Intel Matrix RAID - Operating System Support

Operating System Support

Linux supports Matrix RAID through device mapper (DM-RAID) and MD-RAID. DM-RAID does not provide a graphical utility to configure the arrays or notify the user of disk errors/failures, and will not activate the Intel Matrix RAID on many motherboards (due to incompatibilities). All the functionality of the Windows driver is also not available; such as creation of RAID volumes (which must be performed in the ROM, or using Windows).

FreeBSD and MidnightBSD support Intel Matrix RAID using the ataraid driver, managed through the atacontrol command. However, with older versions of FreeBSD there are critical reliability issues which include array device renaming when a disk in an array is replaced, an array being considered healthy if the machine reboot/crashes during an array rebuild, and kernel panics when a disk is lost or is removed from the bus. Some of these problems, when experienced in combination, could result in the loss of an entire array (even in the case of RAID 1).

Microsoft Windows has full support for Intel Matrix RAID, including creation of RAID volumes.

VMware ESXi 4 does not support any RAID function nor Intel Matrix RAID based on Intel ICHxR controllers.

PGPDisk does not support Intel Matrix RAID based on Intel ICHxR, and does not support standalone drives if the "RAID" mode is enabled on the motherboard.

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