RAID levels: Learn about RAID 50

RAID levels: Learn about RAID 50

What you will learn from this tip: How RAID 50 combines striping with distributed parity for higher reliability and data transfer capabilities.

 

Like the other double-digit RAID levels, RAID

    Requires Free Membership to View

    Login

    When you register for SearchStorage.com, you’ll also receive targeted emails from my team of award-winning editorial writers. Our goal is to keep you informed on the hottest topics, the latest news and the biggest challenges you face as a storage professional today.

    Rich Castagna, Editorial Director

    By submitting your registration information to SearchStorage.com you agree to receive email communications from TechTarget and TechTarget partners. We encourage you to read our Privacy Policy which contains important disclosures about how we collect and use your registration and other information. If you reside outside of the United States, by submitting this registration information you consent to having your personal data transferred to and processed in the United States. Your use of SearchStorage.com is governed by our Terms of Use. You may contact us at webmaster@TechTarget.com.

50 is a combination of two basic RAID techniques. It combines striping (RAID 0) with independent data disks with distributed parity (RAID 5). It stripes data across at least two RAID 5 arrays.

The easy way to think of RAID 50 is as RAID 5 with an extra pair of suspenders. RAID 50 offers increased write performance and better data protection, including faster rebuilds, than RAID 5 in the event of a disk failure. While performance degrades in the event of a disk failure, it doesn't degrade as much as it would in a RAID 5 array because a single failure only affects one of the arrays, leaving the other fully functional. In fact, RAID 50 can sustain up to four drive failures if each failed disk is in a different RAID 5 array.

RAID 50 is best used for applications that need high reliability, and that need to handle high request rates and high data transfer with lower cost of disks than a RAID-10 (striped and mirrored) array. However it takes a minimum of six disks to set up a RAID 50 array.

One of the disadvantages of RAID 50 is that, like RAID 5, it needs a sophisticated controller. For maximum throughput, a RAID 50 array should have synchronized disks, which limits disk choices since not all disks can be synchronized.

For more information:

Tip: RAID-10 -- Two great RAIDs that go great together

Tip: How to choose the right RAID for your array

Tip: A quick and dirty way to increase a RAID-5 array

 

About the author: Rick Cook has been writing about mass storage since the days when the term meant an 80 K floppy disk. The computers he learned on used ferrite cores and magnetic drums. For the last 20 years, he has been a freelance writer specializing in storage and other computer issues.

This was first published in March 2005

Disclaimer: Our Tips Exchange is a forum for you to share technical advice and expertise with your peers and to learn from other enterprise IT professionals. TechTarget provides the infrastructure to facilitate this sharing of information. However, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or validity of the material submitted. You agree that your use of the Ask The Expert services and your reliance on any questions, answers, information or other materials received through this Web site is at your own risk.

Back to top