Home Server/RAID

Warning: RAID is NOT a backup. Not even RAID 1. RAID doesn't protect against accidental file deletion or the complete death of an array. See the Home_Server/Backups Page for more on backups

Companion page to Home_server#RAID

There are several reasons why we don't just connect a bunch of disks and call it good:

Data Protection: RAID provides redundancy, which means that if one disk fails, the data is still available on another disk. This is crucial for preventing data loss.

Performance: RAID can significantly improve disk speed by spreading data across multiple disks. This allows for multiple disk reads/writes to occur simultaneously, increasing overall system performance.

Efficiency: By using RAID, you can manage multiple disks as a single entity, which can be more efficient and easier to manage than dealing with multiple individual disks.

Cost-effectiveness: RAID can be a cost-effective way to achieve high levels of storage reliability and capacity that would otherwise require a large number of disks.

Scalability: RAID systems can be easily expanded with additional disks, providing a scalable solution for growing storage needs.

In contrast, if you simply connect a bunch of disks separately ("disk 1 for pictures, disk 2 for videos, etc"), you lose these benefits. If one disk fails, you lose all data on that disk. You also can't take advantage of the speed benefits of simultaneous reads/writes across multiple disks. Furthermore, managing multiple individual disks can be more complex and less efficient than managing a single RAID array.

ZFS

ZFS is a .... Home_Server/RAID/ZFS