Dell Lifecycle Controller GUI v2.30.30.30 User's Guide

Selecting RAID levels

Select a RAID Level for the virtual disk:

RAID 0 — Stripes data across the physical disks. RAID 0 does not maintain redundant data. When a physical disk fails in a RAID 0 virtual disk, there is no method for rebuilding the data. RAID 0 offers good read and write performance with zero data redundancy.
RAID 1 — Mirrors or duplicates data from one physical disk to another. If a physical disk fails, data can be rebuilt using the data from the other side of the mirror. RAID 1 offers good read performance and average write performance with good data redundancy.
RAID 5 — Stripes data across the physical disks, and uses parity information to maintain redundant data. If a physical disk fails, the data can be rebuilt using the parity information. RAID 5 offers good read performance and slower write performance with good data redundancy.
RAID 6 — Stripes data across the physical disks, and uses two sets of parity information for additional data redundancy. If one or two physical disks fail, the data can be rebuilt using the parity information. RAID 6 offers good data redundancy and read performance but slower write performance.
RAID 10 — Combines mirrored physical disks with data striping. If a physical disk fails, data can be rebuilt using the mirrored data. RAID 10 offers good read and write performance with good data redundancy.
RAID 50 — A dual-level array that uses multiple RAID 5 sets in a single array. A single physical disk failure can occur in each of the RAID 5 without any loss of data on the entire array. Although the RAID 50 has increased write performance, its performance decreases, data or program access gets slower, and transfer speeds on the array are affected when a physical disk fails and reconstruction takes place.
RAID 60 — Combines the straight block level striping of RAID 0 with the distributed double parity of RAID 6. The system must have at least eight physical disks to use RAID 60. Failures while a single physical disk is rebuilding in one RAID 60 set do not lead to data loss. RAID 60 has improved fault tolerance because more than two physical disks on either span must fail for data loss to occur.