Specifications
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ATTO Technology Inc. FastStream SC Installation and Operation Manual
Appendix B   Design RAID Groups
The ATTO FastStream provides instant hardware data protection and intelligence to existing storage independent 
of the storage type. 
CAUTIONCAUTION
RAID improves data accessibility and 
reliability during normal operations, 
however, you still need a good backup 
strategy for long-term protection of your 
data.
To set up RAID groups refer to 
Configure Storage 
into RAID Groups
 on page 11.
The ATTO FastStream allows RAID functionality. In 
general, the process begins with individual drives 
called block devices. 
Note
If a drive has corrupt or outdated configuration 
data, that drive cannot be assigned to any 
RAID group. Ensure all drives are configured 
properly. Refer to 
Initialize Drives
 on page 9 
or 
Eliminating RAID configuration data
 on 
page 27.
A RAID group is a virtual, independent single drive 
whose data is written to physical drives according to a 
RAID algorithm. The ATTO FastStream supports 
JBOD, DVRAID, RAID Level 0, RAID Level 1, RAID 
Level 1+ 0, RAID Level 4 and RAID Level 5.
RAID improves data accessibility and reliability during 
normal operations, however, you still need a good 
backup strategy for long-term protection of your data.
JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) 
JBOD (Just a Bunch of Disks) configuration allows 
many individual drives to be available for normal 
storage operations with no special data protection by 
combining several drives into one large drive. A 
special case of a RAID group, multiple physical drives 
are assigned to a JBOD RAID group and their storage 
areas appear as a single spanned area of storage. 
The ATTO FastStream supports 1 to 32 drives per 
JBOD-configured RAID group. 
Exhibit A-2  JBOD: Just a Bunch of Disks: no 
redundancy; each disk is treated independently
DVRAID (Digital Video RAID)
Digital Video RAID provides parity redundancy for 
your data. Optimized for performance for the high data 
transfer rates required in digital video environments, 
DVRAID is ATTO Technology proprietary technology 
which supports the editing of uncompressed 10-bit 
High Definition (HD) video and multiple streams of 
real-time, uncompressed Standard Definition (SD) 
video.
You must use the Quick Digital Video setup wizard in 
the ExpressNAV Storage Manager. 
RAID Level 0 
RAID Level 0 (striping) is based on the fact that 
increased performance can be achieved by 
simultaneously accessing data across multiple drives, 
increasing data transfer rates while reducing average 
access time by overlapping drive seeks. Drives are 
accessed alternately, as if stacked one on top of the 
other. RAID Level 0 provides no data protection. If one 
drive fails, all data within that stripe set is lost.
RAID Level 0 is used by applications requiring high 
performance for non-critical data. 
The ATTO FastStream supports 2 to 16 drives per 
RAID Level 0 group. 
Exhibit A-3  RAID Level 0, no redundancy
JBOD
Disk 0 Disk 1 Disk 2
D0 D4 D8
D1 D5 D9
D2 D6 D10
D3 D7 D11
RAID Level 0
Stripe Disk 0 Disk 1 Disk 2 Disk 3
0 D0D1D2D3
1 D4D5D6D7










