Installing Proxmox VE with RAID on a MSI 890FXA-GD70 board

Question

I'm trying to install Proxmox VE on my server with a MSI 890FXA-GD70 motherboard, the RAID array is a on-board SB850 array.

My RAID setup is:

2x500gb Western Digital Caviar Blue
Setup in RAID1

When i try to install Proxmox on my server, it detects the two discs as separate discs, it should only see them as one drive.

When i installed a Ubuntu server distro on it i had to use the newest LTS (10.04.03) as 10.04.02 did not have the driver to my RAID array. However I'm also using the newest Proxmox release.

Any idea on how to solve this problem is appreciated.

Answer 1

Considering Proxmox doesn't support Ubuntu, I would test installing Debian 5 Lenny to see if it supports the raid. If so, just add the Proxmox apt repositories and install proxmox on top of Debian 5. There is an article for this install method at http://pve.proxmox.com/wiki/Install_Proxmox_VE_on_Debian_Lenny

Answer 2

The SB850 is most likely a Fake Raid chip. Speaking from experience - don't waste time on it. If you want hardware RAID, then get a proper Adaptec or 3Ware card.

With your current hardware, during the Proxmox install you should be able to setup software RAID using MD disks. You may need to go into motherboard BIOS or the RAID BIOS and force the drives to behave like standard JBOD SATA drives first.