Running Head: COMPUTER CONFIGURATION
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The configurations and benefits of the different RAID arrangements
Joel Nyapolla
ECPI University
Dr. Freidoon Mehrad
Computer Configuration II EET 251
ECPI’s Honor Pledge: I pledge to support the Honor System of ECPI. I will refrain from any
form of academic dishonesty or deception, such as cheating or plagiarism. I am aware that
as a member of the academic community it is my responsibility to turn in all suspected
violators of the honor code. I understand that any failure on my part to support the Honor
System will be turned over to a Judicial Review Board for determination. I will report to a
Judicial Review Board hearing if summoned.
02 Dec 2013
Running Head: COMPUTER CONFIGURATION
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The configurations and benefits of the different RAID arrangements
Part A
I have always found computers to be very fascinating machines. To elaborate this
point, allow me to explain that my grandmother is still wrapping her braining around the idea
of video chatting to her grandson who lives in a different continent. She has also become very
fond of typing letters on a word document and then printing them on single sided paper; she
still does not believe in emails or conservation of paper! My uncle who works in the media
industry has proven to be an overload to my computer. He downloads, uploads, and saves
huge files and runs applications that suck up the entire RAM and sends the CPU to use virtual
memory like no one’s business. As if this is not enough, when Christmas rolls around, my
wife’s teenage brother visits my house. With this visit comes his need to do his school
holiday projects, which involve downloading files from the Internet and saving them
uncontrollably on my desktop. Occasionally, I will run into an illegal copy of a music video
that he downloaded and cleverly hid under the pictures folder. If at this point you feel sorry
for the abuse that my computer faces, then you and I are on the same page. Shy of declaring
my computer out of bounds for anyone, I have added a strong password that even my wife
cannot crack. Hint: it includes the words Cummins Pressure Time injection pump – that car
stuff that women never seem to remember or care about! So all these bad things that have
happened to my computer had me asking if there was a better way I could protect my data
from getting erased or lost. Suppose my uncle lost all his important files due to system crash,
is there a way I could recover the data. There have been horror stories of people losing their
data due to hard drive crash or malfunctions and were unable to recover which in turn led to
loss of money. I will therefore be conducting a full research to explore the various options
available for any computer user who wants to create a redundancy system. A system that will
ensure data is protected even if the computer crashed
Running Head: COMPUTER CONFIGURATION
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The Bridge
The hard drive on a computer performs the function of saving data. This is considered
critical especially if data loss can lead to severe impact to an organization. Different
strategies such as RAID can be implemented to provide a redundancy system and ensure
critical data is recovered in the event of a system crash. While carrying out research on how
to set a hard drive as RAID, I will be seeking answers to questions such as what is RAID,
what are the advantages of this configuration, what skills are needed to perform this task,
does setting this configuration affect the system speed, and what are the limitations of this
method of data backup. To learn more about this subject, I need to conduct an online research
and find out credible sources like websites, encyclopedias etc.
PART B
The term RAID refers to Redundant Array of Independent/Inexpensive Disks. It is a method
in which data is stored in two or more hard drives and thereby, reducing the chances of losing
all information should one drive fail. In simpler terms, I call this the principle of double
redundancy – backup to a backup. After all, you and I can agree that data is of great value
when it comes to computers. Before getting in detail trying to investigate how this technology
works, I needed to find out where it is most implemented and if it is practical to employ it in
my home setting. The uses of RAID “…are commonly found in large file servers, transaction
of application servers, where data accessibility is critical, and where fault tolerance is
required.” (Berrier, 2013) This means that my uncle who works in the media industry would
be an excellent candidate for this type of technology. In addition, commercial enterprises
such as banks would find this very useful because of the large records that they handle. So
far, my research is slowly proving that the RAID technology is best reserved for large
Running Head: COMPUTER CONFIGURATION
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industries. This however is not the determining factor for me; type and cost of RAID
implementation will dictate my final conclusion.
RAID 0
This level is mainly ideal where speed is of greater essence as opposed to data loss. It can
almost be compared to a bus and a sports car. If both are used as a means of transportation, it
is likely that they will both arrive at point B but at a different time. Whichever one arrives
first earns a victory crown but in essence, both arrive at point B. This therefore, is to say that
there are no added advantages besides speed when implementing this RAID level. When I
took a closer looking at this level’s technology, I discovered that data is stored using a
process called striping. Striping in simple terms is splitting data across multiple disks and an
example is depicted in the following diagram. Imagine two typists who are both working on
the same project. They agree that they will split the work into half and
therefore, one types letters from A-M and the other N-Z. If one of the
workers looses his work, all information is lost and recovery is
impossible. When looking at this example however, one cannot help but
realize that the work done is at a way much faster rate than having it
done by just one person. This is the same case with the diagram example,
the overall data is from A1-A8, but the information is divided between the two disks for
faster performance.
