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Adjusting the block size towards your disk usage can give some performance gain.
In a typical RAID configuration, data of the virtual drive is striped (or spread across)
the physical drives. Having a smaller array block size will increase the likelihood of
accessing all physical drives when processing large I/O requests. Multiple physical
drives working in parallel increases the throughput, meaning better performance.
For smaller I/O requests (512 bytes to 4 kilobytes), it is better to have each individual
disks handle their own I/O request, improving the IOPS (I/O per second), rather than
having one tiny I/O request being handled by multiple disks.
A block size of 64k is recommended because it strikes a balance between the two I/O
usage scenarios.
Capacity (Default: Maximum)
The total amount of space you want the RAID array to take up. When creating RAID
levels, disk capacities are limited by the smallest disk.
An example of how disk capacities are limited by smallest disk.
You have 3 drives connected to the enclosure.
First drive is 6 TB, second is 4 TB, and third drive is 2 TB.
After creating a RAID level 5 using all three drives and maximum capacity
The first drive will have 4 TB, the second 2 TB, and the third drive 0 TB free capacity
The free capacity on the first and second drive can be used to create a separate
array.
You may also choose how much space each array will take. You can use the remaining
space to create another array (up to 4 arrays are supported)
Sector Size (Default: 512B)
Note
:
For current operating systems, this option is already implemented so changing it
in the WebGUI is not necessary.
This option will set the sector size of your virtual drive, and physical sector sizes on
your physical disks will remain the same. A sector is the smallest physical storage unit
on a disk. The default sector size is 512 B since it is the most common sector size in
disks today.
