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RAID (Redundant Arrays of Independent

Disks)
Last Updated : 08 Nov, 2023
RAID is a technique that makes use of a combination of multiple disks
instead of using a single disk for increased performance, data
redundancy, or both. The term was coined by David Patterson, Garth
A. Gibson, and Randy Katz at the University of California, Berkeley in
1987.

Why Data Redundancy?

Data redundancy, although taking up extra space, adds to disk
reliability. This means, that in case of disk failure, if the same data is
also backed up onto another disk, we can retrieve the data and go on
with the operation. On the other hand, if the data is spread across
multiple disks without the RAID technique, the loss of a single disk can
affect the entire data.

Key Evaluation Points for a RAID System

Reliability: How many disk faults can the system tolerate?
Availability: What fraction of the total session time is a system in
uptime mode, i.e. how available is the system for actual use?
Performance: How good is the response time? How high is the
throughput (rate of processing work)? Note that performance
contains a lot of parameters and not just the two.
Capacity: Given a set of N disks each with B blocks, how much
useful capacity is available to the user?
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the host system, it appears as Gota single
It ! big disk presenting itself as a
linear array of blocks. This allows older technologies to be replaced by
RAID without making too many changes to the existing code.

Different RAID Levels

1. RAID-0 (Stripping)
2. RAID-1 (Mirroring)
3. RAID-2 (Bit-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)
4. RAID-3 (Byte-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)
5. RAID-4 (Block-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)
6. RAID-5 (Block-Level Stripping with Distributed Parity)
7. RAID-6 (Block-Level Stripping with two Parity Bits)

Raid Controller

1. RAID-0 (Stripping)

Blocks are “stripped” across disks.

 RAID-0

In the figure, blocks “0,1,2,3” form a stripe.

Instead of placing just one block into a disk at a time, we can work
with two (or more) blocks placed into a disk before moving on to the
next one.

Raid-0

Evaluation
Reliability: 0
There is no duplication of data. Hence, a block once lost cannot be
recovered.
Capacity: N*B
The entire space is being used to store data. Since there is no
duplication, N disks each having B blocks are fully utilized.

Advantages
1. It is easy to implement.
2. It utilizes the storage capacity in a better way.

Disadvantages
1. A single drive loss can result in the complete failure of the system.
2. Not a good choice for a critical system.
2. RAID-1 (Mirroring)

More than one copy of each block is stored in a separate disk. Thus,
every block has two (or more) copies, lying on different disks.

Raid-1

The above figure shows a RAID-1 system with mirroring level 2.

RAID 0 was unable to tolerate any disk failure. But RAID 1 is
capable of reliability.

Evaluation
Assume a RAID system with mirroring level 2.
 Reliability: 1 to N/2
1 disk failure can be handled for certain because blocks of that disk
would have duplicates on some other disk. If we are lucky enough
and disks 0 and 2 fail, then again this can be handled as the blocks
of these disks have duplicates on disks 1 and 3. So, in the best case,
N/2 disk failures can be handled.
Capacity: N*B/2
Only half the space is being used to store data. The other half is just
a mirror of the already stored data.

Advantages
1. It covers complete redundancy.
2. It can increase data security and speed.

Disadvantages
1. It is highly expensive.
2. Storage capacity is less.

3. RAID-2 (Bit-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)

In Raid-2, the error of the data is checked at every bit level. Here,
we use Hamming Code Parity Method to find the error in the data.
It uses one designated drive to store parity.
The structure of Raid-2 is very complex as we use two disks in this
technique. One word is used to store bits of each word and another
word is used to store error code correction.
It is not commonly used.

Advantages
1. In case of Error Correction, it uses hamming code.
2. It Uses one designated drive to store parity.

Disadvantages
1. It has a complex structure and high cost due to extra drive.
2. It requires an extra drive for error detection.

4. RAID-3 (Byte-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)

It consists of byte-level striping with dedicated parity striping.

At this level, we store parity information in a disc section and write
to a dedicated parity drive.
Whenever failure of the drive occurs, it helps in accessing the parity
drive, through which we can reconstruct the data.

