Storage Management

Storage Management is defined as it refers to the management of the data

storage equipment’s that are used to store the user/computer generated data.
Hence it is a tool or set of processes used by an administrator to keep your data
and storage equipment’s safe. Storage management is a process for users to
optimize the use of storage devices and to protect the integrity of data for any
media on which it resides and the category of storage management generally
contain the different type of subcategories covering aspects such as security,
virtualization and more, as well as different types of provisioning or automation,
which is generally made up the entire storage management software market.
Storage management key attributes: Storage management has some key
attribute which is generally used to manage the storage capacity of the system.
These are given below:
1. Performance
2. Reliability
3. Recoverability
4. Capacity
Feature of Storage management: There is some feature of storage management
which is provided for storage capacity. These are given below:
1. Storage management is a process that is used to optimize the use of storage
devices.
2. Storage management must be allocated and managed as a resource in order to
truly benefit a corporation.
3. Storage management is generally a basic system component of information
systems.
4. It is used to improve the performance of their data storage resources.
Advantage of storage management: There are some advantage of storage
management which are given below:
 It becomes very simple to manage a storage capacity.
 It generally reduces the time consumption.
 It improves the performance of system.
 In virtualization and automation technologies, it can help an organization
improve its agility.
Limitations of storage management:
 Limited physical storage capacity: Operating systems can only manage the
physical storage space that is available, and as such, there is a limit to how
much data can be stored.
 Performance degradation with increased storage utilization: As more data is
stored, the system’s performance can decrease due to increased disk access
time, fragmentation, and other factors.
 Complexity of storage management: Storage management can be complex,
especially as the size of the storage environment grows.
 Cost: Storing large amounts of data can be expensive, and the cost of
additional storage capacity can add up quickly.
 Security issues: Storing sensitive data can also present security risks, and the
operating system must have robust security features in place to prevent
unauthorized access to this data.
 Backup and Recovery: Backup and recovery of data can also be challenging,
especially if the data is stored on multiple systems or devices.

File Systems in Operating System

A computer file is defined as a medium used for saving and managing data in the
computer system. The data stored in the computer system is completely in digital
format, although there can be various types of files that help us to store the data.
What is a File System?
A file system is a method an operating system uses to store, organize, and
manage files and directories on a storage device. Some common types of file
systems include:
1. FAT (File Allocation Table): An older file system used by older versions of
Windows and other operating systems.
2. NTFS (New Technology File System): A modern file system used by
Windows. It supports features such as file and folder permissions,
compression, and encryption.
3. ext (Extended File System): A file system commonly used on Linux and
Unix-based operating systems.
4. HFS (Hierarchical File System): A file system used by macOS.
5. APFS (Apple File System): A new file system introduced by Apple for their
Macs and iOS devices.
A file is a collection of related information that is recorded on secondary storage.
Or file is a collection of logically related entities. From the user’s perspective, a
file is the smallest allotment of logical secondary storage.
The name of the file is divided into two parts as shown below:
 name
 extension, separated by a period.
Issues Handled By File System
We’ve seen a variety of data structures where the file could be kept. The file
system’s job is to keep the files organized in the best way possible.
A free space is created on the hard drive whenever a file is deleted from it. To
reallocate them to other files, many of these spaces may need to be recovered.
Choosing where to store the files on the hard disc is the main issue with files one
block may or may not be used to store a file. It may be kept in the disk’s non-
contiguous blocks. We must keep track of all the blocks where the files are
partially located.
Files Attributes And Their Operations
Attributes Types Operations

Name Doc Create

Type Exe Open

Size Jpg Read

Creation Data Xis Write

Author C Append

Last Modified Java Truncate

protection class Delete

Close

File type Usual extension Function

Read to run machine

Executable exe, com, bin
language program

Compiled, machine
Object obj, o
language not linked
 File type Usual extension Function

