.\"	$NetBSD: ataraid.4,v 1.15 2013/08/06 17:33:29 snj Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 2005 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
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.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
.\" by Allen K. Briggs.
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.Dd September 16, 2008
.Dt ATARAID 4
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm ataraid
.Nd software BIOS RAID
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Cd "pseudo-device ataraid"
.Cd "ld* at ataraid? vendtype ? unit ?"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
driver provides support for BIOS-based software RAID controllers.
These are devices which have some simple support for several basic
RAID levels (often RAID 0 and RAID 1), but which require software
support to actually perform the RAID function.
The BIOS support is largely just to create and recognize the array
so that it may be a boot device.
.Pp
The driver currently supports RAID formats from:
.Bl -bullet -offset indent -compact
.It
Adaptec HostRAID (found in Intel 6300ESB)
.It
Intel MatrixRAID
.It
JMicron RAID
.It
nVidia MediaShield
.It
Promise FastTrak
.It
Via V-RAID (found in many VIA-based motherboards)
.El
.Pp
Status of the logical disk, as well as the disks associated with it,
can be viewed through the
.Xr bioctl 8
utility.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr ld 4 ,
.Xr bioctl 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
driver first appeared in
.Nx 2.0 .
.Sh AUTHORS
The
.Nm
driver was originally adapted from
.Fx
by
.An Jason Thorpe
.Aq thorpej@NetBSD.org .
.Sh BUGS
Not all features of the software RAID are currently recognized or
supported.
For example, the Adaptec support doesn't recognize when a RAID 1
should be in a
.Dq building
state, and it does not do the right thing.
.Pp
At least part of the reason for this is that the publicly-available
information on these formats is quite limited.