Setting Up RAID 0 in CyberData
RAID 0 (Striping without Parity or Redundancy)
RAID 0, also known as striping, offers the highest storage performance among all RAID levels.
RAID 0 improves storage performance by splitting data across multiple disks for read/write operations. This allows data requests to be processed in parallel by multiple disks, with each disk handling its portion of the request.
Such parallel data operations make full use of bus bandwidth, significantly enhancing overall disk performance.
Multiple hard drives are virtually combined into a single drive, with the total capacity equal to the sum of all drives. A minimum of two hard drives is required.
Advantages
· Fast access speed
· No redundancy
· Concurrent read/write operations
· 100% disk utilization
Disadvantages
Lack of parity or backup means if any one hard drive fails (or any data block is damaged), the entire file may become unreadable.
Use Cases
Temporary data (download cache, video editing scratch disks)
Scenarios where speed is prioritized over security (high-performance computing, non-critical test environments)
Limited budgets, with data that can be easily reacquired (e.g., downloadable movies)
Instructions
After binding and logging into the Cyber Cloud software, access the device.
On the "Initialize New Device" page, set the language, time zone, and service region, then proceed to create the system pool.
Navigate to "Create Storage Pool" → select Simple Mode → choose Array Mode.
Note: Creating a storage pool will format the hard drives, erasing all existing data. Please back up important data beforehand.
Setting Up RAID 1 and RAID 10
RAID 1 (Mirroring without Parity)
RAID 1, also known as mirroring, implements data redundancy by mirroring data across drives. It creates identical copies of data on pairs of independent disks.
When the primary data is busy, data can be read directly from the mirror copy, thus RAID 1 can improve read performance.
RAID 1 has the highest cost per unit of storage among disk arrays but offers excellent data security and availability.
If one disk fails, the system can automatically switch to reading from and writing to the mirror disk without needing to rebuild the failed data.
The usable capacity equals the capacity of the smallest drive in the array. A minimum of 2 hard drives are required.
Advantages
· High security and reliability.
· Improved read performance.
· With two drives, as long as one drive is functional, data integrity remains intact even if the other fails.
Disadvantages
· High cost.
· Slower write performance.
· Use Cases
· Where data security is the top priority (e.g., financial records, family photos, critical documents).
Setup Guide
1. After binding and logging into the Cyber Cloud software, access your device.
On the "Initialize New Device" page, set the language, time zone, and service region, then click "Next" to create the system storage pool.
Location for creating storage pool -> Select "Simple Mode" -> Choose the RAID mode.
Note: Creating a storage pool will format the hard drives, erasing all existing data. Please back up any important data first.
RAID 10 (Striped Mirror)
RAID 10 is not a unique RAID level; it's a nested combination of RAID 1 (mirroring) and RAID 0 (striping). RAID 10 inherits the speed and efficiency of RAID 0 along with the data security of RAID 1.
It's important to distinguish between RAID 10 and RAID 01. RAID 01 (RAID 0+1) stripes data first (RAID 0) and then mirrors the stripes (RAID 1). RAID 10 (RAID 1+0) mirrors drives first (RAID 1) and then stripes across the mirrored sets (RAID 0).
A minimum of four disks is required to form a RAID 10 array, making it a commonly used configuration in practical applications.
Advantages
Can withstand multiple drive failures (as long as no two drives in the same mirror pair fail).
Read/write speeds are approximately equal to RAID 0 (no parity calculations, data is written directly to mirrors).
Disadvantages
Minimum drive count: 4 drives (2 RAID 1 sets), and the number must be even (2, 4, 6, 8...).
Low storage efficiency: 50% usable space (e.g., with 8x 4TB drives, only 16TB is usable).
Use Cases
Scenarios demanding both high performance and high redundancy, such as database servers.
Note: To create a configuration similar to traditional RAID 10, first create the storage pool in Mirror mode (refer to the RAID 1 guide above). After creation, perform a "Group Expansion" on this pool.
Configuring RAID 5 and RAID 50
RAIDZ-1 (Independent Disks with Distributed Parity)
In ZFS, RAIDZ-1 is equivalent to traditional RAID 5. RAID 5 is a storage technology that combines data striping with distributed parity. It interleaves data and parity information across multiple disks to achieve data redundancy and high reliability.
For example, if there are N disks in total, the data to be written is divided into N parts and concurrently written to the N disks. At the same time, the parity information for the data is also written to these N disks (data and its corresponding parity must be stored on different disks).
When a disk in a RAID 5 array fails, the remaining data and corresponding parity information are used to reconstruct the lost data.
The actual usable capacity is: (Number of disks - 1) × (Smallest disk capacity). A minimum of 3 disks are required.
Advantages
· Balances storage performance, data security, and storage costs. Compared to RAID 1, RAID 5 offers higher disk space utilization and can maintain operations even if a single hard drive fails.
· Allows for the failure of up to one disk at a time. Data from the failed disk can be reconstructed using the parity information on the remaining disks. However, if two disks fail simultaneously, data recovery is impossible.
Disadvantages
· Write performance is relatively poor. If a disk fails, the read and write performance of the RAID 5 array degrade significantly. Additionally, during data reconstruction, performance may be severely impacted.
Use Cases
Ideal for balancing security and space efficiency:
· File servers
· Home media libraries
· Commonly accessed data storage
Setup Guide
1. Bind and log in to the CyberData, then navigate to the device interface.
On the Initialize New Device page, set the language, time zone, and service region, then click Next to create a system pool.
Navigate to Create Storage Pool → select Simple Mode → choose RAID Mode.
