Nowadays, data is the most crucial asset of any business. Even if you make regular backups, you need a safeguard to ensure that your data is secure and can be accessed at all times, even in the event of a drive failure. Adding RAID to your storage environment is one of the most cost-effective ways to keep your data protected and always available.
Although many companies offer RAID solutions, not all RAIDs are the same. Choosing which RAID level suits your business takes a long time, and you have various points to consider. In this blog, the most usable RAID types will be described.
To select the correct RAID level, start by considering the factors below. Each of these factors becomes a compromise solution for the other:
- The Cost of Disk Drives
- Required Data Protection
- Required Performance
The cost of a solution is always the result of a trade-off between disk space and data availability or performance.
For example, RAID 1/10 and RAID 6 with a small number of disks are expensive in terms of wasted disk space (50%) but optimal for data availability. The performance also depends on the access model, such as random/sequential, read/write, long/short, etc.
Different RAID types result in different amounts of net usable space remaining after accounting for RAID overload. If capacity is your primary driver, that will affect your choice of RAID.
Unique calculators are used to calculating the efficiency of disk space for different RAID levels, the initial data of which are the array level, disk volume and parameters, and the number of disks in a RAID group. Below we listed RAID levels and their benefits, so you can choose the one that suits you.
RAID Levels and Their Usage
RAID arrays use disks that operate in various modes and have wide functionality. The structure of the array largely determines the speed and uninterrupted operation of the server and the safety of the data placed in it.
Depending on Required Parameters, RAID are Divided into the Following Levels:
RAID 0
RAID 0 provides low cost and maximum performance but does not provide failure protection. The failure of even one of the disks leads to the complete loss of all data. Business uses RAID 0 typically for tasks that require fast and swift access to large amounts of temporary data on disks.
RAID 1
RAID 1 consists of two duplicate data sets located on separate disks. It also provides the highest data availability by maintaining two identical copies of all data. There must be at least two disks in the configuration. With this setup, the available storage capacity is 50% of the open disk space in the RAID array.
RAID 5
A striped technology designed to provide non-failure data storage but without data duplication like RAID 1 and RAID 1E. Data is written interleaved across all disks in the array, but for each data stripe of the array, one data block of that stripe is reserved to hold the parity data computed for the other blocks in that stripe.
RAID 6
Data is spread across multiple disk drives, with a double parity scheme used for data storage. This allows two drives in the array to fail, providing better fault tolerance than RAID 5. It also allows cheaper drives for data storage. This RAID level is equivalent to RAID 5 but includes a second parity spread across different drives.
RAID 10
Combines RAID0 striping and RAID1 mirroring. This layer has improved striping performance and mirroring redundancy. RAID level 10 is the result of forming a RAID 0 array from two or more RAID 1 arrays. This level provides fault tolerance by allowing one drive to fail for each sub-array without data loss.
RAID 50
It combines multiple RAID 5 sets with RAID 0. Striping helps increase performance and capacity without adding drives to every RAID 5 array. It would degrade data availability and harm performance in degraded mode. RAID 50 includes striping RAID 0 onto lower level RAID 5 arrays.
How To Secure Your RAID?
When you are familiar with RAID levels and the main points to consider, the most vital step is to ensure the safety of your array.
No matter what brand your RAID hard drive is, it’s only a matter of time before you have to recover lost data. To avoid data loss, follow the next steps.
Use an antivirus. Viruses enter your system in numerous ways. They may appear after reading an infected file attached to an email, by sharing virus files online, or by visiting websites that use holes in your system’s security to destroy information.
Use surge protection. A power surge, whether caused by the power company or lightning, remains the most common cause of data loss and possibly hard drive damage.
Be careful with your surroundings. Keep your array and servers in a safe and secure place so that they are kept from falling, hitting, or damaging. In case of disk failures in a RAID array, you must change all hard drives as they were bought at the same time from the same manufacturer and have the same lifespan.
PITS Global Data Recovery Services provide fast and reliable solutions for RAID arrays. Our engineers have enough skills to recover data securely. Contact us at (888) 611-0737 to request a consultation about your particular case.