# Installing FreeBSD on system with RAID1



## tx1131 (May 12, 2013)

Hi guys, 

I want to install FreeBSD 9.1 on a system with a RAID card. The FreeBSD installer however displays 3 disks: ada0, ada1 and raid/r0. I read somewhere already that I should choose ada0 and my card will do all the mirroring for me. My question is what would happen if I chose raid/r0 instead of ada0? 

I would normally test this, but don't really have time, because this has to be up and running as company firewall asap, hence my question. 

Thanks,
Konrad


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## Remington (May 12, 2013)

I don't know but have you considered using ZFS with mirroring?  It's far more reliable than a RAID card since it can detect parity errors and correct it on the fly. A RAID card cannot do this.


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## kpa (May 12, 2013)

What you have is a BIOS assisted software RAID. You should use raid/r0 if you want make use of an already configured raid array. You'll be then partly tied to the BIOS provided utilities for configuring the RAID. It may not be a problem in your case though if you know that the motherboard will not be swapped out for another type of MB at any time.


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## tx1131 (May 14, 2013)

Hi guys, 

I was actually using a third party card I bought the other day. Therefore option ada0 was I think the proper option for me. However @kpa, you are right about BIOS assisted software RAID, I have it as well (which - I'm quite embarrassed to admit - I didn't realize I had). This answers my initial question, what raid/r0 was for. 

Anyway, after reading a little more I ended up removing the card and using gmirror.

Thanks for your comments guys!


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