New posts

Welcome to TechPowerUp Forums, Guest! Please check out our forum guidelines for info related to our
community.

Home  Forums  Hardware  Storage

RAID Arrays Explained

 CrAsHnBuRnXp ·  Nov 2, 2007

1 2 Next 

OP Nov 2, 2007  #1

I have compiled a list of RAID arrays so that people are more aware of what each one
does and if it would be useful for them. I will provide advantages and disadvantages of
each RAID array given. First, a brief history about RAID.
CrAsHnBuRnXp
History of RAID: The idea of RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive [or independent]
Disks) was designed as a fix to a problem of bestowing a high capacity storage combined
Joined: Oct 19, 2007 with data availability and redundancy. In the past when hard drives capacities were
Messages: 8,196 (1.36/day)
limited and higher capacity drives were expensive, RAID offered little data protection and
System Specs
redundancy. Compounding the problem, CPU processor performance was increasing at
an exponential rate, while disk subsystems were quickly falling behind and creating a
bottleneck for server performance.

Back in 1988, a few researchers from the University of California-Berkeley came up with a
set of guidelines for the original implementation of RAID. These guidelines would be
referred to as RAID-1 through RAID-6. The various RAID levels do NOT mean that RAID 6
would be better than say RAID-1 or RAID-5. Your needs will determine what RAID level is
best for your current situation.

Now, when using RAID, it’s recommended to use the same size drives. You can in fact, use
various size drives in any given array, but the array will take the form of the smallest hard
drive and the rest of the unallocated space on the larger hard drive will not be use and in
fact just be a waste. For example, if you wanted to setup a RAID-0 array, it's
recommended to have a minimum of two drives of the same size such as 2x80GB.
Whenever using any RAID array, the array will combine the number of drives you are
using and make it one entire drive. So if you were to RAID-0 2x80GB hard drives, this
would make a 160GB hdd. (Will be less when you factor in the formatting)

RAID-0 - Data Striping w/out parity– 2 disk minimum:

Provides improved performance to that of a single, non-RAID-0 drive, and provides
additional storage space to work with. This RAID array breaks down the information
stored on the hard drive into blocks which are stored on each corresponding RAID-0 hard
drive.

Array size: Size of Smallest Drive x Number of Drives

Advantages: This particular array is the easiest to implement, cheapest to implement, and
most all controllers will support the use of RAID-0. Can make boot times quicker and
make applications load faster.

Disadvantages: Not fault tolerant. In other words if one drive fails, all data is lost.

Recommendation: Do not use it in an environment where data is of the utmost

importance such as a law firm or school corporation. If you implement this array, it is
HIGHLY recommended that you schedule daily or weekly backup. (Preferably every couple
of days or whenever you add new data) I would not use more than four drives either
because you run the risk of losing data. One is better off to install RAID-0 in an
environment that where applications require a high amount of performance such as
gaming or working with digital imaging. Backup is required so that way if one (or all)
drives fail, you can recover from the failure.

RAID-1 – Mirroring & Duplexing – 2 disk minimum without parity:

Set of two disks or more that more or less mirror one another. Meaning the data being
written to the primary disk it is being duplicated on the secondary disk (or all other disks
in the array). Data is written to all disks at the same time and can be read from each disk
separately. Thus enhancing read time. The transfer rate per written block is equal to that
of a single disk. If the primary disk in the array fails, the array can be configured to use
the mirrored copy on one of the other disks in the array until you can replace the failed
hard drive. After which, the data can be restored into the new drive from the other
remaining drives in the array. This is NOT a substitute for backups.

Array size: takes the size of the smallest drive.

Advantages: 100% redundant. In other words if a single drive is lost to a failure, you will
not lose data. RAID-1 can withstand multiple drive failures. RAID-1 is another simple array
setup to implement.

Disadvantages: One of the lease efficient RAID arrays.

Recommendation: Best used in an environment that requires high read performance such
as accounting, company payroll, or financial situations. You are still highly recommended
to backup your data.

RAID-2 – Hamming Code ECC – 1 or more disks:

This RAID array performs disk striping at the bit level. The error-checking and correction
can only be supported with a certain kind of hard drive. When a hard drive read occurs,
 the data on the drive is checked with the ECC codes to establish that everything is correct.
If it happens to be incorrect, the data is corrected on the “fly”.

