On Thursday 28 February 2002 04:24 pm, you wrote:
> Thanks for the info.
>
> I was under the impression by some that RAID-5 you gain read speed
> performance, but the write performance is slower because it has to get
> replicated X times depending on the # of drives in the array.  But I'll
> probably stick with this then.  Thanks again!
>

It's apparenty a lot more complicated, in part because of how the replication 
algorithms work, and when writes are actually committed and to where, which 
I'm told is a fairly complicated issue.  

In a RAID-1 setup, the information is replicated N times, (usually two, 
although you can have lots of mirrored partitions if you're really paranoid, 
or if you really get the benefit from the increased read performance) but how 
much of an actual slowdown you get, so I understand, really depends on what 
you're doing in terms of actual reads and writes.  

I'm using RAID-5 because of the combination of safety -- I can lose any one 
drive and not lose any data -- and volume, as I've got 4 20-gig RAID 
partititions, which add up to one 60-gig drive.   Then again, I'm a desktop 
user, and not running a server. 

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There's a widow in sleepy Chester
  Who weeps for her only son;
There's a grave on the Pabeng River,
  A grave that the Burmans shun,
And there's Subadar Prag Tewarri
  Who tells how the work was done.
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