User`s guide

Chapter 4: Getting Started ● 31
Choosing a RAID Level
This section provides a brief overview of the RAID levels supported by your Adaptec RAID
controller, including the minimum and maximum number of disk drives required by each.
● RAID 0 (Non-redundant Array)—Stripes data across multiple disk drives. Improved
performance but no redundancy (see page 76).
● RAID 1 Array — Created from two disk drives where one disk drive is a mirror of the other
(the same data is stored on each disk drive). Redundancy, but reduced capacity (see page 77).
● RAID 1E Array — Similar to a RAID 1 array except that data is mirrored and striped, and more
disk drives can be included (see page 77).
● RAID 5 Array—Stripes data for improved performance and uses parity data to provide
redundancy (see page 79).
● RAID 5EE Array—Similar to a RAID 5 array, but includes a distributed spare and must
include a minimum of four disk drives (see page 80).
● RAID 10 Array—Built from two or more equal-sized RAID 1 arrays, stripes and mirrors
data across multiple disk drives. Redundancy and improved performance (see page 78).
● RAID 50
1
Array—Built from multiple disk drives configured as two or more RAID 5
arrays, stripes stored data and parity data across all disk drives (see page 81).
● RAID 6 Array—Similar to a RAID 5 array except that it includes two independent sets of
parity data instead of one (see page 82).
● RAID 60
1
Array—Similar to a RAID 50 array except that it includes four independent sets
of parity data instead of two (see page 82).
Use the table on page 83 to see how many disk drives you must connect to your RAID
controller to support the RAID level you want.
1
The Adaptec 2420SA RAID ccontroller does not support RAID 50.