Supported RAID levels

A Linear RAID array combines all hard disks into one large virtual disk. The total space available in this option is the capacity of all disks used. There is very little performance change when using this RAID format. If any of the drives fails, the entire set of drives is unusable until the faulty drive is replaced. All data will be lost.

A RAID 0 array is also referred to as striping. The FortiManager unit writes information evenly across all hard disks. The total space available is that of all the disks in the RAID array. There is no redundancy available. If any single drive fails, the data on that drive cannot be recovered. This RAID level is beneficial because it provides better performance, since the FortiManager unit can distribute disk writing across multiple disks.

A RAID 1 array is also referred to as mirroring. The FortiManager unit writes information to one hard disk, and writes a copy (a mirror image) of all information to all other hard disks. The total disk space available is that of only one hard disk, as the others are solely used for mirroring. This provides redundant data storage with no single point of failure. Should any of the hard disks fail, there are several backup hard disks available.

A RAID 1 with hot spare array uses one of the hard disks as a hot spare (a stand-by disk for the RAID). If a hard disk fails, within a minute of the failure, the hot spare is substituted for the failed drive, integrating it into the RAID array, and rebuilding the RAID’s data. When you replace the failed hard disk, the new hard disk is used as the new hot spare. The total disk space available is the total number of disks minus two.

A RAID 5 array employs striping with a parity check. Similar to RAID 0, the FortiManager unit writes information evenly across all drives but additional parity blocks are written on the same stripes. The parity block is staggered for each stripe. The total disk space is the total number of disks in the array, minus one disk for parity storage. For example, with four hard disks, the total capacity available is actually the total for three hard disks. RAID 5 performance is typically better with reading than with writing, although performance is degraded when one disk has failed or is missing. With RAID 5, one disk can fail without the loss of data. If a drive fails, it can be replaced and the FortiManager unit will restore the data on the new disk by using reference information from the parity volume.

A RAID 5 with hot spare array uses one of the hard disks as a hot spare (a stand-by disk for the RAID). If a hard disk fails, within a minute of the failure, the hot spare is substituted for the failed drive, integrating it into the RAID array, and rebuilding the RAID’s data. When you replace the failed hard disk, the new hard disk is used as the new hot spare. The total disk space available is the total number of disks minus two.

A RAID 6 array is the same as a RAID 5 array with an additional parity block. It uses block-level striping with two parity blocks distributed across all member disks.

A RAID 6 with hot spare array is the same as a RAID 5 with hot spare array with an additional parity block.

RAID 10 (or 1+0), includes nested RAID levels 1 and 0, or a stripe (RAID 0) of mirrors (RAID 1). The total disk space available is the total number of disks in the array (a minimum of 4) divided by 2, for example:

One drive from a RAID 1 array can fail without the loss of data; however, should the other drive in the RAID 1 array fail, all data will be lost. In this situation, it is important to replace a failed drive as quickly as possible.

RAID 50 (or 5+0) includes nested RAID levels 5 and 0, or a stripe (RAID 0) and stripe with parity (RAID 5). The total disk space available is the total number of disks minus the number of RAID 5 sub-arrays. RAID 50 provides increased performance and also ensures no data loss for the same reasons as RAID 5. One drive in each RAID 5 array can fail without the loss of data.