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I've purchased a new dedicated server with 2 x 240GB SSD drive, and installed Ubuntu 16.04 image from the provider's control panel which by default creates the software RAID 1.

I also installed Webmin on this server and after looking at the Webmin's system info screen I understand that I'm only getting 204GB free disk space to use.

Webmin Screenshot

After reading through few articles, I understand that RAID 1 mirrors Disk 1 with Disk 2 for better data security and faster disk performance.

Now my questions are:

  1. Is it RAID 1 which consumes half of my disk space (entire Disk 2)?
  2. I regularly backup my data on Amazon S3, do I still need RAID 1?
  3. Why not just go with RAID 0, will it make any performance degradation?
techraf
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Jani
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  • I would not perse say that your question is a duplicate of this one, but its answer also answers most of your questions: http://serverfault.com/questions/339128/what-are-the-different-widely-used-raid-levels-and-when-should-i-consider-them As to 'do I also need backup`: Yes yes yes yes yes! And no backup is a proper backup until you have tested it and have at least one off-site copy. – Hennes Aug 21 '16 at 14:02

2 Answers2

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  1. RAID 1 is a disk mirroring, you lose 50% of your Disks.
  2. I depends on you, RAID 1 is not a replacement for Backups.
  3. RAID 0 is faster than RAID 1.

Regards Tim

timrose
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1. Is it RAID 1 which consumes half of my disk space (entire Disk 2)?

Yes, 1 disk is mirrored (synchronized) to the other.

2. I regularly backup my data on Amazon S3, do I still need RAID 1?

No, you only need RAID 1 if you decide you need it. It provides redundancy in case of disk failure and read performance. It cannot be compared to a backup solution.

3. Why not just go with RAID 0, will it make any performance degradation?

You can if you want. RAID 0 will have similar read speed to RAID 1 and faster write speed because it uses both disks for writes. You won't lose 50% of your space this way either, but you will not be able to tolerate a disk failure.

Ryan Babchishin
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