Help Me Choose: RAID Configuration

Level/Description Fault Tolerance Advantage Disadvantage
RAID 0
Maps data across the drives to create large virtual disks. Provides improved performance because each physical disk handles only part of the request. However, one drive failure makes the VD inaccessible and the data is lost permanently.		 None. Improved performance & Additional Storage Should not be used for critical data.
RAID 1
Mirrors data, where data is stored redundantly across two drives. If one disk fails, the other takes over and functions as the primary drive.		 Disk errors. Single Disk Failures. High read performance.
Fast recovery after drive failure.
Data redundancy.		 High disk overhead.
Limited capacity.
RAID 5
Maps data across drives and stores parity bits for each data stripe on different drives in the VD. Parity bits contain information that enables a disk’s data to be recreated from the remaining disks in the event of single disk failure.		 Disk errors. Single disk failures. Efficient use of drive capacity.
High read performance.
Med-to-High write performance.		 Disk failure medium impact.
Longer rebuild due to parity recalculation.
RAID 6
Maps data across drives and stores parity bits for each data stripe on different drives in the VD. Unlike RAID 5, RAID 6 makes two parity calculations — P & Q — enabling it to withstand dual disk failures.		 Disk errors. Dual disk failures. Data redundancy.
High read performance.		 Write performance decrease due to dual parity calculations.
Extra cost due to 2 disk equivalent devoted to parity.
RAID 10
Stripes over mirrored sets. High disk overhead, but excellent solution for those requiring high performance & redundancy plus the fastest recovery in the event of drive failure.		 Disk errors. One disk failure per mirrored set. High read performance.
Supports largest RAID group of 192 drives.		 Most expensive.
RAID 50
Stripes over RAID 5 sets. A performance increase over RAID 5 may be realized, depending on the configuration, due to fewer disk reads per parity calculation.		 Disk errors. Single disk failure per span. High read performance .
Med-to-High write performance.
Supports largest RAID group of 192 drives.		 Disk failure medium impact.
Longer rebuild due to parity recalculation.
RAID 60
Stripes over RAID 6 sets. A performance increase over RAID 6 may be realized, depending on the configuration, due to fewer disk reads per parity calculation.		 Disk errors. Dual disk failure per span. High read performance.
Supports largest RAID group of 192 drives.		 Write performance decrease due to dual parity calculations.
Extra cost due to 2 disk equivalent devoted to parity.