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# RAID and FakeRAID configuration

This page covers the disk RAID configurations supported for the MK.IO Beam system drive.

**RAID vs FakeRAID:** With hardware RAID, the controller assembles the array itself and presents it to the OS as a single ordinary disk (`/dev/sdX`). With FakeRAID, the controller only stores RAID metadata; the OS assembles the array in software, and it appears as `/dev/mdX` with the member disks still visible separately. Check the controller model in the server’s RAID/BIOS utility or management console (for example, iDRAC) to determine which type is in use.

**Sector size:** From MK.IO Beam 1.14.0, the system drive may use either a 512-byte or a 4Kn (4096-byte) sector size. On earlier releases it must be 512 bytes: installation onto a 4Kn drive fails when the installer mounts the boot partition.

## Hardware RAID

Hardware RAID has always been supported for the MK.IO Beam system drive. Before 1.14.0 the virtual disk must be created with a 512-byte block size; from 1.14.0 a 4096-byte block size is also supported. Controllers often default to 4096, so check the block size when creating the virtual disk if the server is running an earlier release.

## FakeRAID

From MK.IO Beam 1.14.0, FakeRAID is supported for the system drive. The following settings are required:

| Setting     | Value       |
| ----------- | ----------- |
| Sector size | 512 or 4096 |
| OS          | RHEL        |
| RAID Type   | Linux RAID  |
| RAID Level  | RAID 1      |