Question AMD Threadripper Chipsets – Do they come with built-in RAID?

[WhityKnight]

INTEL chipsets come with Intel Rapid Storage Technology RAID drivers. So, provided there are enough drives installed, RAID is available right away.

Is the same available for AMD CPUs (i.e. their chipsets and motherboards)? If so, what's its brand name?

 

[kerberos_20]

amd raid is software raid no special name, just raid
intel rst is software raid
both are slower than hardware based raid

 

[WhityKnight]

Thanks for enlightening me!

Strange: IRST appears in the BIOS (UEFI) an is activated in the BIOS setup. Yet, it's software based?

 

[kanewolf]

Thanks for enlightening me!

Strange: IRST appears in the BIOS (UEFI) an is activated in the BIOS setup. Yet, it's software based?

The BIOS is software just permanently written to PROM.
One of the biggest benefits of hardware RAID is the ASIC chips that do the parity calculations. And there are very few situations where RAID is a recommended implementation for home users.

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for enlightening me!

Strange: IRST appears in the BIOS (UEFI) an is activated in the BIOS setup. Yet, it's software based?

A dedicated RAID controller card would considered "hardware".

Why the interest in RAID? It is rarely, if ever, needed in the consumer space.

 

[WhityKnight]

I'm a software engineer, working with laptops and without permanent Internet access, containing business vital information. And I do want to spare me the burdon of doing daily backups. That's not within my available timeframe.

All my machines are using RAID 1. I'm equipping them with three or more SSDs, so I'll be kept safe from every kind of hardware failure. (Although that didn't exactly work with IRST since they switched from a Windows application to an UWP app)

 

[USAFRet]

I'm a software engineer, working with laptops and without permanent Internet access. And do want to spare me the burdon of doing daily backups. That's not within my available timeframe.

Automation.

My main system backs up each of its 6 drives every night.
Between the hours of 0200 and 0600.

Takes exactly 0.0 seconds out of my day to do this backup.

So your 'RAID' was to be some sort of backup thing?
That's not the way it works.

Any sort of RAID (barring RAID 0) is only for physical drive fail.
It does nothing for all the other forms of data loss.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

RAID is NOT a backup solution. As a so called professional you make the time to do things properly.

 

[WhityKnight]

Nope, I tend to consider RAID 1 the perfect backup strategy. That's what it's made for.

 

[WhityKnight]

Automation.


Takes exactly 0.0 seconds out of my day to do this backup.

So, it does this while your system is switched off?

 

[WhityKnight]

Any sort of RAID (barring RAID 0) is only for physical drive fail.
It does nothing for all the other forms of data loss.

Exactly. That's what I'm using it for.

Remember what I wrote a few messages before? Using laptops, no permanent Internet connection, or dealing with sensitive customer data you agreed to not store on servers outside the company? So, where do your backups go? To some folder on the same (faulting) drive?

 

[USAFRet]

Nope, I tend to consider RAID 1 the perfect backup strategy. That's what it's made for.

Physical drive fail, maybe.

Does nothing for all the other forms of potential data loss.

So, it does this while your system is switched off?

Generally, my system is on 24/7. But if I wished, the Macrium Reflect scheduler would shut it down after the last nightly Incremental is finished.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Nope, I tend to consider RAID 1 the perfect backup strategy. That's what it's made for.

No it is NOT. What happens if, during the inevitable failure of one drive the other one fails during the rebuild? (This happens more often than you may think) You lose everything.

 

[USAFRet]

Nope, I tend to consider RAID 1 the perfect backup strategy. That's what it's made for.

And any accidental formatting, malware, deletion, other software corruption...RAID 1 does nothing for all of that.

RAID 1 is for continued uptime, in the event of physical drive fail. Not data protection.
Such as...if you were running a public webstore, and if it goes down, you lose sales.
A RAID 1 lets the system limp along until you can schedule downtime to replace the dead drive.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

And any accidental formatting, malware, deletion, other software corruption...RAID 1 does nothing for all of that.

Yup, what happens on one drive happens simultaneously on the other. Delete a file, it's gone from both and not trivially recoverable (if at all). Get a virused up file, the mirror is also virused up. RAID only aids in recovery from a hardware failure. It does nothing for "Dumb thumb disease"

 

[kanewolf]

Nope, I tend to consider RAID 1 the perfect backup strategy. That's what it's made for.

No it isn't. If you delete a file, then both copies on a RAID 1 are gone. If you get an encryption virus, your data is not protected. There are LOTS of scenarios that RAID does not protect.

 

[DSzymborski]

RAID is a *data availability* solution, not a *data backup* solution. While the former can come in handy a lot of times, that's in addition to the latter, not instead of. For example, my file/media server uses Unraid, but my backup server cares a helluva lot more about protecting data than delivering it quickly.

 

[kristoffe]

No it isn't. If you delete a file, then both copies on a RAID 1 are gone. If you get an encryption virus, your data is not protected. There are LOTS of scenarios that RAID does not protect.

looks like his scenario is perfect for raid 1. he doesn't have a use case for what you're entering into his conversational point.

 

[USAFRet]

looks like his scenario is perfect for raid 1. he doesn't have a use case for what you're entering into his conversational point.

In the generalities of data protection, RAID 1 is not the final, or best, solution.

 

[kristoffe]

In the generalities of data protection, RAID 1 is not the final, or best, solution.

but it works for what he wants. doesn't matter if it's the best. it's not a contest.

 

[USAFRet]

but it works for what he wants. doesn't matter if it's the best. it's not a contest.

It "works", right up until the moment he loses the data, because he was relying on the RAID array as 'protection'.

RAID 1 is for availability, not security or protection.