{"id":7353,"date":"2021-08-12T13:37:05","date_gmt":"2021-08-12T11:37:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/?p=7353"},"modified":"2021-08-12T13:38:17","modified_gmt":"2021-08-12T11:38:17","slug":"raid-5-vs-raid-6-capacity-performance-durability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/raid-5-vs-raid-6-capacity-performance-durability\/","title":{"rendered":"Capacity, performance and durability compared in RAID 5 vs. RAID 6."},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time-approximately:<\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>\n

RAID 5 and RAID 6 provide solid data protection, but both have their pros and cons. Find out what to compare when deciding between RAID 5 vs. RAID 6 in this tip.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Brien<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By Brien Posey<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To provision storage for a workload, IT pros must choose the right storage architecture. This decision may come down to choosing between RAID 5 vs. RAID 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RAID, or redundant array of independent disks, enables organizations to store data on multiple HDDs or SSDs and can help protect data in the event of a drive failure.\u00a0RAID 5\u00a0uses a disk striping with parity and is ideal for application and file servers, while\u00a0RAID 6\u00a0uses two parity stripes and often protects mission-critical data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Neither RAID 5 nor RAID 6 is clearly superior to the other, and there are many variables to consider in order to make an informed decision about which RAID level to implement. To choose between RAID 5 vs. RAID 6, admins must think about the business use case, as well as the tradeoffs involved in choosing one level over the other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manage disk failures<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

RAID 5 and RAID 6 use redundancy to\u00a0guard against hard disk failure.\u00a0This redundancy takes the form of parity information that is written to each disk within the RAID set. If a disk within the set fails, an administrator can replace the disk and then the RAID array. The RAID array then uses the\u00a0parity\u00a0information it stores on the remaining disks to re-create the failed disk’s contents on the new disk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Raid
Raid 5 and Raid 6 compared<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The primary difference between RAID 5 and RAID 6 is that a RAID 5 array can continue to function\u00a0following a single disk failure, but a RAID 6 array can sustain two simultaneous disk failures and still continue to function. RAID 6 arrays are also less prone to errors during the disk\u00a0rebuilding process.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Because RAID 6 arrays are more durable than their RAID 5 counterparts, they are often a good choice to store mission-critical data. Even so, this increased durability comes at a cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overhead and usable capacity<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

RAID 5 and 6 arrays store parity information alongside the actual data, so the disk’s full capacity is not available for data storage. In a RAID 5 array, the overhead associated with storing this parity information is the equivalent to one full disk. If, for example, a RAID 5 array contains three 1 TB hard disks, then the array’s usable capacity will be 2 TB, not 3 TB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RAID 6 arrays store more parity information than RAID 5 arrays, so 6 arrays have less usable capacity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A RAID 6 array’s overhead is the equivalent to the full capacity of two of the array’s disks. If, for example, a RAID 6 array contained four 1 TB disks, then the array would have a usable capacity of 2 TB. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Incidentally, a RAID 6 array must have at least four disks, while RAID 5 arrays have a three-disk minimum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Performance<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

RAID 5 arrays have relatively slow write performance because parity information must be written to the disks alongside the actual data. RAID 6 arrays are even slower because they store a greater volume of parity data than RAID 5 arrays do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Organizations must consider how they will implement the RAID 5 or RAID 6 array. RAID 5 arrays can be created either at the hardware level or\u00a0as a software array\u00a0in a Windows environment. In fact, Windows has had the ability to create software RAID 5 arrays ever since the days of Windows NT.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Windows does not natively support software RAID 6 arrays, although\u00a0Storage Spaces\u00a0can achieve similar functionality. RAID 6 arrays will generally need to be created at the hardware level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time-approximately:<\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>RAID 5 and RAID 6 provide solid data protection, but both have their pros and cons. Find out what to compare when deciding between RAID 5 vs. RAID 6 in this tip. By Brien Posey To provision storage for a workload, IT pros must choose the right storage architecture. This decision may come down to choosing between RAID 5 vs.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":112,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121,7,38,35,8,258,62,4,30,3,238,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archiving-and-backup","category-backup-and-archival-tools","category-best-practices-for-data-center-operations","category-data-center-facilities","category-data-center-hardware","category-data-protection-backup-and-archiving","category-data-storage-backup-tools","category-datacenter-news","category-expert-advise-and-opinion","category-industry-news-and-expert-advise","category-timeless-articles","category-timeless-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/112"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7353"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7357,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7353\/revisions\/7357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tekmart.co.za\/t-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}