Chapter 1 DXi3500 and DXi5500 System Description
Supported RAID Configurations
Quantum DXi3500 and DXi5500 User’s Guide
14
Supported RAID Configurations
RAID is short for Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive)
Disks, which is a category of hard disk drives that employ two or more
drives in combination for fault tolerance and performance. There are a
number of RAID levels in use today such as 0, 1, 3, 5, and 10.
The DXi3500 and DXi5500 systems support RAID 5, but only the DXi5500
systems can be configured with a hot spare.
RAID 5 Configuration
1
The RAID 5 configuration is the most common RAID level in use today.
RAID 5 minimizes the write bottlenecks of other RAID levels by
distributing parity stripes over a series of hard drives. In doing so it
provides relief to the concentration of write activity on a single drive,
which in turn enhances overall system performance. Instead of allowing
any one drive in the array to assume the risk of a bottleneck, all of the
drives in the array assume write activity responsibilities. The distribution
frees up the concentration on a single drive, improving overall subsystem
throughput.
Typical Configurations
The DXi3500/DXi5500 system has many advantages over typical tape
cartridge based systems such as faster data transfer, instant availability,
and greater reliability.
There are several ways to implement a backup strategy using a DXi3500
and DXi5500 system. Refer to the following examples:
•
Disk to Disk to Tape Scenario
•
Disk to Disk Replication Scenario
