MSA20 - RAID 5 Array Vs RAID 10 Array

[Frank Andrews]

I have a client who have a Data Protector Server. As part of an upgrade they have added four MSA20 shelves connected to a Smart 5404 controller which they will use for disk backups.

The initial proposal is to create RAID10 Arrays on each shelf to get the best performance, but really I'm not sure if SATA disks on MSA20 shelves have enough throughput to actually increase performance using RAID10?

So basically, can anyone tell me if RAID10 will offer any speed increase on MSA20 disk shelves or is it just a waste of disks?

Thanks

[Patrick Terlisten]

Hello Frank,

the performance of a RAID depends on the RAID level and the amount of disks. A RAID 10 is faster then a RAID 5 with the same amount of disks, but the usable capacity of the RAID 5 is higher. The best way is to test the performance. Setup a RAID 5 and test the performance (real worls performance, not using test-data). Then do the same with RAID 10.

Hope this helps.

Patrick