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When you are planning for data backup, you have to consider the financial feasibility along with the technical feasibility of the method. The huge increase in data volume is posing a serious challenge to effectively plan for data recovery by backing up entire data on suitable media. It is now impractical to store entire systems of hard drives on non-volatile media like tape. Even if you want to maintain a weekly cyclic backup of the servers with few hard drives it would be far from feasible from the financial aspect of the business.

Since data backup is necessary to ensure that the business experiences the least disruptions when data becomes inaccessible, you simply cannot afford to compromise on proper data backup and recovery solutions.  In order to maintain business continuity, no matter how difficult it might appear to implement the proper Philadelphia data recovery plan, you have to think of the most plausible solution that meets the business requirements without burning holes in your pocket. To avoid any catastrophe arising from data loss and data inaccessibility that brings the business to a grinding halt, the RAID data recovery is a much acceptable solution.  What the solution is all about, how it works and the different levels of RAID recovery would become clear on reading this article.

Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks – RAID

RAID or Redundant Array of inexpensive disks is a system of backing up data on multiple drives simultaneous so that it acts as a unitary storage volume.  You can configure RAID in various ways by using the controller that helps to manage the operations on the hard drive.

• When writing or reading large blocks of data, you can stripe data across several drives at the same time concurrently so that performance increase two or many more times.
• You can also make RAID mirror data across several drives so that there is an exact copy of the same data in each array of the system.
• It is possible to generate parity blocks on every drive in the array so that it is possible to retrieve the lost data in case the drive fails while the array can keep running while you are rebuilding the failed drive.

You can make use of RAID in different ways by organizing data through mirroring, stripping and creating parity blocks or by using a combination of the three. RAID is a solution that protects your data and helps to continue operations while you engage in the process of rebuilding data after a disk failure. According to the professionals, RAID not only creates better data protection but also adds to the server speed.

RAID storage techniques

• Stripping –You can split the data flow into blocks of a specific size and then write these blocks one by one on the RAID. However, be ready to sacrifice performance in the process.
• Mirroring – This is a storage technique that allows you to store identical data simultaneously on the RAID members. This method affects the performance as well as the fault tolerance.
• Parity–Striping and checksum methods are utilized in this method of data storage. In this method, you have to calculate a certain parity function for the data blocks. In case of a drive failure, it is possible to recalculate the missing block that provides the RAID fault tolerance.

The benefits and features of RAID would become clear on understanding the different RAID levels

RAID 0 – Stripping

If you have two hard drives, you can think about implementing RAID 0. The controller does the data splitting in equal proportions across the hard drives. During reading and writing operations, the drives work together simultaneously, thereby increasing the speed of the volume many times than a single hard disk. Although RAID 0 enhances server performance, failure of any one drive can result in total data loss.

RAID 1 – Mirroring

Every drive in RAID 1 array consists of the same information, and the controllers write data simultaneously on all drives. Data redundancy is excellent and data survival rate is very high because unless all drives fail, there is no fear of losing data. RAID 1 is capable of increasing the read performance of the server.  Data retrieval in response to the request from the controller is very fast because the drive that has the easiest access to data retrieves it.

RAID 5 – Parity

RAID 5 is similar to RAID 0 in that it stripes the data across several drives but in addition, every hard drive carries parity data for each written block.  With the help of the parity block, it is possible for the controller to build to rebuild the entire array when one drive fails while the array keeps working during the rebuilding phase.

With RAID recovery system in place, you never have to worry about data becoming inaccessible.

About the author:

Sujain Thomas is the IT Head of a multinational corporation.  Prior to joining the corporate sector, she had served as a consultant for companies like American Tech Pros (https://americantechpros.com/). Software development is her special area of interest.