Table 5.4

Capacity for RAID Levels (Cont.)

 

 

 

 

 

RAID

 

 

Drives

 

Level

Description

Required

Capacity

 

 

 

 

10

Mirroring and

4 – 18

(Number of disks) X (capacity of

 

Striping

(Must be a

smallest disk) / (2)

 

 

 

multiple of 2.)

 

 

 

 

 

50

RAID 5 and

6 – 30 (Must

(Number of disks) X (capacity of

 

Striping

be a multiple

smallest disk) – (capacity of 1 disk X

 

 

 

of arrays.)

number of Arrays)

 

 

 

 

 

5.3.1.2Maximizing Drive Availability

You can maximize the availability of data on the physical disk drive in the logical array by maximizing the level of fault tolerance. Table 5.5 describes the levels of fault tolerance for the RAID levels.

Table 5.5

Fault Tolerance for RAID Levels

 

 

 

RAID Level

 

Fault Tolerance Protection

 

 

 

0

 

No fault tolerance.

 

 

 

 

1

 

100%

protection through data mirroring.

 

 

 

5

 

100% protection through striping and parity. The data is striped

 

 

and parity data is written across a number of physical disk

 

 

drives.

 

 

 

 

 

10

 

100%

protection through data mirroring.

 

 

 

 

50

 

100%

protection through data striping and parity. All data is

 

 

striped and parity data is written across all drives in two or

 

 

more arrays.

 

 

 

 

5.3.1.3Maximizing Drive Performance

You can configure an array for optimal performance. But optimal drive configuration for one type of application will probably not be optimal for any other application. A basic guideline of the performance characteristics for RAID drive arrays at each RAID level is shown in Table 5.6.

5-10

Configuring Physical Drives, Arrays, and Logical Drives

 

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