raid instead.

FakeRaid

A list of FakeRAID hardware devices/controllers can be found here http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html

Under Linux, if you have a server with FakeRAID/BiosRAID, then you should disable it in the BIOS and use Linux SoftwareRaid.

Linux SoftwareRaid

For servers without RAID (or with FakeRAID, which is equivalent of not have RAID), SoftwareRaid should be used.