Source code in various

Source Code C, java, pas, asm, a
languages

Commands to the
Batch bat, sh
command interpreter

Text txt, doc Textual data, documents

Various word processor

Word Processor wp, tex, rrf, doc
formats

Related files grouped

Archive arc, zip, tar
into one compressed file

For containing
Multimedia mpeg, mov, rm
audio/video information

It is the textual data and

Markup xml, html, tex
documents

It contains libraries of
Library lib, a ,so, dll
routines for programmers

It is a format for printing

Print or View gif, pdf, jpg or viewing an ASCII or
binary file.
File Directories
The collection of files is a file directory. The directory contains information about
the files, including attributes, location, and ownership. Much of this information,
especially that is concerned with storage, is managed by the operating system.
The directory is itself a file, accessible by various file management routines.
Below are information contained in a device directory.
 Name
 Type
 Address
 Current length
 Maximum length
 Date last accessed
 Date last updated
 Owner id
 Protection information
The operation performed on the directory are:
 Search for a file
 Create a file
 Delete a file
 List a directory
 Rename a file
 Traverse the file system
Advantages of Maintaining Directories
 Efficiency: A file can be located more quickly.
 Naming: It becomes convenient for users as two users can have same name
for different files or may have different name for same file.
 Grouping: Logical grouping of files can be done by properties e.g. all java
programs, all games etc.
Single-Level Directory
In this, a single directory is maintained for all the users.
 Naming problem: Users cannot have the same name for two files.
 Grouping problem: Users cannot group files according to their needs.

Two-Level Directory
In this separate directories for each user is maintained.
 Path name: Due to two levels there is a path name for every file to locate that
file.
 Now, we can have the same file name for different users.
 Searching is efficient in this method.

Tree-Structured Directory
The directory is maintained in the form of a tree. Searching is efficient and also
there is grouping capability. We have absolute or relative path name for a file.
File Allocation Methods
There are several types of file allocation methods. These are mentioned below.
 Continuous Allocation
 Linked Allocation(Non-contiguous allocation)
 Indexed Allocation
Continuous Allocation
A single continuous set of blocks is allocated to a file at the time of file creation.
Thus, this is a pre-allocation strategy, using variable size portions. The file
allocation table needs just a single entry for each file, showing the starting block
and the length of the file. This method is best from the point of view of the
individual sequential file. Multiple blocks can be read in at a time to improve I/O
performance for sequential processing. It is also easy to retrieve a single block.
For example, if a file starts at block b, and the ith block of the file is wanted, its
location on secondary storage is simply b+i-1.
Disadvantages of Continuous Allocation
 External fragmentation will occur, making it difficult to find contiguous
blocks of space of sufficient length. A compaction algorithm will be necessary
to free up additional space on the disk.
 Also, with pre-allocation, it is necessary to declare the size of the file at the
time of creation.
Linked Allocation(Non-Contiguous Allocation)
Allocation is on an individual block basis. Each block contains a pointer to the
next block in the chain. Again the file table needs just a single entry for each file,
showing the starting block and the length of the file. Although pre-allocation is
possible, it is more common simply to allocate blocks as needed. Any free block
can be added to the chain. The blocks need not be continuous. An increase in file
size is always possible if a free disk block is available. There is no external
fragmentation because only one block at a time is needed but there can be internal
fragmentation but it exists only in the last disk block of the file.
Disadvantage Linked Allocation(Non-contiguous allocation)
 Internal fragmentation exists in the last disk block of the file.
 There is an overhead of maintaining the pointer in every disk block.
 If the pointer of any disk block is lost, the file will be truncated.
 It supports only the sequential access of files.
Indexed Allocation
It addresses many of the problems of contiguous and chained allocation. In this
case, the file allocation table contains a separate one-level index for each file:
The index has one entry for each block allocated to the file. The allocation may
be on the basis of fixed-size blocks or variable-sized blocks. Allocation by blocks
eliminates external fragmentation, whereas allocation by variable-size blocks
improves locality. This allocation technique supports both sequential and direct
access to the file and thus is the most popular form of file allocation.
Disk Free Space Management
Just as the space that is allocated to files must be managed, so the space that is
not currently allocated to any file must be managed. To perform any of the file
allocation techniques, it is necessary to know what blocks on the disk are
available. Thus we need a disk allocation table in addition to a file allocation
table. The following are the approaches used for free space management.
1. Bit Tables: This method uses a vector containing one bit for each block on the
disk. Each entry for a 0 corresponds to a free block and each 1 corresponds to
a block in use.
For example 00011010111100110001
In this vector every bit corresponds to a particular block and 0 implies that that
particular block is free and 1 implies that the block is already occupied. A bit
table has the advantage that it is relatively easy to find one or a contiguous
group of free blocks. Thus, a bit table works well with any of the file
allocation methods. Another advantage is that it is as small as possible.
2. Free Block List: In this method, each block is assigned a number sequentially
and the list of the numbers of all free blocks is maintained in a reserved block
of the disk.
 Advantages of File System
 Organization: A file system allows files to be organized into directories and
subdirectories, making it easier to manage and locate files.
 Data protection: File systems often include features such as file and folder
permissions, backup and restore, and error detection and correction, to protect
data from loss or corruption.
 Improved performance: A well-designed file system can improve the
performance of reading and writing data by organizing it efficiently on disk.
Disadvantages of File System
 Compatibility issues: Different file systems may not be compatible with each
other, making it difficult to transfer data between different operating systems.
 Disk space overhead: File systems may use some disk space to store
metadata and other overhead information, reducing the amount of space
available for user data.
 Vulnerability: File systems can be vulnerable to data corruption, malware,
and other security threats, which can compromise the stability and security of
the system.

