Choosing A Raid Level; Raid 0; Raid 1 - Promise Technology SmartStor NS4300N Product Manual

SmartStor NS4300N Product Manual

Choosing a RAID Level

There are several issues to consider when choosing the RAID level for your
Volume. The following discussion summarizes some advantages, disadvantages
and applications for each choice.

RAID 0

Implements a striped disk RAID
Volume, the data is broken down into
blocks and each block is written to a
separate disk drive
I/O performance is greatly improved by
spreading the I/O load across many
channels and drives
No parity calculation overhead is
involved
Recommended applications for RAID 0:
• Image Editing
• Pre-Press Applications
• Any application requiring high bandwidth

RAID 1

Simplest RAID storage subsystem
design
Can increase read performance by
processing data requests in parallel
since the same data resides on two
different drives
Recommended applications for RAID 1:
• Accounting/Financial
• Payroll
• Any application requiring very high availability
Advantages
Advantages
Disadvantages
Not a true RAID because it is not fault-
tolerant
The failure of just one drive will result in
all data in an RAID Volume being lost
Should not be used in mission critical
environments
Disadvantages
Very high disk overhead - uses only
50% of total capacity
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