SoftRAID 5 Goes Final: High Performance RAID 5, RAID 1+0, RAID-0, RAID-1

2014-08-04 • SEND FEEDBACK |
Related: fault tolerance, Other World Computing, OWC Thunderbay, RAID, RAID scalability, RAID-0, RAID-1, RAID-10, RAID-5, SoftRAID, weather events

SoftRAID version 5 is now final.

SoftRAID 5 volume icon for RAID 1+0

I’ve been working with a beta version for some months, delivering varied feedback to the SoftRAID team. My concerns were addressed, with a few user interface suggestions pending that I’m told will be improved.

RAID-5 (striping with one drive fault tolerance) and RAID 1+0 (striped pair of mirrors) are the new standout features in SoftRAID 5. Now final and with fixes for a few issues I found during the beta test cycle, I am very impressed—

SoftRAID 5 delivers RAID-5 and RAID 1+0 performance in software that beats many hardware RAIDs and with far greater versatility across devices.

Of course, SoftRAID can format single volumes and do RAID-0 striping and RAID-1 mirrors also. I use RAID-5 and RAID-1+0 for some purposes, and RAID-0 and RAID-1 for others. For example, a neat trick is a RAID-1 mirror for 2 or more backup copies in one backup operation; these can be split apart (if desired) and updated later with “smart update‚—very cool feature.

Links and more information follow below these screen shots.

5-drive RAID-5 volume in SoftRAID 5

See also:

• About Using Software RAID
• Awesome: SoftRAID with RAID-5 rebuild
• Software RAID-5 in SoftRAID
• Software RAID Creation in SoftRAID
• Software RAID-1 Mirror in SoftRAID
• RAID 1+0 Fault Tolerance with SoftRAID 5: how and why I can configured four 3TB drives in a RAID 1+0
• Reader Questions on SoftRAID
• SoftRAID 5: RAID-5 Can Be One Huge Volume, or Partitioned to Suit
• Big Fault Tolerant Storage: OWC Now Offers a Supported and Preconfigured RAID-5 Solution via SoftRAID + Thunderbay
• OWC Thunderbay as RAID-5 or RAID 1+0 Video Storage Solution

Performance:

• Software RAID Performance with SoftRAID 5
• RAID-0 Scalability: 60TB and 12 Hard Drives in Three OWC Thunderbay 4 Enclosures
• RAID-0 Scalability with Thunderbolt 2: Separate Bus or Daisy Chain?
• Four SSDs in OWC Thunderbay 4 test with RAID-0 and RAID-5

4-drive RAID-1+0 setup with 4 volume in SoftRAID 5