RAID (redundant array of independent disks) is a way of storing the same data in different places on multiple hard disks or solid-state drives (SSDs) to protect data in the case of a drive failure. There are different RAID levels, however, and not all have the goal of providing redundancy.
RAID works by placing data on multiple disks and allowing input/output (I/O) operations to overlap in a balanced way, improving performance. Because using multiple disks increases the mean time between failures, storing data redundantly also increases fault tolerance.
RAID levels
RAID 0 : This configuration has striping but no redundancy of data. It offers the best performance, but it does not provide fault tolerance.
RAID 1 : Also known as disk mirroring, this configuration consists of at least two drives that duplicate the storage of data. There is no striping. Read performance is improved, since either disk can be read at the same time. Write performance is the same as for single disk storage.
RAID 2 : This configuration uses striping across disks, with some disks storing error checking and correcting (ECC) information. RAID 2 also uses a dedicated Hamming code parity, a linear form of ECC (Error Correcting Code).
RAID 3 : This technique uses striping and dedicates one drive to storing parity information. The embedded ECC information is used to detect errors. Data recovery is accomplished by calculating the exclusive information recorded on the other drives. Because an I/O operation addresses all the drives at the same time, RAID 3 cannot overlap I/O. For this reason, RAID 3 is best for single-user systems with long record applications.
RAID 4 : This level uses large stripes, which means a user can read records from any single drive. Overlapped I/O can then be used for read operations. Because all write operations are required to update the parity drive, no I/O overlapping is possible.
RAID 5 : This level is based on parity block-level striping. The parity information is striped across each drive, enabling the array to function, even if one drive were to fail. The array's architecture enables read and write operations to span multiple drives. RAID 5 requires at least three disks, but it is often recommended to use at least five disks for performance reasons.
RAID 6: This technique is similar to RAID 5, but it includes a second parity scheme distributed across the drives in the array. The use of additional parity enables the array to continue functioning, even if two disks fail simultaneously. However, this extra protection comes at a cost. RAID 6 arrays often have slower write performance than RAID 5 arrays.
