4 reasons hardware RAID is worse than software RAID

NAS and server technologies have evolved a lot over the last two decades, both on the software and hardware fronts. However, the fall of hardware-based RAID over the last decade remains a major highlight in the professional storage landscape. These days, most NAS experts recommend ditching RAID controllers altogether and switching to their software-based counterparts instead. If that sounds baffling, then read on. Here are four reasons why you’d want to ditch the outdated technology in favor of software-based RAID provisions.

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Server components like Xeon systems are often resold for bargain prices. If you know where to look, it’s easy to build a solid home lab for less than $200 with just outdated enterprise-grade hardware. Unfortunately, RAID controllers tend to cost quite a bit, especially if you go for cards that can handle the more complex RAID configurations. And that's before factoring in the price of SAS adapters if your RAID controller doesn’t have SATA ports (or vice-versa) for your server HDDs.

Meanwhile, software RAID can be set up for free on several operating systems. Whether it’s the built-in RAID provisions available in TrueNAS Scale, the ZFS plugin in OpenMediaVault, or the extra packages you can set up on general-purpose distros like Debian and Fedora, there’s no need to spend hundreds of dollars on a software-based RAID configuration.

Unlike the gaming sector, where the PCIe slot is synonymous with GPUs, there are a ton of devices you can pair with the high-speed connector. You’ve got expansion cards capable of increasing the USB, SATA, M.2, and other ports of your home server. If you want to build a powerful NAS, you’ll want to go for an NIC that can bypass the 1GbE limit of a typical Ethernet port.

On an E-ATX mobo with plenty of PCIe sockets, a RAID card taking up a slot might not be a big deal. But on a self-built mini-ITX or even a micro-ATX motherboard, you’ll want to prioritize NICs and other useful PCIe devices over RAID cards, especially since software RAID is a solid substitute for them.

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Back in the golden days of computing, RAID cards were practically the only method to use spare hard drives on storage servers. That’s because PCs, NAS, and servers of yore weren’t fast enough to run the complex computations needed to keep up with hardcore RAID configurations. But over the last decade, the consumer tech landscape has received major glow-ups on the performance front, and it’s entirely possible for the average mini-PC to run hardcore software RAID tasks without breaking a sweat.

Not to mention, file systems like ZFS have also seen a tremendous increase in features over the last couple of years – to the point where a properly configured Zpool is extremely resilient to errors. So long as you’ve accounted for adequate drive failures in your software RAID, you won’t have any issues recovering data from your ZFS pools. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for RAID cards.

Even with excessive care, storage devices may end up kicking the bucket before their expected lifespan – and that includes RAID controllers. But even with a high-end mirror/parity setup, you’ll be in a world of hurt if you don’t have a RAID model with the same specs as the one that ascended to tech heaven. And if you’ve got some failed drives alongside a dead RAID controller, you’ll have even more difficulty recovering your data,

In contrast, software RAID doesn’t have the extra point of failure like its hardware counterpart. Assuming you’ve set up enough parity/mirror drives in your OS, you can just slot a new HDD/SSD into your server, agree to rebuild the data from the web UI, and call it a day! In most cases, data recovery is a breeze in software RAID. Best part? You don’t have to go around searching for a specific RAID card when your software RAID needs fixing!

Although hardware RAID is more-or-less dead for consumers, it has some perks in the professional sector. Let’s say you need to work with a production environment and want to run complex tasks on your processor, using a dedicated RAID controller might help free up some resources – especially if you’re rocking legacy equipment designed for dedicated RAID cards. But for most NAS setups, you’re always better off pairing your redundant drives with a software RAID solution.

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This article doesn't take into consideration the fact that if you don't use a card, you need to rely on there being enough native sata ports on the motherboard. There usually isn't.

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