Note: Creating a storage pool will format the hard drives and erase all existing data. Please back up important data before proceeding.
RAID 50 (Mirrored Array Striping)
RAID 50 is a combination of RAID 5 and RAID 0. It first creates RAID 5 arrays and then applies RAID 0 striping across them, meaning data is striped across two or more RAID 5 sets.
RAID 50 requires a minimum of 6 disks, as each RAID 5 set needs at least 3 drives. RAID 5 provides higher fault tolerance by allowing one disk in each set to fail without data loss.
Example: 8 disks = 2 RAID 5 subsets (each with 4 disks: 3 data disks + 1 parity disk), with RAID 0 striping applied at the upper level.
Advantages
· Better read performance compared to RAID 5.
· Faster rebuild times than RAID 5 of the same capacity.
· Higher fault tolerance, as one disk per subset can fail.
· Potential for faster data read rates.
Disadvantages
· Complex design and challenging to implement.
· Failure of two disks within the same RAID 5 subset will cause the entire array to fail.
· Disk failures can impact throughput.
· Rebuild times after a failure are longer compared to mirrored configurations.
Note: To set up a configuration similar to traditional RAID 50, create the storage pool in RAIDZ-1 mode first, then perform a "group expansion" on the pool. For instructions on creating RAIDZ-1 mode, refer to the section above.
Operation Guide
After creating the storage pool in RAIDZ-1 mode, navigate to "Storage Manager" → "Storage Pool" →
Setting Up RAID 6 and RAID 60
RAIDZ-2 (A ZFS-based Redundant Array of Independent Disks with Two Distributed Parity Schemes)
RAIDZ-2 is the ZFS version of RAID 6. RAID 6 is designed to provide enhanced data protection compared to RAID 5, essentially serving as an extension of the RAID 5 level.
The key difference from RAID 5 is that RAID 6 has two independent parity blocks for each data block, in addition to the distributed XOR parity used in RAID 5. Both parity blocks are striped across all drives in the array.
Similar to RAID 5, parity information for a given data block is not stored on the same drive as the data itself; it is distributed in an interleaved manner across the array.
Setting up RAID 6 requires a minimum of 4 hard drives, and RAID 6 can tolerate the failure of up to two drives without data loss.
In practical applications, RAID 6 is not as widely used as other RAID levels. It is typically employed by enterprises with high data security requirements, such as data centers or information centers, to provide robust data protection.
The usable storage capacity is calculated as: (Number of Drives - 2) * Capacity of the Smallest Drive. A minimum of 4 drives is required.
Advantages
· RAID 6 offers excellent data redundancy.
· Provides good random read performance when using large data blocks.
· Allows for the failure of up to two drives, offering higher fault tolerance.
Disadvantages
· Write performance is slower than RAID 5 due to the overhead of dual parity calculations.
· RAID controller design is more complex.
· The second parity block reduces the total available storage capacity.
Configuration Guide
Bind and log in to the Cyber Cloud software, then navigate to the device section.
On the "Initialize New Device" page, set the language, time zone, and service region. Click Next to proceed to system pool creation.
Go to the storage pool creation section → Select Simple Mode → Choose the RAID mode (e.g., RAID 6/RAIDZ-2).
Note: Creating a storage pool will format the selected hard drives, erasing all existing data. Please ensure any important data is backed up beforehand.
RAID 60
RAID 60 combines RAID 6 and RAID 0 technologies by grouping multiple RAID 6 sets into a single RAID 0 array, achieving high-performance storage and strong data reliability.
RAID 60 distributes data across multiple RAID 6 sets using striping (RAID 0). Each RAID 6 set employs distributed dual-parity for redundancy, allowing up to two simultaneous disk failures within each set without data loss.
Example: 8 disks = 2 RAID 6 sets (each with 4 disks: 2 data + 2 parity).
Advantages
High reliability: Each RAID 6 set can withstand up to two disk failures.
Fast performance, approaching RAID 0 speeds for reads/writes.
Dual parity reduces the risk of data loss during rebuilds.
Disadvantages
Requires a minimum of 8 disks.
Low storage efficiency (approximately half of total capacity used for parity).
Note: To create a configuration similar to traditional RAID 60, create a storage pool in RAIDZ-2 mode first, then perform a "stripe expansion" (group expansion) on that pool.
Instructions for creating RAIDZ-2 mode are provided above.
Operation Guide
· Create a storage pool in RAIDZ-2 mode.
· Go to Storage Manager > Storage Pool.
· Select the system pool and find the "Stripe Expansion" (Group Expansion) option.
Setting Up RAID 6
RAIDZ-3 (Triple Parity)
RAIDZ-3 is an extended version of RAID 6. By providing triple parity in the ZFS RAID configuration, RAIDZ-3 offers the highest level of redundancy, allowing the system to tolerate up to three simultaneous drive failures.
This level of protection is unparalleled, ensuring data integrity even in the most catastrophic hardware failure scenarios.
Applicable Scenarios
- Extremely high data security requirements (critical databases, long-term archiving).
- Environments with large-capacity and numerous hard drives.
Advantages
- Can withstand the simultaneous failure of any three hard drives.
Disadvantages
- Lower storage efficiency (approximately 50%).
- Requires a minimum of 6 hard drives.
Operation Guide
- After binding and logging into the Cyber Cloud software, enter the device.
- On the "Initialize New Device" page, set the language, time zone, and service area, then click "Next" to create the system pool.
- Go to "Create Storage Pool" → select "Simple Mode" → choose the RAID mode.
Note: Creating a storage pool will format the hard drives and erase all existing data. Please back up important data beforehand.
