Raid servers

You might have come across the term ?Raid Server?. What is it? Well, RAID stands for ?Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks?. Raid is a technique for using multiple hard drives to provide fault tolerance. This means the usage of more than 1 hard drive to ensure that there are no problems.

Raid is a method for storing data on multiple hard disks, then linking the disks so that the operating system on the server views them as a single entity. There are companies that offer RAID for both the ATA and SCSI hard drives in 3 different configurations with the dedicated servers.

Raid-0: This method of data storage is also known as striping. The technology divides the data into pieces and places each piece on a different drive. Let us take an example.

Data A is stored on drive 1, while Data B is in drive 2. C will head to drive 3 and so on. Because the data is divided, RAID-0 offers the top level of performance for disk IO. It is usually used for multimedia applications like video editing and for situations where speed is more important than data loss.

RAID-1: This method of data storage is known as mirroring. In this method, every data is written to at least two disks. Depending on how the controller card works, the data is written on both the drives. The data is also read from both the drives. If for any reason one of the drives fails, then only 1 drive comes to use. With this method, naturally there is a high degree of security, but the performance slightly goes down because it requires capturing all data on two disks.

RAID-5: This is the most widely used method because it offers a useful combination of protection and speed. It works by making enough of the data redundant so that even if a drive fails, it is still possible to recreate and retrieve the information. Offering the best performance with data protection, this solution is ideal for high performance databases and websites that require high disk throughput.