Re: P5K & RAID 1 Help?

Chumly wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I have the Asus P5K motherboard vanilla not the deluxe.
>
> Can I run three hard drives such that the internal HD1 is for the OS,
> and the internal HD2 plus an external eSATA HD3 are in a RAID 1
> configuration?
>
> If yes, can I then access this RAID 1 configuration as a single drive
> via my network?
>
> You see, I want to use this PC as a simple NAS (using the HD2 & HD3 in
> RAID 1) as well as using this PC as a regular machine using HD1 for the
> OS.
>
> Thanks all!
>
> PS: yep I know I could route the external eSATA connector back inside
> the PC case and then mount HD3 internally, but that is not what I want.
> The RAID on the P5K is only between the external eSATA connector on the
> back of the motherboard, and the internal SATA E2 connector.
>
> Alas, the manual does not precisely specify, however it does refer to
> RAID sets, and does have a BIOS screen that lists all drives, and lets
> you choose which two are RAID'ed. As to what happens to the others I am
> not sure, but inclusive of the one eSATA port there are four internal
> SATA ports, that's promising.
>
>

The board has a non-RAID Southbridge (ICH9). You'd connect
your non-RAID boot drive to that. The RAID support is
via JMB363, a separate chip. The JMB363 would have its
own driver, and support RAID1 mirror. You could connect
an external drive, do Rebuild Mirror, and that would
copy the disk connected to the internal JMB363 SATA
connector.

It would be a share like any other in Windows, so you can
share the volume created on the RAID1, with your other computers.
The only limit, would be the limit imposed by the OS installed
on the P5K, as to how many computers can simultaneously
connect to the same share.

vip.asus.com is inaccessible to me right now, but you could
go to the forums there and select P5K as the motherboard
model, and get some feedback from users as to how well
that works. I cannot give you a nice URL, since I cannot
get to the server.

Another source of feedback on P5K is here. There are some
people here who have used the RAID function.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131180

Since the motherboard has a couple PCI Express slots, you can always
place controllers in there later. (For a storage server, an
old PCI video card would be enough for console video.)

Paul

Chumly wrote:
> Much thanks Paul however:
>
> I do not want to "copy the disk connected to the internal JMB363 SATA
> connector", because that is HD1 for the OS and I don't want a mirror of
> HD1. I want a mirror of HD2 on the external HD3.
>
> Let me explain: I want a RAID 1 configuration between HD3 connected to
> the external eSATA connector on the back of the motherboard, and HD2
> connected to the internal SATA E2 connector. I want the HD1 for the OS.
> I do not want HD1 mirrored. I want HD3 to mirror HD2 and to be seen as
> a single drive separate from HD1
>
> This is not an old PC to be used as a storage server.
>
> Can I do this?
>

The SATA connectors are wired up in sets, and supported by two
different chips.

The ICH9 doesn't support RAID. If the motherboard had an ICH9R,
then the ports connected to it, would RAID with one another.

When I look at your motherboard, I see

1) Four SATA labeled SATA1, SATA2, SATA3, SATA4
located next to ICH9. These are non RAID. A
good place to put a (non-redundant) drive.
These ports have nothing to do with the Jmicron,
and are handled by a separate driver.

2) Next to Jmicron JMB363 chip on the motherboard, is "SATA_E2".
It can be set up in a RAID array, using a disk connected to the
ESATA on the back of the computer. Thus, a RAID1 (mirror)
can be constructed using a disk on SATA_E2 plus a matching
disk on ESATA on the back. Those are the two SATA ports on
the JMB363 chip. That is your RAID solution.

So (2) is the only RAID option you've got, as far as support
by a driver. Since you say you're just using the array as
a data volume, you can install the Jmicron driver at
any time, connect two disks, set up the array (in the BIOS
or via whatever Jmicron has for RAID management software),
use Disk Management to partition it, and so on.

Paul

Chumly wrote:
> Much thanks Paul!
>
> Will I be able to have the OS on SATA1, and RAID1 on SATA_E2 / F_ESATA?
>
>

Yes.

SATA1 is on the ICH9 Southbridge. It will be an ordinary
drive and you can have your OS on there.

Once the OS is installed, then you can install the
Jmicron driver, connect two disks to SATA_E2 and
F_ESATA, and that will be your RAID1 (mirror).

Paul