Introduction to RAID Technology

Presented by:

 M.Waqas Gurmani
 Naveira Mehak
 Warda Mehak
 Maleeha
 Hira

BSIT 3rd
Supervised by Ma’am Sana NEX
 What is RAID?
RAID (redundant array of
independent disks) is a setup consisting
of multiple disks for data storage. They
are linked together to prevent data loss
and/or speed up performance. Having
multiple disks allows the employment of
various techniques like disk striping,
disk mirroring, and parity.

NEX
 RAID Levels and Types
RAID levels are grouped into the following categories:
 Standard RAID levels
 Non-standard RAID levels
 Nested/hybrid RAID levels

Standard RAID Levels

These are the most commonly used RAID configurations and
are well-defined by industry standards. They include RAID
0, RAID 1, RAID 5, RAID 6, and RAID 10.

NEX
 Non-standard RAID Levels
These RAID configurations may not adhere strictly to industry
standards or may be less commonly used. Examples include RAID
2, RAID 3, RAID 4, and RAID 7.

Nested/Hybrid RAID Levels

These RAID configurations combine elements of multiple
standard RAID levels to achieve specific performance,
redundancy, or capacity objectives. Examples include RAID
1+0 (RAID 10), RAID 0+1, RAID 50, and RAID 60.

NEX
 RAID 0: Striping
RAID 0, also known as a striped set or a striped
volume, requires a minimum of two disks. The disks
are merged into a single large volume where data is
stored evenly across the number of disks in the array.
This process is called disk striping and involves
splitting data into blocks and writing it
simultaneously/sequentially on multiple disks.
Configuring the striped disks as a single partition
increases performance since multiple disks do reading
and writing operations simultaneously. Therefore,
RAID 0 is generally implemented to improve speed
and efficiency.

NEX
 Advantages of RAID 0
Cost-efficient and straightforward to implement.
Increased read and write performance.
No overhead (total capacity use).

Disadvantages of RAID 0
•Doesn't provide fault tolerance or redundancy .

When Raid 0 Should Be Used

RAID 0 is used when performance is a priority
and reliability is not. If you want to utilize your
drives to the fullest and don't mind losing data,
opt for RAID 0. NEX
 RAID 1: Mirroring

RAID 1 is an array consisting of at least two disks

where the same data is stored on each to ensure
redundancy. The most common use of RAID 1 is
setting up a mirrored pair consisting of two disks
in which the contents of the first disk is mirrored
in the second. This is why such a configuration is
also called mirroring. Unlike with RAID 0, where
the focus is solely on speed and performance, the
primary goal of RAID 1 is to provide redundancy.
It eliminates the possibility of data loss and
downtime by replacing a failed drive with its
replica.

NEX
 Advantages of RAID 1
 Increased read performance.
 Provides redundancy and fault tolerance.
 Simple to configure and easy to use.
Disadvantages of RAID 1
 Uses only half of the storage capacity.
 More expensive (needs twice as many drivers).
 Requires powering down your computer to replace failed drive.
When Raid 1 Should Be Used
RAID 1 is used for mission-critical storage that requires a minimal risk of data
loss. Accounting systems often opt for RAID 1 as they deal with critical data
and require high reliability.

NEX
 Raid 2
RAID 2 is rarely used in practice today. It combines bit-level striping with error checking and
information correction. This RAID implementation requires two groups of disks – one for
writing the data and another for writing error correction codes. RAID 2 also requires a special
controller for the synchronized spinning of all disks. Instead of data blocks, RAID 2 stripes
data at the bit level across multiple disks. Additionally, it uses the Humming error ode
correction (ECC) and stores this information on the redundancy disk.

NEX
 Advantages of RAID 2
Reliability.
The ability to correct stored information.
Disadvantages of RAID 2
 Expensive.
 Difficult to implement.
 Require entire disks for ECC.
When Raid 2 Should Be Used
RAID 2 is not a common practice today as most of its features are now
available on modern hard disks. Due to its cost and implementation
requirements, this RAID level never became popular among developers.

NEX
 Raid 3: Bit-Level Striping with Dedicated Parity

Like RAID 2, RAID 3 is rarely used in practice. This

RAID implementation utilizes bit-level striping and a
dedicated parity disk. Because of this, it requires at least
three drives, where two are used for storing data strips,
and one is used for parity.
To allow synchronized spinning, RAID 3 also needs a
special controller. Due to its configuration and
synchronized disk spinning, it achieves better
performance rates with sequential operations than
random read/write operations.

NEX
 Advantages of RAID 3
 Good throughput when transferring large amounts of data.
 High efficiency with sequential operations.
 Disk failure resiliency.
Disadvantages of RAID 3
 Not suitable for transferring small files.
 Complex to implement.
 Difficult to set up as software RAID.
When Raid 3 Should Be Used
RAID 3 is not commonly used today. Its features are beneficial to a limited
number of use cases requiring high transfer rates for long sequential reads
and writes (such as video editing and production).

NEX
T
Raid 4: Block-Level Striping with Dedicated Parity
RAID 4 is another unpopular standard RAID
level. It consists of block-level data striping
across two or more independent diss and a
dedicated parity disk.
The implementation requires at least three
disks – two for storing data strips and one
dedicated for storing parity and providing
redundancy. As each disk is independent and
there is no synchronized spinning, there is no
need for a controller.

