Definition
RAID 5 (Redundant Array of Independent Disks level 5) is a storage setup that distributes data across three or more drives while spreading parity information among them. Therefore, if one drive malfunctions, the remaining drives can reconstruct data using parity.
RAID 5 Applications
RAID 5 is widely used in environments that need to balance storage efficiency, performance, and fault tolerance. However, modern hard drives have become bigger, leading to longer rebuild times for RAID 5 arrays after a disk malfunction. This also introduces a vulnerability, as a second disk failure might cause data loss.
RAID 6 is better than RAID 5 as it can tolerate if two disks fail.
- Business servers: Servers in most medium-sized businesses use RAID 5 to ensure data availability.
- Application and file servers: RAID 5 is ideal for general-purpose application hosting and file storage as it ensures efficient disk space utilization and safeguards against single disk failure.
- Database systems: Database systems where read operations outnumber write operations can use RAID 5.
- Network-attached storage (NAS) devices: Many business and consumer NAS devices provide RAID 5 configurations to balance redundancy and storage capacity.
- Video production: RAID 5 is appropriate for video editing environments that need rapid data reading and data protection.
- Archival storage: In archival storage systems where data protection is essential but peak performance is not, RAID 5 can be a cost-effective option.