Which Type of RAID Level Best Suites Me – Performance and Reliability Benchmark?
After the introduction of RAID, we’ve successfully achieved the higher data redundancy and performance capability from the traditional hard drives. Generally, two or more drives can be used in parallel to build any basic level of RAID architecture and data is distributed among available drives, referred as RAID level. These disks can be mechanical hard drives or modern solid state storage devices.
[post_ad] Whether you’re working in low or higher level of organization, these RAID level proves to be crucial for the safety and better data read/write operations. Based on the combination of disks, there are mainly 5 popular types of RAID level:
RAID 0: Data is distributed among 2 disks (minimum required) in parallel to achieve higher performance even while consuming the storage capacity of both drives at once. However, RAID 0 level are more susceptible to failure as if one disk fails, data from the second drive will lost automatically.
RAID 1: Data is written twice on both the 2 disks, where one is known as data disks and the other is known as mirror disk. If one disk fails, controller is used to recover data from the available disk (can be either mirror or data disks). RAID 1 is popularly used to gain better performance and tough data security.
RAID 3: Data is subdivided into blocks and then written on two or more disks placed in parallel. An additional drive is required to store parity information to provide fault tolerance capability in controllers. RAID 3 can survive after 1 disk fails while offering better data read and write capability.
RAID 5: Data is written randomly throughout the available disks and considered to be safe for large data read/write operation. Parity information is also stored on all the disks and can withstand the same performance and data read/write capability after failing of 1 disk.
RAID 6: RAID 6 is popularly used where critical data is stored such as on banking systems. It provides protection against consecutive dual drive failure by using two independent sets of data parity across all the available disks. Parity will make your data available on all the disks virtually.
RAID 10: RAID 10 is created by combining the nature of RAID 0 and RAID 1 by providing data mirroring across both disks and data stripping to achieve higher level of data transfers.
Performance Benchmarking test
Types of RAID Architecture
Software Based RAID
Software RAID is a part of OS (low cost) and runs on the server side, which in turn increases the processing load and slows down the overall performance. Recovering data from software RAID is fairly easy as compare to hardware RAID as the hard drives are internally attached and lost data will still be available in MBR (Master Boot Record). Later, you can use various available RAID data recovery software on the same to recover your precious data. Below are the important factors (drawbacks) of software RAID you should know about:
# It delivers unprotected boot environment as if one drive fails, you might not able to access any of your stored data or the computer system either.
#Write back method is used in RAID arrays to increase the write performance. However, software RAID doesn’t comes with any write back power as it has no battery backup source. Whereas, Hardware based RAID does have a superior write back capability if the proper battery source is attached on to it.
#Any problem on server related to hardware or software might leads to data integrity and consistency issues.
# as software RAID has no internal protection against virus (due to running as an application on OS), it’s more likely to be infected as compare to hardware RAID.
Besides all this, software RAID can be further divided into two parts: Pure Software RAID & Hybrid Software RAID. Pure software RAID runs on the server OS and becomes active as soon as the server loaded the RAID drivers. It has no additional hardware. Whereas, Hybrid Software RAID has some hardware capabilities mixed such as host bus adapter with a RAID BIOS or just a RAID BIOS integrated into the motherboard. Such RAID can greatly help RAID arrays to overcome with data loss issues and provides hire level of data protection against virus attacks.
Hardware Based
Hardware RAID works as an independent computer system which has its own processor and memory, completely dedicated to running RAID applications. It is mainly inbuilt into the motherboard of the host system. Hardware based RAID works efficiently as compare to software RAID in the following environments:
[post_ad] Whether you’re working in low or higher level of organization, these RAID level proves to be crucial for the safety and better data read/write operations. Based on the combination of disks, there are mainly 5 popular types of RAID level:
RAID 0: Data is distributed among 2 disks (minimum required) in parallel to achieve higher performance even while consuming the storage capacity of both drives at once. However, RAID 0 level are more susceptible to failure as if one disk fails, data from the second drive will lost automatically.