NEX
T
 Advantages of RAID 4
Fast read operations.
Low storage overhead.
Simultaneous I/O requests.
Disadvantages of RAID 4
Bottlenecks that have big effect on overall performance.
Slow write operations.
Redundancy is lost if the parity disk fails.
When Raid 4 Should Be Used
Considering its configuration, RAID 4 works best with use cases requiring
sequential reading and writing data processes of huge files. Still, just like with
RAID 3, in most solutions, RAID 4 has been replaced with RAID 5

NEX
T
 Raid 5: Striping with Parity
RAID 5 is considered the most secure and most common RAID implementation. It
combines striping and parity to provide a fast and reliable setup. Such a configuration
gives the user storage usability as with RAID 1 and the performance efficiency of
RAID 0.
This RAID level consists of at least three hard drives (and at most, 16). Data is divided
into data strips and distributed across different disks in the array. This allows for high
performance rates due to fast read data transactions which can be done simultaneously
by different drives in the array.

NEX
T
 Advantages of RAID 5
 High performance and capacity.
 Fast and reliable read speed.
 Tolerates single drive failure.
Disadvantages of RAID 5
 Longer rebuild time.
 Uses half of the storage capacity (due to parity).
 If more than one disk fails, data is lost.
 More complex to implement.
When Raid 5 Should Be Used
RAID 5 is often used for file and application servers because of its high efficiency and
optimized storage. Additionally, it is the best, cost-effective solution if continuous data
access is a priority and/or you require installing an operating system on the array.
NEX
T
 Raid 6: Striping with Double Parity
RAID 6 is an array similar to RAID 5 with an addition of its double parity feature.
For this reason, it is also referred to as the double-parity RAID.
This setup requires a minimum of four drives. The setup resembles RAID 5 but
includes two additional parity blocks distributed across the disk. Therefore, it uses
block-level striping to distribute the data across the array and stores two parity
blocks for each data block.

NEX
T
 Advantages of RAID 6
 High fault and drive-failure tolerance.
 Storage efficiency (when more than four drives are used).
 Fast read operations.
Disadvantages of RAID 6
 Rebuild time can take up to 24 hours.
 Slow write performance.
 Complex to implement.
 More expensive.
When Raid 6 Should Be Used
RAID 6 is a good solution for mission-critical applications where data loss cannot
be tolerated. Therefore, it is often used for data management in defense sectors,
healthcare, and banking. NEX
T
 Raid 10: Mirroring with Striping
RAID 10 is part of a group called nested or
hybrid RAID, which means it is a combination of
two different RAID levels. In the case of RAID
10, the array combines level 1 mirroring and level
0 striping. This RAID array is also known as
RAID 1+0.
RAID 10 uses logical mirroring to write the same
data on two or more drives to provide
redundancy. If one disk fails, there is a mirrored
image of the data stored on another disk.
Additionally, the array uses block-level striping to
distribute chunks of data across different drives.
This improves performance and read and write
speed as the data is simultaneously accessed from
multiple disks. NEX
T
 Advantages of RAID 10
 High performance.
 High fault-tolerance.
 Fast read and write operations.
 Fast rebuild time.
Disadvantages of RAID 10
 Limited scalability.
 Costly (compared to other RAID levels).
 Uses half of the disk space capacity.
 More complicated to set up.
When Raid 10 Should Be Used
RAID 10 is often used in use cases that require storing high volumes of data, fast read and
write times, and high fault tolerance. Accordingly, this RAID level is often implemented for
email servers, web hosting servers, and databases.
NEX
T
 Non-Standard RAID
The RAID levels mentioned above are considered standard or commonly
used RAID implementations. However, there is a myriad of ways you can
set up redundant arrays of independent disks.
Accordingly, many open-source projects and companies have created their
own configurations to adhere to their needs. As a result, there are many non-
standard RAID implementations, such as:
 RAID-DP
 Linux MD RAID 10
 RAID-Z
 Drive Extender
 Declustered RAID

NEX
T
 Nested (Hybrid) RAID
You can combine two or more standard RAID levels to ensure
better performance and redundancy. Such combinations are called
nested (or hybrid) RAID levels.
Hybrid RAID implementations are named after the RAID levels
they incorporate. In most cases, they include two numbers where
their order represents the layering scheme.
Popular hybrid RAID levels include:
 RAID 01 (striping and mirroring; also known as “mirror of
stripes”)
 RAID 03 (byte-level striping and dedicated parity)
 RAID 10 (disk mirroring and straight block-level striping)
 RAID 50 (distributed parity and straight block-level striping)
 RAID 60 (dual parity and straight block-level striping)
 RAID 100 (a stripe of RAID 10s)
NEX
T
 RAID Implementation Types
There are three ways of utilizing RAID, differing by where the processing takes place.
Hardware-based RAID
When installing the hardware setup, you insert a RAID controller card in a fast PCI-Express slot
on the motherboard and connect it to the drives. External RAID drive enclosures with a built-in
controller card are also available.
Software-based RAID
For the software setup, you connect the drives directly to the computer, without using a RAID
controller. In that case, you manage the disks through utility software on the operating system.
Firmware/Driver-based RAID
Firmware-based RAID (also known as a driver-based RAID) are RAID systems often stored
directly on the motherboard. All its operations are performed by the computer's CPU, not by a
dedicated processor.

NEX
T