Array size: Varies

Advantages: Fault tolerant, “on the fly” data correction, high data transfers, simpler RAID
design compared to RAID-3, 4, and 5.
HOME FORUMS  NEW POSTS  MEMBERS  LOG IN REGISTER
Disadvantages: Not commercially available, high entry level cost, and it requires a high
transfer rate.

Recommendation: Best left for business purposes.

RAID-3 – Parallel Transfer (Striping) with Parity – 3 disk minimum:

Data is divided amongst and written to the separate hard drives. The parity is generally
made on writes, written to the parity drive, and checked on the read. If a disk happens to
fail, then the data is restored across the striped array using the parity information that
was written to one of the other hard drives. The performance of the disk reads in RAID-3
is that of a RAID-0 implementation. If you add more drives to increase the total size of the
RAID-3 array, then the parity size of the drive must also be increased so that it can match
or surpass the physical size of the individual array drives.

Array size: Size of Smallest Drive x Number of Drives - 1

Advantages: Fault tolerant, high read and write of data transfer, disk failure has an
exiguous amount of impact, and has a high efficiency.

Disadvantages: Difficult and resource intensive if used in software RAID, complex, and the
transaction rate is equal to a single hard drive (so long as the spindles are in sync)

Recommendation: Video production and or live streaming, Editing of Image and Video
and any other application requiring high throughput/best for applications that require
sequential data reads.

RAID-4 – Independent Data Disks w/ Shared Parity – 3 disk minimum:

It is similar to RAID-3 in that it contains a number of striped disks and it has a separate
parity disk. However, the size of the striping block is bigger to reconcile more data. This is
what makes RAID-4 similar to RAID-3 in that it has basically the same implementation,
but it removes the bottlenecks that affected the transactional data in RAID-3.

Array size: Size of Smallest Drive x Number of Drives – 1

Advantages: High read rate, high aggregate read, Low parity (high efficiency)

Disadvantages: The worst write rate, worst write aggregate rate, difficult to rebuild in the
event of a hard drive failure, block read rate is that of a single disk, not commercially
available

Recommendation: Not a recommended use. There are better options to choose from.
 RAID-5 – Striping with Parity – 3 disk minimum:
This is the most widely used RAID array used today. What RAID-5 does is the parity
information gets distributed amongst all drives within the array unlike RAID-3 or 4. A
certain amount of total disk space becomes unavailable on the array so that the parity
data can be written to disk. Usually, the amount of drive space given for parity
information is equal to the size of one entire drive in the array. Example, an array of
4x10GB drives would give you approximately 30GB of space for your data while the left
over 10GB would be reserved for the parity information.

Array size: Size of Smallest Drive x Number of Drives - 1

Advantages: Fault tolerant, read speeds are quite high, high efficiency, good transfer rate

Disadvantages: Disk failure has a medium impact on the array (meaning you can only
sustain one drive failure at a given time), has the most complex design, difficult to rebuild
after a disk failure

Recommendation: File servers, database servers, Web servers, Email servers, Intranet
servers, etc.

RAID-6 – Striping with Double Parity – 4 disk minimum plus a proprietary RAID
controller:
RAID-6 is the exact same thing as RAID-5, but it offers double the parity of RAID-5 so that
way you can sustain a two disk failure and still retain your data.

Array size: Size of Smallest Drive x Number of Drives - 2

Advantages: Fault tolerant, can sustain a two disk failure, perfect for a mission critical
environment

Disadvantages: More complex, controller overhead for the parity is very high,

Recommendation: File servers, database servers, Web servers, Email servers, Intranet
servers, etc.

Please note that neither RAID array is a preventative from doing regular backups. Backups
are still highly recommended in case of an unforeseeable event.
RayneYoruka, Brandenburg, JrRacinFan and 13 others

Nov 2, 2007  #2

D
Very nice... at first I thought you stole this from here :
http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/67628/

But then I noticed you were the same person!

d44ve
New Member
Joined: Apr 16, 2007
Messages: 2,520 (0.41/day)
 System Specs
CrAsHnBuRnXp

Nov 2, 2007  #3

H
Very nice write up. Now you just need to add raid 10 (I think thats the last one). Anyway, I
think this is stickyable.

