RAID is form of data protection. RAID refers to the phrase “redundant array of independent disks”. RAID involves having more than one hard drive and most often installing controller hardware on your server so that the operating system only “sees” one drive. Having RAID on your dedicated server is a good way to protect your data and can help make accessing any single file quicker than when only a single hard drive is used. There are many different levels of RAID you can choose to implement, among the most popular are the following:
RAID 0 – Technically, this level is not true RAID, as there is no redundancy. The disks in a RAID-0 array are partitioned into many sectors, and data is written onto each sector in a striping fashion. There is no redundancy, so if any one hard drive fails the data on it is lost.
RAID 1 – This is when your data is mirrored onto two different hard drives. The information stored on each disk is identical, so this level of RAID can be thought of as a form of “real-time backup”. RAID-1 not a true backup. RAID-1 is a form of data protection that mirrors “copies” of data onto two hard drive. Data can be read from either hard drive, so it speeds up access times when there are multiple users. If any one disk fails it can be replaced and the array will rebuild itself. RAID-1 [mirroring] can be either configured from a dedicated server’s operating system [software-based] or with its own separate PCI card in a dedicated server [hardware-based]. Hardware-based RAID can be added with another optional level of protection with a battery back-up [BBU] . Hardware-based RAID with optional battery backup would help with keeping the integrity of the data if there were ever any electricity issues with the dedicated server hosting the hard drives.
RAID 5 – This level of RAID uses three or more hard drives, and provides a higher level of protection and redundancy for your data if any one disk fails as the data is actually written to all hard drives in the array. It is slightly slower than RAID-1 or RAID-10 because the data is being written when RAID-5 is used but offers a higher level of data protection because actual copies of data are written onto the hard drives.
RAID 10 – This is a combination of RAID-1 and RAID-0. It allows for quicker access times than RAID-1 alone, while protecting your data.
Server hard drives are technical equipment, and like all equipment they can and do sometimes fail. If your data is important RAID should be in your hardware budget, perhaps with secure backup space also (as another level of redundancy). RAID can be thought of as a form of insurance for your data: you may never have to take advantage of it, but it only takes one hard drive failure to make you wish you had it.
It is usually recommended that you order RAID on a new dedicated servers when you place the order. If you wait until after the operating system has been loaded a reformat would be needed in order to have the RAID card recognized by your dedicated server.
