Currently the only well-supported host-based hardware RAID controller (i.e, a controller for which there exists a driver under Linux) is one that is made by DPT. However, there exist other host-based and scsi-to-scsi controllers which may work under Linux. These include the ones made by Syred, ICP-Vortex, and BusLogic. In addition, there exist plenty of SCSI-to-SCSI controllers. See the RAID solutions for Linux page for more info.
If, in the future, there is support for other controllers, I will do my best to incorporate that information into this HOWTO. Please send me any such information you think is appropriate for this HOWTO.
This document is currently DPT-oriented. Essentially all the SmartRAID IV controllers are supported.
ICP vortex has a complete line of disk array controllers which support Linux. The ICP driver is in the Linux kernel since version 2.0.31 All major Linux Distributors S.u.S.e., LST Power Linux, Caldera and Red Hat support the ICP controllers as boot/installation controllers. The RAID system can easily be configured with our ROMSETUP (you do not have to boot MS-DOS for configuration!).
With the monitoring utility GDTMON it is possible to manage the complete ICP RAID system during operation (check transferrates, set parameters for the controller and hard disks, exchange defective hard disks, etc.). Currently available are: 1 and 2 channel wide and ultra SCSI controller for RAID 0 and RAID 1 1, 2, 3 and 5 chn. wide and ultra SCSI controller for RAID 0, 1, 4, 5 and 10 1 and 2 channel wide and ultra2 LVDS SCSI controller for RAID 0 and RAID 1 1, 2, 3 and 5 chn. wide and ultra2 LVDS SCSI controller for RAID 0, 1, 4, 5 and 10 1 and 2 port Fibre Channel contollers for RAID 0, 1, 4, 5 and 10 Pretty soon there will be also 64-bit controllers available.