RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) protects your data and improves performance. Different RAID levels offer different trade-offs between speed, capacity, and fault tolerance.
RAID Level Comparison
| Level | Min Drives | Fault Tolerance | Usable Capacity | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| RAID 0 | 2 | None | 100% | Temp/scratch (never production) |
| RAID 1 | 2 | 1 drive | 50% | OS/boot drives |
| RAID 5 | 3 | 1 drive | (N-1)/N | General storage |
| RAID 6 | 4 | 2 drives | (N-2)/N | Large arrays, critical data |
| RAID 10 | 4 | 1 per mirror | 50% | Databases, high IOPS |
| RAID 50 | 6 | 1 per span | ~67-83% | Large mixed workloads |
| RAID 60 | 8 | 2 per span | ~50-75% | Maximum fault tolerance |
RAID controller cross-reference | Find RAID controllers for your server