Chapter 1. Introduction to the 3ware Command Line Interface
11
3ware SAS/SATA RAID Controller CLI Guide, Version 9.5.1
Available RAID Configurations
RAID is a method of combining several hard drives into one unit. It offers
fault tolerance and higher throughput levels than a single hard drive or group
of independent hard drives. RAID levels 0, 1, 10 and 5 are the most popular.
AMCC's 3ware controllers support RAID 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, and Single Disk.
The information below provides a more in-depth explanation of the different
RAID levels.
For how to configure RAID units, see “Configuring a New Unit” on page 101.
RAID 0
RAID 0 provides improved performance, but no fault tolerance. Since the
data is striped across more than one disk, RAID 0 disk arrays achieve high
transfer rates because they can read and write data on more than one drive
simultaneously. The stripe size is configurable during unit creation. RAID 0
requires a minimum of two drives.
When drives are configured in a striped disk array (see Figure 1), large files
are distributed across the multiple disks using RAID 0 techniques.
Striped disk arrays give exceptional performance, particularly for data
intensive applications such as video editing, computer-aided design and
geographical information systems.
RAID 0 arrays are not fault tolerant. The loss of any drive results in the loss of
all the data in that array, and can even cause a system hang, depending on
your operating system. RAID 0 arrays are not recommended for high
availability systems unless additional precautions are taken to prevent system
hangs and data loss.
Figure 1. RAID 0 Configuration Example
