MacPro 2013
Sierra 10.12.5
Thunderbay 4 16TB
SoftRAID Lite
After certifying, initializing, and creating a RAID 1 volume with SoftRAID Easy Setup, the available capacity of the volume was indicated to be 4 TB.
I was expecting a total capacity of 8 TB, being under the impression that RAID 1 mirroring reduces capacity by 50%. Is this incorrect?
I need up to 8 TB of storage, and with SoftRAID Lite was able to create two 2-disk RAID 1 volumes of 4 TB capacity each, but I don't imagine this is the most efficient/effective solution available here.
Did I miss something in my initial set-up that would have allowed a single volume with 8 TB capacity? Is this possibly a limitation of the Lite version of SoftRAID?
Any help would be much appreciated.
-SJJ
RAID 1 is a Mirror, all partitions are identical. SoftRAID supports multiple disks per mirror.
I think you were hoping for RAID 1+0, which is striped mirrors, and would give you 8TB of capacity.
that feature is not available in Lite, it is in the full product.
Ah, I see.
Would you be able to tell me what the differences in security and performance would be between a single 4-disk RAID 1+0 volume and my current configuration of a pair of 2-disk RAID 1 volumes?
I am happy to upgrade for the RAID 1+0 option in order to attain 8TB storage, but I'm interested in maximizing security over performance, and I wonder if a pair of 2-disk RAID 1 volumes would be more secure than one striped RAID 1+0 volume.
Thanks!
-SJJ
By Security I presume you mean reliability
A Mirror is the simplest RAID level and easiest to recover from when there is a problem.
A RAID 1+0 has much better performance, and can handle up to two disk failures, but is not as "recoverable" in the event of a disaster, as a simple RAID 1 volume would be.
So in your case, a pair or Mirror volumes may be better.
Got it, thank you!