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Knowledge Base Article: 000200591

Raid Levels Supported on VNXe3200 (000200591)
Version:2

Audience: Level 30 = Customers

Article Type: How To

Last Published: Thu Jun 04 20:15:39 GMT 2015

Validation Status: Technically Approved

Summary: RAID levels and disk configuration

Goal:

Redundant array of inexpensive disks (RAID) is a method for providing high levels of storage reliability by arranging the disks in redundant storage
arrays and dividing and replicating data among multiple hard disk disks.
RAID is basically a group of disks, usually with one or both characteristics of parity and striping. Parity provides redundancy for blocks of data on the
disks. Striping provides a mechanism for processing data that allows the comprehensive read/write performance for a RAID group to exceed the
performance of its component disks.

Issue:

Raid configurations
Different RAID levels (for example RAID 5, RAID 6, or RAID 10) provide particular levels of data reliability and I/O performance in specific environments.
The following table describes the supported RAID levels for each disk type and the intended storage usage:

Resolution: RAID
Description
level
Best suited for transaction processing and often used for general purpose storage, as well as for relational database and enterprise resource
systems. This RAID level provides a fairly low cost per MB while still retaining redundancy.
RAID Level 5 stripes data at a block level across several disks and distributes parity among the disks. No single disk is devoted to parity. Because
parity data is distributed on each disk, read performance can be lower than with other RAID types.
Distributed parity requires all disks but one to be present to operate. If a disk fails it will reduce storage performance and should be replaced
immediately. Data loss will not occur as a result of a single disk failure.
RAID 5 (4+1): A minimum of five disks can be allocated at a time to each pool. Because of the way parity bits are used to provide redundancy, the
5
usable capacity for every five-disk group is approximately four disks (80%).
RAID 5 (6+1): A minimum of seven disks can be allocated at a time to each pool. Because of the way parity bits are used to provide redundancy,
the usable capacity for every seven-disk group is approximately six disks (86%).
RAID 5 (10+1): (Not for general use) A minimum of 11 disks can be allocated at a time to each pool. Because of the way parity bits are used to
provide redundancy, the usable capacity for every 11-disk group is approximately ten disks (91%).
Note: If two disks in a RAID 5 disk group fail, this will cause data loss and render any storage in the RAID group unavailable until the failed disks
are replaced or the data is restored.
Appropriate for the same types of applications as RAID 5, but in situations where providing increased fault tolerance is important. RAID 6 is
similar to RAID 5 but includes a double parity scheme that is distributed across different disks and thus offers extremely high fault- and disk-failure
tolerance. RAID 6 also provides block-level striping with parity data distributed across all disks.
Arrays continue to operate even when up to two disks fail. Double parity provides time to rebuild the array, even if another if another disk fails
before the rebuild is complete.
6
RAID 6 (4+2): A minimum of six disks can be allocated at a time to each pool. Because of the way parity bits are used to provide redundancy, the
usable capacity for every six-disk group is approximately four disks (66%).
RAID 6 (10+2): (Not for general use) A minimum of 12 disks can be allocated at a time to each pool. Because of the way parity bits are used to
provide redundancy, the usable capacity for every 12-disk group is approximately ten disks (83%).
Note: If three disks in a RAID 6 disk group fail, this will cause data loss and render any storage in the RAID group unavailable until the failed disks
are replaced or the data is restored.
Provides both high performance and reliability at medium cost, while providing lower capacity per disk. RAID 10 may be more appropriate for
applications with fast or high processing requirements, such as enterprise servers and moderate-sized database systems.
Requires a minimum of six physical disks to implement, where two sets of three striped disks are mirrored together to provide fault tolerance.
Although mirroring provides fault tolerance, if any disk is lost, it must be immediately replaced and the array rebuilt, since this configuration cannot
10
handle the loss of more than one disk.
RAID 10 (3+3): A minimum of six disks can be allocated at a time to a pool, with three used strictly for mirroring. To provide redundancy, three
disks out of every six are exact duplicates of the other, and the disk usable disk capacity for every six-disk group is approximately three disks
(50%).
Product:

VNXe3200, VNXe2 Series

Keywords: Disk, Raid, Configuration, Storage Pools, Installing, Provisioning, Install,

Priority:

Medium

Vendor:

EMC

Protocol:

SAN