Raid-3

Here Disk 3 contains the Parity bits for Disk 0, Disk 1, and Disk 2. If
data loss occurs, we can construct it with Disk 3.

Advantages
1. Data can be transferred in bulk.
2. Data can be accessed in parallel.

Disadvantages
1. It requires an additional drive for parity.
2. In the case of small-size files, it performs slowly.

5. RAID-4 (Block-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)

Instead of duplicating data, this adopts a parity-based approach.

Raid-4

In the figure, we can observe one column (disk) dedicated to parity.

Parity is calculated using a simple XOR function. If the data bits are
0,0,0,1 the parity bit is XOR(0,0,0,1) = 1. If the data bits are 0,1,1,0
the parity bit is XOR(0,1,1,0) = 0. A simple approach is that an even
number of ones results in parity 0, and an odd number of ones
results in parity 1.
 Raid-4

Assume that in the above figure, C3 is lost due to some disk failure.
Then, we can recompute the data bit stored in C3 by looking at the
values of all the other columns and the parity bit. This allows us to
recover lost data.

Evaluation
Reliability: 1
RAID-4 allows recovery of at most 1 disk failure (because of the
way parity works). If more than one disk fails, there is no way to
recover the data.
Capacity: (N-1)*B
One disk in the system is reserved for storing the parity. Hence, (N-
1) disks are made available for data storage, each disk having B
blocks.

Advantages
1. It helps in reconstructing the data if at most one data is lost.

Disadvantages
1. It can’t help in reconstructing when more than one data is lost.

6. RAID-5 (Block-Level Stripping with Distributed Parity)

This is a slight modification of the RAID-4 system where the only

difference is that the parity rotates among the drives.
 Raid-5

In the figure, we can notice how the parity bit “rotates”.

This was introduced to make the random write performance better.

Evaluation
Reliability: 1
RAID-5 allows recovery of at most 1 disk failure (because of the
way parity works). If more than one disk fails, there is no way to
recover the data. This is identical to RAID-4.
Capacity: (N-1)*B
Overall, space equivalent to one disk is utilized in storing the parity.
Hence, (N-1) disks are made available for data storage, each disk
having B blocks.

Advantages
1. Data can be reconstructed using parity bits.
2. It makes the performance better.

Disadvantages
1. Its technology is complex and extra space is required.
2. If both discs get damaged, data will be lost forever.

7. RAID-6 (Block-Level Stripping with two Parity Bits)

Raid-6 helps when there is more than one disk failure. A pair of
independent parities are generated and stored on multiple disks at
this level. Ideally, you need four disk drives for this level.
There are also hybrid RAIDs, which make use of more than one
RAID level nested one after the other, to fulfill specific
requirements.
 Raid-6

Advantages
1. Very high data Accessibility.
2. Fast read data transactions.

Disadvantages
1. Due to double parity, it has slow write data transactions.
2. Extra space is required.

Advantages of RAID
Data redundancy: By keeping numerous copies of the data on many
disks, RAID can shield data from disk failures.
Performance enhancement: RAID can enhance performance by
distributing data over several drives, enabling the simultaneous
execution of several read/write operations.
Scalability: RAID is scalable, therefore by adding more disks to the
array, the storage capacity may be expanded.
Versatility: RAID is applicable to a wide range of devices, such as
workstations, servers, and personal PCs

Disadvantages of RAID
Cost: RAID implementation can be costly, particularly for arrays
with large capacities.
Complexity: The setup and management of RAID might be
challenging.
Decreased performance: The parity calculations necessary for
some RAID configurations, including RAID 5 and RAID 6, may result
 in a decrease in speed.
Single point of failure: RAID is not a comprehensive backup
solution, while offering data redundancy. The array’s whole
contents could be lost if the RAID controller malfunctions.

Conclusion
In Conclusion, RAID technology in database management systems
distributes and replicates data across several drives to improve data
performance and reliability. It is a useful tool in contemporary
database setups since it is essential to preserving system availability
and protecting sensitive data.

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