So I think I’ve answered one of my outstanding questions. It looks as though I can have a software based RAID 1 support in FreeBSD using Vinum Volume Manager.

“The Vinum Volume Manager is a block device driver which implements virtual disk drives. It isolates disk hardware from the block device interface and maps data in ways which result in an increase in flexibility, performance and reliability compared to the traditional slice view of disk storage. Vinum implements the RAID-0, RAID-1 and RAID-5 models, both individually and in combination.”

Based on what I’ve read, starting with a software based RAID makes the most sense. If it works then I save the cost of extra hardware.

“With present CPU speeds, software RAID can be faster than hardware RAID, though at the cost of using CPU power which might be best used for other tasks.”, link.

As well, if you’re interested in performance and failure rates related to RAID 1 you can check here.

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