16.5. RAID subsystems
RAID subsystems are the software components that manage RAID arrays on your system. Each subsystem uses different metadata formats and management tools, with mdraid being the preferred software RAID solution for Red Hat Enterprise Linux.
The following subsystems compose RAID:
- Hardware RAID Controller Drivers
- Hardware RAID controllers have no specific RAID subsystem. Since they use special RAID chipsets, hardware RAID controllers come with their own drivers. With these drivers, the system detects the RAID sets as regular disks.
mdraidThe
mdraidsubsystem was designed as a software RAID solution. It is also the preferred solution for software RAID in Red Hat Enterprise Linux. This subsystem uses its own metadata format, which is referred to as native MD metadata.It also supports other metadata formats, known as external metadata. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 uses
mdraidwith external metadata to access Intel Rapid Storage (ISW) or Intel Matrix Storage Manager (IMSM) sets and Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA) Disk Drive Format (DDF). Themdraidsubsystem sets are configured and controlled through themdadmutility.