Planning the Disk Configuration
Applies To: System Center Data Protection Manager 2010
If you are using direct-attached storage for the DPM storage pool, you can use any hardware-based configuration of redundant array of independent disks (RAID), or you can use a "just a bunch of disks" (JBOD) configuration. Do not create a software-based RAID configuration on disks that you will add to the storage pool.
To decide on the configuration for the disks, consider the relative importance of capacity, cost, reliability, and performance in your environment. For example, because JBOD does not consume disk space for storing parity data, a JBOD configuration makes maximum use of storage capacity. For the same reason, the reliability of JBOD configurations is poor; a single disk failure inevitably results in data loss.
For the typical DPM deployment, DPM recommends a RAID 5 configuration, which offers an effective compromise between capacity, cost, reliability, and performance.
To help you evaluate options for configuring the disks in your storage pool, the following table compares the trade-offs between JBOD and the various levels of RAID, on a scale from 4 (very good) to 1 (acceptable).
Comparison of Configuration Options for Storage Pool Disks
| Disk Configuration | Capacity | Cost | Reliability | Performance and Scalability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
JBOD |
4 |
4 |
1 |
4 |
RAID 0 |
4 |
4 |
1 |
4 |
RAID 1 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
3 |
RAID 5 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
3 |
RAID 10 |
1 |
1 |
4 |
4 |
For more information about RAID, see Achieving Fault Tolerance by Using RAID (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=46086).
See Also
Concepts
Calculating Capacity Requirements
Defining Custom Volumes
Planning the DPM Server Configurations