RAID

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R.A.I.D.

Quick Overview

Okay, with properly run hardware RAID, RAID 1 is the slowest (Data's
written to both drives at the speed of the slowest drive), RAID 5 is
next fastest (As the data spans the drives, so it's 1/3 faster than a
single drive or RAID 1), and RAID 0 is the very fastest (Data's
written to both drives simultaneously).

If you have the drives to spare (4 drives), and you don't mind
"Losing" half the capacity for the backup, then RAID 0+1 is the best
combination, giving high speed AND data redundancy (50% capacity, 200%
preformance).

If you don't have the drives (3 drives), or you wish to get more
capacity from the drives you have, then RAID 5 is best, as it gives
you 66% of the capacity of the drives and 133% of the performance.

If you have only 2 drives, you can opt to use them as RAID 1 (Which
will give you 50% capacity and 100% performance) or RAID 0 (Which
gives you 100% capacity (And 0% redundancy), and 200% performance).

This is all assuming you're using hardware RAID, which is not reliant
on CPU overheads or anything like that. Software RAID changes this, as
it uses the CPU and the regular IDE controller, but can't (generally)
write to multiple drives simultaneously.
-- 
Robert "Anaerin" Johnston

Links

Great page with information on the different hardware and software raid chipsets, their current linux support

• Serial ATA (SATA) chipsets — Linux support status

Wikipedia Entry for RAID

• Redundant array of independent disks

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--Steveadeff 19:00, 8 January 2006 (UTC)