Server Partition Manager Software

Commonly Used Hardware RAID

• Commonly used hardware RAID
  Hardware RAID has many advantages in data processing and data storage. Therefore, it is frequently used in many different areas. For those who are unfamiliar with hardware RAID, after you read this article, you will have a better understanding about hardware Raid.
  
  A RAID distributes data across several physical disks which look to the operating system and the user like a single disk. Several different arrangements are possible. We assume here that all the disks are of the same capacity, as is usual. A number of standard schemes have evolved which are referred to as levels. There were three RAID levels below used most commonly, but many more variations have evolved, notably several nested levels (such as RAID 0+1, RAID 1+0, RAID 5+0, RAID 5+0, etc.) and many non-standard levels (Most of these non-standard RAID levels are proprietary).
  
  RAID 0
  Striped Disk Array without Fault Tolerance: Provides improved performance and additional storage but no fault tolerance. Any disk failure destroys the array, which becomes more likely with more disks in the array. A single disk failure destroys the entire array because when data is written to a RAID 0 drive, the data is broken into fragments. The number of fragments is dictated by the number of disks in the array. The fragments are written to their respective disks simultaneously on the same sector. This allows smaller sections of the entire chunk of data to be read off the drive in parallel, giving this type of arrangement huge bandwidth. RAID 0 does not implement error checking so any error is unrecoverable. More disks in the array mean higher bandwidth, but greater risk of data loss.
  
  RAID 1
  Mirroring and Duplexing: Provides fault tolerance from disk errors and failure of all but one of the drives. Increased read performance occurs when using a multi-threaded operating system that supports split seeks, very small performance reduction when writing. Array continues to operate so long as at least one drive is functioning. Using RAID 1 with a separate controller for each disk is sometimes called duplexing.
  
  RAID 5
  Block Interleaved Distributed Parity: Distributed parity requires all drives but one to be present to operate; drive failure requires replacement, but the array is not destroyed by a single drive failure. Upon drive failure, any subsequent reads can be calculated from the distributed parity such that the drive failure is masked from the end user. The array will have data loss in the event of a second drive failure and is vulnerable until the data that was on the failed drive is rebuilt onto a replacement drive.
  
  Now that you have a better understanding of hardware RAID, you may be wondering whether there are any software can manage hardware RAID.
  
  MiniTool Partition Manager can work perfectly well with hardware RAID. With MiniTool Partition Manager, management to hardware RAID is a piece of cake.
  
  

  Level	Description	Minimum No. of disks
  RAID 0	Striped set without parity / [Non-Redundant Array]	2
  RAID 1	Mirrored set without parity	2
  RAID 2	1 GB	3
  RAID 3	Redundancy through Hamming code	3
  RAID 4	Striped set with dedicated parity/Bit interleaved parity	3
  RAID 5	Block level parity	3
  RAID 6	Striped set with distributed parity	4

  
  RAID is really used to its full potential in emergency services and Professionales where data reliability and performance are essential. Meanwhile, partitioning RAID will maximize its performance as well as optimize its data reliability.
  
  Why should we partition RAID?
  We can simply say that we need to partition RAID to optimize the performance of the servers. A typical example is if the partition on the hardware RAID is running out of space. You may want to rebuild the hardware RAID with a larger hard disk. Then, you need to backup the data to another area, rebuild the hardware RAID and restore the data again. What a time-consuming task! And you might lose your valuable data in this process.
  
  You may wonder how we can partition RAID without data loss. The answer is that you need to get the help of a professional partition software.
  
  Partition Wizard Server Edition is a professional partition software that allows RAID management without data loss.
  
  By following these steps, you can resize RAID in minutes:
  
  1. Insert a new hard disk to the existing hardware RAID and organize this RAID using RAID controller. Then you can have some unallocated space on this RAID.
  
  Suppose you need to extend partition E: on this RAID and there is unallocated space next to it.
  
  2. Launch your Partition Wizard Server Edition and you will see its user interface
  
  
  
  3. Right click partition E and select Resize/Move.
  
  
  
  4. A popped-up dialog box indicates the current size of E: partition. The box also depicts the used and unused space on the partition and the free space surrounding the partition (if any exists), the minimum and maximum sizes that you can resize a partition, and the cluster size of the partition.
  
  5. Position the mouse pointer on the right partition handle. Drag the handle to the partition size you desire when the mouse pointer changes to a double-headed arrow and click OK.
  
  If you do not yet have Partition Wizard Server Edition, you can download a trial version from the Download Centre.
  
  Tip: If you are A server user with more than 3 machines, Partition Wizard Enterprise Edition that allows unlimited licenses is strongly recommended.