RAID 1: Data is written twice on both the 2 disks, where one is known as data disks and the other is known as mirror disk. If one disk fails, controller is used to recover data from the available disk (can be either mirror or data disks). RAID 1 is popularly used to gain better performance and tough data security.
RAID 3: Data is subdivided into blocks and then written on two or more disks placed in parallel. An additional drive is required to store parity information to provide fault tolerance capability in controllers. RAID 3 can survive after 1 disk fails while offering better data read and write capability.
RAID 5: Data is written randomly throughout the available disks and considered to be safe for large data read/write operation. Parity information is also stored on all the disks and can withstand the same performance and data read/write capability after failing of 1 disk.
RAID 6: RAID 6 is popularly used where critical data is stored such as on banking systems. It provides protection against consecutive dual drive failure by using two independent sets of data parity across all the available disks. Parity will make your data available on all the disks virtually.
RAID 10: RAID 10 is created by combining the nature of RAID 0 and RAID 1 by providing data mirroring across both disks and data stripping to achieve higher level of data transfers.
Performance Benchmarking test
|
||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feature | RAID 0 | RAID 1 | RAID 3 | RAID 5 | RAID 6 | RAID 10 |
| Disks Required | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 |
| Data Protection | Missing | One drive fail | One drive fail | One drive fail | Two drive fail | One for each array |
| Read / Write Performance | High / High | High / Medium | High / Medium | High / Low | High / Low | High / Medium |
| Storage Utilizations | Full | Half | Half | 70 -90 % | 50-90% | 50% |
| Redundancy | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Types of RAID Architecture
Software Based RAID
Software RAID is a part of OS (low cost) and runs on the server side, which in turn increases the processing load and slows down the overall performance. Recovering data from software RAID is fairly easy as compare to hardware RAID as the hard drives are internally attached and lost data will still be available in MBR (Master Boot Record). Later, you can use various available RAID data recovery software on the same to recover your precious data. Below are the important factors (drawbacks) of software RAID you should know about:
# It delivers unprotected boot environment as if one drive fails, you might not able to access any of your stored data or the computer system either.
#Write back method is used in RAID arrays to increase the write performance. However, software RAID doesn’t comes with any write back power as it has no battery backup source. Whereas, Hardware based RAID does have a superior write back capability if the proper battery source is attached on to it.
#Any problem on server related to hardware or software might leads to data integrity and consistency issues.
# as software RAID has no internal protection against virus (due to running as an application on OS), it’s more likely to be infected as compare to hardware RAID.
Besides all this, software RAID can be further divided into two parts: Pure Software RAID & Hybrid Software RAID. Pure software RAID runs on the server OS and becomes active as soon as the server loaded the RAID drivers. It has no additional hardware. Whereas, Hybrid Software RAID has some hardware capabilities mixed such as host bus adapter with a RAID BIOS or just a RAID BIOS integrated into the motherboard. Such RAID can greatly help RAID arrays to overcome with data loss issues and provides hire level of data protection against virus attacks.
Hardware Based
Hardware RAID works as an independent computer system which has its own processor and memory, completely dedicated to running RAID applications. It is mainly inbuilt into the motherboard of the host system. Hardware based RAID works efficiently as compare to software RAID in the following environments:
- CPU Utilization and performance.
- Drive storage space utilization
- Data monitoring
- Protection against driver failures
- Write back caching enabled to achieve higher write performance.
External Hardware
External RAID is same as software RAID except, an external controller is used to connect to server and all the RAID functions will be performed on inbuilt Microprocessor. External RAID is independent to host computer and thus, chances of data loss are slim. External RAID is generally used on high up time demanding server and where data safety is crucial.
External RAID is same as software RAID except, an external controller is used to connect to server and all the RAID functions will be performed on inbuilt Microprocessor. External RAID is independent to host computer and thus, chances of data loss are slim. External RAID is generally used on high up time demanding server and where data safety is crucial.
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Which Type of RAID Level Best Suites Me – Performance and Reliability Benchmark?
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Friday, May 23, 2014
Rating:
Reviewed by Unknown
on
Friday, May 23, 2014
Rating:
