Filter
Top Products
5 Configuring IDE Software RAID
82
Selecting a RAID Level
To ensure the best performance, you should select the optimal RAID
level when you create a system drive. The optimal RAID level for your
disk array depends on the following factors:
• Number of drives in the disk array
• Capacity of the drives in the array
• Need for data redundancy
• Disk performance requirements
The factors you need to consider when selecting a RAID level are listed
below.
RAID
Level
Description
and Use
Pros Cons Number of
Drives
Fault
Tolerant
0 Data divided
in blocks
and
distributed
sequentially
(pure
striping).
Use for non-
critical data
that
requires
high
performanc
e.
High data
throughput
for large files.
No fault
tolerance. All
data lost if
any drive
fails.
One to
Four
No
1 Data
duplicated
on another
disk
(mirroring).
Use for
read-
intensive
fault
tolerant
systems
100 percent
data
redundancy
Double disk
space.
Reduced
performance
during
rebuilds.
Two Yes
10 Data divided
in blocks
and
distributed
sequentially
and each
block is
duplicated
to another
disk.
100 percent
data
redundancy
and High data
throughput.
A minimum
of four drives
required.
Four Yes
aa300.book Page 82 Tuesday, December 17, 2002 5:27 PM