when RAID 0, 1, 5 or 6?

[mindstar]

Do you chose your RAID level on basis of your application?
i.e. do you want speed or volume or are there other reasons?

Could I have your thoughts on why you chose your RAID level or why you chose not to use RAID but something else?

Regards,

Kim

 

[scotty]

RAID levels' benefits are pretty self explanatory, so it's usually a pretty simple decision based on need/application.

Basic Redundancy - RAID 1
Speed - RAID 0
Redundancy / Speed Mix - RAID 5 or 10
Even more redundancy - RAID 6.

Pretty self explanatory. Based on my usual applications, it's always 1 or 5.

 

[mindstar]

Thanks,

Sounds like I'll be going for 5 then.

 

[zedpol]

upgradeability is marginal with all of them

z

 

[mindstar]

What exactly do you mean with upgradeability ?

 

[ninevah]

I think he means that once you have a RAID setup, you cannot add more drives to the mix or replace drives or change your RAID level without completely rebuilding the array--and thereby losing all the data on the drives.

MOST RAID cards will allow you to replace failed drives with identical sized drives and will automatically rebuild using that new drive. (subject to the limitations of the type of RAID you chose--losing a drive in a RAID 0 set means you have to rebuild from scratch no matter what, for example)

RAID was a technology developed way back in the 60s or 70s for servers and thus was intended for situations where changes are VERY RARELY made to the setup. And when they are, it normally means a complete rebuilding of the server for another purpose.