RAID 1
Unlike RAID 0, this technology uses a principle called mirroring. It was really easy to
understand this concept because it could be related to real life scenarios. For instance, when
looking in the mirror, I always view the exact image of myself. This is not any different when
it comes to this RAID level. First, there has to be a minimum of two disks, which in this case
will resemble the mirror and the actual image. The idea is to duplicate data in the second disk
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every time it is being input and saved in the first disk. In the example below, data in disk 0 is
the same exact as that in disk 1. This system of data storage arrangement makes this
configuration the ultimate in safety. The disadvantage of this system
is that it takes too much storage space and makes the computer
slower because data has to be written twice. If 100GB of data is to
be saved, there has to be at least 200GB of free space in total.
However, looking on the brighter side, if one disk was to crash, all
the data can be recovered and backed up again. Without going any
further with this research, it appears that this RAID level would be the most suitable for my
home computer where speed is not exactly the primary concern.
RAID 2
After reading most forums online about this RAID technology, it seemed as though there
were a lot of flaws and unnecessary technicalities that proved this system obsolete. My
findings amounted to scarce technical information, which highlighted that in order for this
RAID to work, drives have to spin at the same angular orientation. Furthermore, dedicated
drives had to be set up for error correction. Part of the reason why this technology is not
feasible is because error correction is already implemented in modern hard disks. It is my
conclusion that this technology will not be under consideration when factoring what I want
for my home
RAID 3
This level uses a minimum of three drives to operate. Also included in this design is a parity
disk that plays a very interesting role. If data stored in one of the drives is lost, data can be
reconstructed using information in the parity disk. The major advantage of this RAID is the
fact that there is good sequential read and write.
Running Head: COMPUTER CONFIGURATION
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RAID 4
This method compares a lot to RAID 3 only that here, data is striped at a block level rather
than in bytes. There are good random reads and bad random writes because data has to be
written to the parity disk as well. RAID 3 and 4 have both seen some practical applications
unlike its counterpart RAID 2.
RAID 5
This level uses a minimum of 3 drives and seems more practical
than RAIDs 3 and 4. What makes this system so fantastic is the
fact that data striping is done at a block level with distributed
parity. In other words, there is no dedicated parity disk; parity
information is evenly distributed across all disks. This system
“supports multiple simultaneous reads and writes; can also be
optimized for large, sequential requests.” (Enhance Technology, 2012)
RAID 6
I personally thought that this would be an ideal system to implement if money was not a
factor. RAID 6 utilizes 4 drives but uses the same principles as those discussed in RAID 5.
The major difference is two drives as opposed to one can fail and still be reconstructed using
parity. There are also two levels of parity
distributed across each drive, which makes it
slow to write data.
Running Head: COMPUTER CONFIGURATION
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PART C
After finalizing this research, I have been left with adequate information to decide which
RAID I would like to implement at home. However, I would like to first point out that some
of the conclusion that I drew from RAID 2 were not adequate. Online research rendered
RAID level 2 obsolete and impractical. There were also not enough technical data to support
the idea behind the technology and therefore, I will at a later date, conduct a more intensive
research to solve the puzzle. I still however, feel like I had enough options on the table to
draw a conclusion. For now, I think I will implement RAID 1 because the idea of having
absolute backup is great. I typically type papers and save a lot of documents on my computer;
if I happen loose any of it, I will have lost time, and money. Implementing this technology
ensures that in the event data is lost on one drive; it can be recovered on the other. One of the
things that I will be sacrificing on is speed because it takes a longer time to write on two
drives. Most people who have this technology say that unless speed is of great essence,
system performance is not greatly affected. In addition, since data is duplicated using the
concept called mirroring, storage space will be cut into half. After careful thought, I think this
is an easy fix because today’s market offers HDD that can store Tera-Bytes of data. If I invest
in one of these, I can be sure to make it last before the disk gets full. This research was a
complete success and the technologies were also mind blowing. I am looking forward to test
the theories and observe the findings.
Works Cited
(Duncan), M. (2013, September 9). What is RAID 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 10 (1+0)? Retrieved
December 01, 2013, from You Tube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTcxRObq738
Berrier, J. (2013, December 01). RAID Technologies. (J. Nyapolla, Interviewer)
Enhance Technology. (2012, 12 12). What is RAID. Retrieved 12 2, 2013, from Enhance
Technology: www.enhance-tech.com/support/what-is-raid.html
Meyers, M. (2010). CompTIA A+ Certification. Houston: McGraw Hill.