RAID 1+0 is also known as RAID 10. RAID 10 is similar in effect to RAID 0+1, but it then reverses the RAID levels from the 0+1 configuration.
RAID 10 is a stripe of mirrors, meaning it is multiple drives arrayed in such a way to function as a stripe by distributing parity bits across several drives, and it is a mirror in that each striped disk has a double in which all of the data is copied exactly as well.
For example, RAID 10 would usually be arrayed in a fashion so that you have six hard drives. Each of these hard drives has data striped across three of those drives, and then the other three drives merely clone that data in a mirror.
The Difficulties of RAID 10 and Associated Costs
This format is quite expensive to build and maintain, requiring both several hard drives to operate, as well as very competent software based or hardware based RAID controllers to operate effectively. However, cost aside, this system is incredibly reliable and resilient against data failure. Linux has an excellent controller called the Linux Kernel RAID 10 to oversee the successful operation of such an array.
In a RAID 10 configuration, such as the one just described, it would be possible for three of the six drives to spontaneously fail at once, and the data that is allocated along these drives should still be wholly intact. While this means that performance could also be increased in hard drive reading and writing applications, the greatest asset in this scenario is the reliability.
A disadvantage to RAID 10 systems in a single computer would be the high energy and heat output, which when dealing with six or more hard drives can cause considerable heat to be expended. In addition, this is a large tax on even highly rated power supplies. If personal computing end-users hope to effectively utilize RAID 10, they must be aware of the demands this system has and prepare their systems accordingly. Those failing drives however must then be replaced, as the remaining drives are then all single points of failure which would destroy all of the data if even one of them was lost. As such, maintaining drives in this or any RAID array is paramount.
High Capacity and Speedy Writing Times
In a databases with a large amount of data and frequent access, RAID 10 is an excellent choice that allows for quicker write speeds, as it lacks the calculating parity that makes other RAIDS with parity slower.
RAID 10 is a great choice for large-scale computing operations both due to its cost and its great efficiency. Personal computing enthusiasts have also used this configuration’s many benefits, but it is often deemed a complicated and expensive system to those who are still learning their bits from their bytes.