Edit: lol D44ve, I was about to tell you that when you deleted/edited your post. But nice
quick catch.
Hawk1
New Member
Joined: May 8, 2007
Messages: 1,248 (0.20/day)
Location:
The Big Smoke, Canada
System Specs

Nov 2, 2007  #4

D
RAID 10?

d44ve
New Member
Joined: Apr 16, 2007
Messages: 2,520 (0.41/day)
JAB Creations
System Specs

Nov 2, 2007  #5

H d44ve said: 

RAID 10?

I think it combines Raid 1 and 0 into an array. Let me do a quick search.

Hawk1
New Member
Edit: see here
Joined: May 8, 2007
Messages: 1,248 (0.20/day)
Location:
The Big Smoke, Canada
System Specs

Nov 2, 2007  #6

That's RAID 1+0...

 Jess Stingray

Joined: Aug 10, 2006

Messages: 4,413 (0.68/day) JAB Creations

System Specs

Nov 2, 2007  #7

d44ve said: 

RAID 10?

Disparia
Nested arrays.
Joined: Aug 10, 2007
Messages: 4,267 (0.70/day) RAID-10 is a RAID-0 of RAID-1 arrays.
Location: Sanford, FL, USA
System Specs RAID-01 is a RAID-1 of RAID-0 arrays.

You can find RAID-51, 50, and some others on certain controllers.

Nov 2, 2007  #8

D
I gotcha.... I have always just called it 1+0 or 0+1 or whatever way you want to go

d44ve
New Member
Joined: Apr 16, 2007
Messages: 2,520 (0.41/day)
System Specs

Nov 2, 2007  #9

Luckily we're only up to RAID-7 (AFAIK), so we can do 8 and 9 before having to change
the terminology

Disparia

Joined: Aug 10, 2007

Messages: 4,267 (0.70/day)
Location: Sanford, FL, USA
System Specs
 Nov 2, 2007  #10

D
Really, check your info on RAID2, it's obsolete, there is no use for it. It's advantage is
builtin in every modern disk nowadays. It is not a simple array either, it requires a mad
amount of disks for no apparent reason.

Deleted member 3

Joined: May 20, 2004

Messages: 10,487 (1.44/day)

Nov 2, 2007  #11

Or you could say thanks for the great information and contribution to the forums...here's
some additional info...

Thanks for the compilation...did you add it to the wiki??

Mediocre
New Member
Joined: Jun 11, 2006
Messages: 1,237 (0.19/day)
System Specs

OP Nov 2, 2007  #12

Mediocre said: 

Thanks for the compilation...did you add it to the wiki??

CrAsHnBuRnXp

Joined: Oct 19, 2007

Messages: 8,196 (1.36/day)
No I did not.
System Specs

OP Nov 2, 2007  #13

DanTheBanjoman said: 

Really, check your info on RAID2, it's obsolete, there is no use for it. It's advantage is builtin in every
modern disk nowadays. It is not a simple array either, it requires a mad amount of disks for no
CrAsHnBuRnXp apparent reason.

Joined: Oct 19, 2007

I know its an obsolete array, but I figured I would throw it in anyway.
Messages: 8,196 (1.36/day)
System Specs
 Nov 2, 2007  #14

I'd throw it up here: http://reference.techpowerup.com/Category:Storage

and make a 'RAID' category

Mediocre
New Member
Joined: Jun 11, 2006
Messages: 1,237 (0.19/day)
System Specs

OP Nov 2, 2007  #15

Mediocre said: 

I'd throw it up here: http://reference.techpowerup.com/Category:Storage

CrAsHnBuRnXp and make a 'RAID' category

Joined: Oct 19, 2007

There appears to already be a "RAID" category, but it lacks sufficient information.
Messages: 8,196 (1.36/day)
System Specs

Nov 2, 2007  #16

I SWEAR that wasn't in there 2 minutes ago

Oh well, I suppose editing (and not creating from scratch) maybe more work than its
worth

