RAID Level Descriptions

The Dulce RAID systems support a large variety of RAID Levels, we do however recommend RAID 5, it is the default shipping configuration unless otherwise directed.

RAID Level Description Advantage Disadvantage Ideal for 0 Striping. Highest performance. No disk redundancy, one drive failure will lose all data. Highest resolution HD, 2K, and maximum multiple streams. 1 Mirroring. Highest redundancy. Less cost efficient for redundancy, loses 1/2 disk capacity. Data protection is paramount, maximum disk failure protection. 3 Striping with a dedicated parity drive. Efficient drive redundancy, 1 drive used for parity. Loses 1 disk drive capacity. Well balanced for video requiring performance and redundancy. 5 Striping the parity across all drives. Efficient drive redundancy, parity distributed to all drives. Loses 1 disk drive capacity. Well balanced for file server requiring performance and redundancy. 6 Striping with two dedicated parity drives. Double drive redundancy, 2 drives used for parity. Loses 2 disk drive capacity. Mission critical. JBOD Just a Bunch of disks. Each drive can be accessed individually from operating system. No redundancy. Audio applications. RAID + Spare A drive is set aside as an online hot spare. Automatic rebuild of a failed drive. Loses another drive capacity. (In addition to the drive(s) needed for the RAID level selected.) Minimizes degraded RAID level exposure time.