Brief Introduction to RAID Controllers and Cards

Abstract:RAID controller is a hardware device incharge of managing physical drives in a system and presenting them to the computer as logical units. It almost always implements hardware RAID, thus it is sometimes referred to as RAID controller.

The building of RAID 0 and RAID 1 can be set up either via software or hardware. Some operating systems allow you to setup RAID in the software itself. A better option is to have a hardware to control the RAID functions.Hereby guild to Linux.

RAID controller chips are often imbedded in the motherboard.

Hardware RAID You need to ensure that the RAID controller card is designed for the type of hard disks you are using. A RAID controller card designed for use with IDE hard disks will not take SCSI hard disks. A controller designed to provide just RAID 0 functions will not allow you to set up a fault tolerant array.

The big names in the RAID controller business are Adaptec, Highpoint, Intel and Promise. Highpoint and Promise supply most of the RAID chips that are imbedded in both single CPU and dual processor motherboards. They also make the RAID controller cards which are sold on their own. Intel uses it's RAID controller chips in motherboards they produce, Adaptec is mainly known for it's SCSI based products including SCSI cards and SCSI RAID controller cards. Many of the manufacturers also build specialist RAID controller cards for use in "non-standard" situations, eg low profile RAID controller cards for use in restricted spaces like 2 U server cases etc. You can even get RAID for use with newer technologies like SATA. Companies like 3Ware manufacture SATA RAID controller cards.