RAID Levels Explained

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RAID stands for Random/Redundant Array of Independent Disks

NOTE: This is a “high” level review and more of a reminder to myself, which RAID means what. Don’t take this info to the bank because I am taking some liberties with the technical stuff for the sake of brevity.

RAID-0 Disk Striping

Combines all disks into “single” drive: no fault tolerance.

RAID-1 Disk Mirroring

Mirrors the data between all disks in the pool: Fault tolerance is n-1 (n is number of drives in the pool).

RAID-5 Striping with Parity

Four or more striped drives with single parity: Fault tolerance is one drive.

RAID-6 Striping with double parity

Five or more striped drives with double parity: Fault tolerance is two drives.

RAID-10 Striped and Mirrored

Combine RAID 0 and RAID 1, so it mirrors the data between striped drive sets.