Definition
RAID 1, also known as mirroring, is a process of keeping data across at least two hard drives while prioritizing data redundancy and integrity. It is helpful where data integrity and accessibility are critical, such as systems containing sensitive information or critical databases.
RAID 1 Benefits
- Read speed: The system can read data from various disks concurrently, resulting in speedier reading operations.
- Fault tolerance: Several RAID setups, including RAID 6, RAID 5, and RAID 1, provide security from the failure of a single or more drives, guaranteeing data availability during emergencies.
- Failover: If the event of failure of one disk, the system can immediately toggle to the functional disk, reducing downtime.
- Easy retrieval: If a drive crashes, the system may continue being operational using the remaining disk. Substituting the failed disk is simple because the data from the working drive can be mirrored to the novel one.
Disadvantages of RAID
- Limited storage efficacy: Data mirroring causes you to obtain just half of the space in your drive. For instance, if you have two ITBs in RAID 1, you only obtain 1TB of accessible space.
- Write speed: The writing operation may be slower than in a single drive configuration due to the need to write data to both disks simultaneously.
- Restricted redundancy: RAID 1 usually uses at least two physical disks. Although it offers redundancy against the failure of a single disk, it does not safeguard against multiple disks being affected at once.
- Scalability: RAID 1 is less scalable than other setups because both drives in the mirrored set must be replaced for additional storage.