Datasheet

“main” (Installation and Administration) — 2004/6/25 — 13:29 — page 145 — #171
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Special Installation Procedures
Figure 3.13: Logical Volume Management
3.11 Soft RAID
The purpose of RAID (redundant array of inexpensive disks) is to com-
bine several hard disk partitions into one large virtual hard disk for the
optimization of performance and data security. Using this method, how-
ever, one advantage is sacrificed for another. RAID level defines the pool
and common triggering device of the all hard disks, the RAID controller. A
RAID controller mostly uses the SCSI protocol, because it can drive more
hard disks better than the IDE protocol. It is also better able to process com-
mands running in parallel.
Like a RAID controller, which can often be quite expensive, soft RAID is
also able to take on these tasks. SUSE LINUX offers the option of combin-
ing several hard disks into one soft RAID system with the help of YaST — a
very reasonable alternative to hardware RAID.
145SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server