[ Thanks to An Anonymous Reader for
this link. ]
“The original intent of RAID was to improve IO
performance as well as using smaller disks to create larger virtual
disks (although the phrase “virtual” disk was not
originally used, in this age of “virtual-everything” it
seems appropriate). The basic concept was then embraced and
developed from the 1987 inception to today.“RAID has evolved into a technology that is ubiquitous as
storage drives themselves. It allows system designers to add in
performance while also providing some additional data protection
(don’t forget to wear your “belt”). There are
many choices with RAID such as various RAID levels and software
and/or hardware RAID. Software RAID means the RAID functionality is
provided in software by the OS. Hardware RAID means the RAID
functionality is provided by a card, usually in a PCI or PCIe slot.
There a couple of articles that can present the pros and cons of
the various RAID options, here and here. But this article will
focus on software RAID with Linux using the md capability of
Linux”