Help! RAID M2 Op Sys only Plus 2 SSD For RAID1

[Goldar7]

Hi All,

I have had a high spec workstation built and am in the final stages of configuring. I run on Linux Mint 18.2 Cinnamon for many reasons.

The spec is - ASRock X99 Extreme 4 Motherboard, Xeon E5 1620 V3 CPU, 32G Ram, M2 Samsung 960 Pro on Motherboard loaded with Op system only for now. Boots up almost instantly!

I wish to install two Samsung 850 Pro SSD's to use for all data / workfiles only (not Op sys), in RAID 1 config (for redundancy and data protection). There were potential issues with using motherboard controller and / or Linux software (we haven't tried either way on this machine) so I was recommended that the easiest solution is to install a HP P410 RAID controller, which I did.

The problem is that the system only recognizes the HP P410 and it displays 'Initializing' several times before stating there are no logical drives - and shuts down.
Oh, I haven't formatted them yet - would it help if I did first by disabling the P410?

I need to instruct the system to boot from the M2 as standard so that I can then adapt the P410 to set up the RAID 1 on the two SSD's. But, I can't seem to get into the BIOS to change the boot order, I can't find a function key or escape button from pressing the 'on' button that drops into BIOS!

Or am I trying to do this incorrectly, with the RAID controller installed, must it control all functions including boot etc? (Meaning it would not be possible to set the system up so that it booted off the M2 but then used the P410 to direct the data to the two SSD's on RAID 1).

kind regards

[Petermint]

Googled "linux HP P410". Found http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/pre ... psa.4.html
I can see the advantage of the controller for many disks but not for two disks. If you use the controller, or skip the controller and use native Linux RAID, test recovery from a drive loss. I find both hardware controllers and Linux software RAID difficult if the replacement device is not identical and often they are almost as difficult when the device is identical.

If you also backup via rsync or timeshift to an external disks, it is often faster to recover by creating a new array and restoring from an external disk.

I haven't formatted them yet

RAID drivers and hardware often do their own thing and replace whatever formatting you use.

I can't find a function key or escape button from pressing the 'on' button that drops into BIOS

Your computer BIOS should give you a couple of seconds then launch the HP device with the same few seconds. Look at the user manuals for your motherboard. There will be something like F11 or Esc. You might have to hit them a few times to get them in the right gap. If there is nothing that works, boot the computer without the HP and look in the BIOS to see what is set for boot.