Ahh well, thanks anyway

Mediocre
New Member
Joined: Jun 11, 2006
Messages: 1,237 (0.19/day)
System Specs
 OP Nov 2, 2007  #17

Mediocre said: 

I SWEAR that wasn't in there 2 minutes ago

CrAsHnBuRnXp Oh well, I suppose editing (and not creating from scratch) maybe more work than its worth

Ahh well, thanks anyway

Joined: Oct 19, 2007
Messages: 8,196 (1.36/day) No problem.
System Specs

Nov 3, 2007  #18

Very Nice

VERY nice bro. This should DEFINITELY be stickied. You responded to my suggestion
damn fast, good reaction time
surfsk8snow.jah I do feel slightly proud in that at least I suggested the idea haha. But mad props for
following through so thoroughly.
Joined: May 7, 2007
Messages: 457 (0.07/day) Now whenever a thread starts or ends up on RAID, we just point them here. Sweet.
Location: Irvine, CA
System Specs Oh, and I still think someone should do a comprehensive benchmark read/write test of 5
Identical HDDs in every configuration of RAID possible, with both onboard and PCI Raid
Controllers, to have an absolute performance comparison, instead of so many opinions
and scattered recommendations on which RAID array to use. Of course then apply a fault
tolerance bullet to each benchmark. That would make TPU a hotspot for sure... you know
how many search results you get asking "Which RAID array do I use!?" haha, including
myself.

CrAsHnBuRnXp

Nov 3, 2007  #19

T
Very nice guide man... Cleared some stuff up about the difference between 0+1 and 1+0
and 10, Sticky please.

tkpenalty

Joined: Sep 26, 2006

Messages: 6,959 (1.08/day)
Location: Australia, Sydney
CrAsHnBuRnXp
System Specs
 Nov 3, 2007  #20

E
Nice guide, very well written. Concise.

ex_reven
New Member
Joined: Sep 4, 2006
Messages: 5,217 (0.81/day)
System Specs
CrAsHnBuRnXp

OP Nov 3, 2007  #21

surfsk8snow.jah said: 

VERY nice bro. This should DEFINITELY be stickied. You responded to my suggestion damn fast,
good reaction time
CrAsHnBuRnXp I do feel slightly proud in that at least I suggested the idea haha. But mad props for following
through so thoroughly.

Joined: Oct 19, 2007

Now whenever a thread starts or ends up on RAID, we just point them here. Sweet.
Messages: 8,196 (1.36/day)
System Specs Oh, and I still think someone should do a comprehensive benchmark read/write test of 5 Identical

Thanks. I appreciate it all the feedback.

If I could I would do the benchmarks for the hard drives, but I dont have enough spare
hard drives to do that.

OP Nov 3, 2007  #22

ex_reven said: 

Nice guide, very well written. Concise.

CrAsHnBuRnXp
Thank you very much.

Joined: Oct 19, 2007

Messages: 8,196 (1.36/day)
System Specs

OP Nov 12, 2008  #23

Bump from the 1yr 1w and 2d grave.

Sticky?
CrAsHnBuRnXp

Joined: Oct 19, 2007

 Messages: 8,196 (1.36/day)
System Specs

Nov 12, 2008  #24

I vote for a sticky.

AsRock
Home  Forums  Hardware  Storage
TPU addict
Joined: Jun 23, 2007
Contact us Terms and rules Privacy policy Help Home 
Messages: 18,874 (3.07/day)
Location: UK\USA
Forum software by XenForo® © 2010-2020 XenForo Ltd.
CrAsHnBuRnXp
System Specs

Nov 12, 2008  #25

One advantage of RAID-1 that you missed is that you can usually take a drive from a
failed controller and connected it to any other controller and get the data.

Disadvantages of RAID 0 and 5 is that if the controller fails or you want to switch
newtekie1
Semi-Retired Folder controllers(I.E. swap a motherboard if you are using onboard) then the array usually won't
Joined: Nov 22, 2005
work on the new controller, so the data is lost.
Messages: 28,472 (4.23/day)
Location: Indiana, USA
System Specs

1 2 Next  You must log in or register to reply here.

Share:        