RT - etspc - hard drive (size)

[zial24]

Hello, 

I created my RT target on an older computer, which complies with the requirements of  the document 

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/8239?OpenDocument

and everything works well with LabView RT 8.6.

Now, I am gonna prepare a new RT target with LabView RT 8.6 on a new computer. I found already all needed compatible components but I have trouble to find (buy) a hard drive with size smaller than 126 GB with respekt to that document.

Could be possible to buy a hard drive of 250 GB and diveded it to small partitions? 

Or, I should take a old hard drive for example from a old computer, which has the corresponding size. 

Thanks 

[Ardent]

Hi Zial24,

the case with the RT is that Pharlap EST in RT 8.6 can cause disk corruption if you try to acces sectors beyond the first 128 GiB of the hard drive. Thus, with formating the first partition to 126 GiB you should have no trouble installing and running the RT system, even if you won't be able to use the entire hard drive. You can use multiple partitions, as long as they all entirely fall within the first 128 GiB of the hard drive.

Hope this helps, if you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask!

[zial24]

Hello Jan,

thank you for your advise. 

I have another question about RAID. Does the RT LabView 8.6 (PharLap) support the hardware or software RAID 1?

If I buy a motherboard with the controller supported the RAID 1 mode (SATA II) and I format in the same way the both HDD, will the RT LabView 8.6 be able to work in this mode.

Or the 8.6 is not able to cooporate in this mode.

Thank you in advance. 

[Jiri_K · Accepted solution]

Hi zial24,

LV Real-Time doesn't have RAID support.

We've actually investigated adding RAID in LabVIEW Real-Time multiple times, but the issue that comes up every time is that most RAID controllers are proprietary and require driver development for each one, or else we would have to implement or port our own primarily software-only RAID solutions.  We would prefer to work with a hardware-only RAID where the RAID controller would handle multiple disks and provide a SATA-like interface that the OS can use.  Product offerings that we (as in NI) have for PXI include the PXI-8260, but that product is a software-managed JBOD (Just a Bunch Of Disks) and really isn't a "RAID" since there's no fault tolerance (e.g. mirroring, parity, etc...).  Additional offerings in the PXI-8162/3/4/5 require a rack-mount external setup but are still RAID0 software raids, no better than JBOD except that they support striping without parity (which is almost impossible to recover from if one disk fails).  

The limiting factor for RAID on RT is driver development and maintenance.  

Regards,

Jiri Keprt

NI EE Czech Republic

[Jiri_K · Accepted solution]

The limiting factor for RAID on RT is driver development and maintenance.  

Regards,

Jiri Keprt

NI EE Czech Republic