| What is a raid setup on a computer system? | | | | come to mind are game servers and peer to |
| | | | peer (P2P) file or music file sharing |
| Like anything else it depends who you talk | | | | servers. |
| to. | | | | |
| | | | However since there is no allocation for |
| Raid hard drive systems had their acronym | | | | error correction or redundancy RAID 0 is not |
| explained as "Redundant Array of Individual | | | | a safe system for vital data. Data will be |
| Drives "and "Redundant Array of Inexpensive | | | | lost on disk failure. Only use RAID 0 in |
| Drives". The acronym for this is the | | | | situations where you need the extended disk |
| shortened term "RAID". | | | | capacity or performance gain but not enhanced |
| | | | data reliability. |
| Capacity, reliability and performance are all | | | | |
| important for file servers or other computer | | | | Secondly in sequence there is RAID Level 1. |
| systems when you are storing large or very | | | | |
| important files. | | | | In the same way that RAID 0 focuses solely on |
| | | | storage capacity and performance with no |
| It is often said that "It is not if you hard | | | | concern whatsoever on reliable data storage |
| drive will fail. It is at what point in time | | | | RAID 1, which us also called "Disk Mirroring" |
| your hard drive will fail". | | | | uses disks in pairs to save the files in a |
| | | | redundant manner. |
| Of course if your hard drives fail even if | | | | |
| you have backup the last bit of data which | | | | Several points. |
| was being written onto the hard drive when | | | | |
| the failure occurred will be lost. | | | | One performance may be slower as it takes |
| | | | time for the host adapter to send the data |
| You can get much greater capacities, avoid | | | | and for the drives to write it to disk, |
| losing data from disk failure, and do all | | | | |
| this with the RAID (the acronym for the | | | | Secondly a user may delete or damage files |
| system). | | | | which of course will be stored in that way on |
| | | | both drives. |
| RAID can now be done with standard | | | | |
| commercially available hard drives so the | | | | Raid 1 hence offers better reliability than |
| cost is now within your price range for all | | | | RAID 0 or the conventional drive setups but |
| the benefits and peace of mind RAID will give | | | | does not give full security for your data or |
| you. | | | | enhanced performance. |
| | | | |
| RAID can be simply explained as putting the | | | | Next in sequence we have RAID Levels 2, 3 and |
| hard drives in parallel sequence. | | | | 4. |
| | | | |
| The host adapter (usually called the RAID | | | | Raid 2 adds one or more disks to hold error |
| system controller) sits between one higher | | | | correction codes with which lost data can be |
| stream (on the computer side) and several | | | | reconstructed. |
| lower rate data streams (on the hard drive | | | | |
| side). When the computer writes to the disks | | | | Raid Level 3 is the same as RAID Level 2 but |
| , the host adapter takes high stream data and | | | | uses a simpler code the maximum storage |
| breaks it into many synchronized streams , | | | | capacity with Raid 3 may be somewhat less. |
| one for each of the disks in process called | | | | |
| "Striping ". Upon reading the data the host | | | | Raid Level 4 is nearly the same as RAID LEVEL |
| adapter takes the data stream from each disk | | | | 3 but instead of "Striping " across disks is |
| multiplexes the sets of data streams and | | | | operates at a sector level, You now have the |
| coordinates sending the resulting combined | | | | better situation of both a simpler , less |
| set of data onto the computer. | | | | intensive demanding system and as well as |
| | | | good data reliability . In addition |
| It is all a matter of redundancy which makes | | | | performance may be enhanced as large data |
| RAID such a good thing in most cases. | | | | blocks can be written faster due to more |
| | | | coordinated writing to the drives in smaller |
| There are six different levels of RAID | | | | "sector" areas. |
| functionality depending on your requirements. | | | | |
| - the level of data security and integrity | | | | Lastly is RAID Level 5. |
| you want as well as the size of hard drive | | | | |
| space you want. | | | | Raid level 5 is the same as the excellent |
| | | | RAID Level 4 except that instead of |
| First of RAID Level 0 which spreads the data | | | | dedicating a single disk to storing the data |
| across multiple disks. You can get a similar | | | | the data stream is striped across all the |
| effect to the RAID Level 0 by having multiple | | | | disks. You have greater performance with |
| disks and using the features in Windows 2000 | | | | greater reliability for your computer |
| or its successor Windows XP. | | | | systems. |
| | | | |
| Since the data volume and rate to any | | | | A RAID setup may take some effort and |
| specific disk is a fraction of the aggregate | | | | training on your part. |
| you will receive larger capacity and better | | | | |
| performance from a RAID 0 setup than from any | | | | Base your planning for your new RAID system |
| one conventional disk. | | | | on a careful analysis of your needs. |
| | | | |
| As well data can be sourced from multiple | | | | What is important in your situation |
| drives as once. This can be most useful in | | | | currently? Disk size capacities, data |
| shared situations which may benefit from | | | | reliability and integrity, performance or a |
| enhancements in speed, two examples which | | | | combination or all. |