If you are looking for maximum performance with compute-intensive RAID 5 and RAID 6, you should choose hardware RAID, because software RAID can actually degrade performance. If your budget is tight and you are using RAID 0 or RAID 1, there won't be much difference between software RAID and hardware RAID. The choice between software RAID and hardware RAID depends on what you need to do and the cost. Software RAID vs Hardware RAID: Which to Choose You must first tell your system to stop using the disk and then replace the disk. Replacing a failed disk in software RAID is somewhat more complicated. Software RAID is often operating system dependent, so it generally cannot be used for partitions shared by operating systems. Since some processing power is consumed by the software, the read and write speed of your RAID configuration, as well as other operations performed on the server, maybe slowed down by it. Software RAID is usually slower than hardware RAID. It also allows users to reconfigure arrays without the constraints of a hardware RAID controller. The cost is lower because no additional hardware RAID controller is required. Unlike hardware RAID, software RAID uses the processing power of the operating system in which the RAID drives are installed. If your RAID controller fails, you need to find a compatible one to replace it for the RAID system to work as you configured it.
Disadvantages:īecause hardware RAID requires additional controller hardware, the cost is higher than software RAID. Replacing a failed drive is very simple - just unplug it and insert a new one. Thus, more space and speed can be used to read and write data. The RAID controller does not take processing power from the drives it manages.
Hardware RAID is a specialized processing system that uses RAID controllers or cards to manage the RAID configuration regardless of the operating system.
RAID can be implemented either with a dedicated controller (Hardware RAID) or with an operating system driver (Software RAID).
It is a way to virtualize multiple independent hard drives into one or more arrays to improve performance, capacity, and reliability. "Hardware RAID", explains how these different RAID implementations work and the benefits of each implementation, and helps you make a decision on which RAID solution is best for your application.RAID is a redundant array of disks. It begins by defining "Software RAID" vs. This white paper provides a high-level overview of the various RAID solutions.
RAID is even included in TV settop boxes or personal storage devices. It can be found in mobile environments such as laptops, as well as desktops, workstations, servers, and external enclosures with a larger number of hard disk drives. Today, RAID is found everywhere - from an operating system software feature to a stand-alone controller providing advanced data integrity in high-end storage area networks. At that time, when hardware-based RAID solutions were the only option, the cost of a RAID controller limited the usage to high-priced servers. The first implementations of RAID in 1990 were very expensive controller boards with high performance I/O processors that were as powerful as the host CPU. In the last couple of years, RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) technology has grown from a server option to a data protection requirement.