File Allocation Methods


The allocation methods define how the files are stored in the disk blocks. There are
three main disk space or file allocation methods.
 Contiguous Allocation
 Linked Allocation
 Indexed Allocation
The main idea behind these methods is to provide:
 Efficient disk space utilization.
 Fast access to the file blocks.
All the three methods have their own advantages and disadvantages as discussed
below:
1. Contiguous Allocation
In this scheme, each file occupies a contiguous set of blocks on the disk. For
example, if a file requires n blocks and is given a block b as the starting location,
then the blocks assigned to the file will be: b, b+1, b+2,……b+n-1. This means
that given the starting block address and the length of the file (in terms of blocks
required), we can determine the blocks occupied by the file.
The directory entry for a file with contiguous allocation contains
 Address of starting block
 Length of the allocated portion.
The file ‘mail’ in the following figure starts from the block 19 with length = 6
blocks. Therefore, it occupies 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 blocks.

Advantages:
 Both the Sequential and Direct Accesses are supported by this. For direct
access, the address of the kth block of the file which starts at block b can
easily be obtained as (b+k).
 This is extremely fast since the number of seeks are minimal because of
contiguous allocation of file blocks.
Disadvantages:
 This method suffers from both internal and external fragmentation. This
makes it inefficient in terms of memory utilization.
 Increasing file size is difficult because it depends on the availability of
contiguous memory at a particular instance.
 2. Linked List Allocation
 In this scheme, each file is a linked list of disk blocks which need not
be contiguous. The disk blocks can be scattered anywhere on the disk.
The directory entry contains a pointer to the starting and the ending file
block. Each block contains a pointer to the next block occupied by the file.
  The file ‘jeep’ in following image shows how the blocks are randomly
distributed. The last block (25) contains -1 indicating a null pointer and
does not point to any other block.

Advantages:
 This is very flexible in terms of file size. File size can be increased easily
since the system does not have to look for a contiguous chunk of memory.
 This method does not suffer from external fragmentation. This makes it
relatively better in terms of memory utilization.
Disadvantages:
 Because the file blocks are distributed randomly on the disk, a large number of
seeks are needed to access every block individually. This makes linked
allocation slower.
 It does not support random or direct access. We can not directly access the
blocks of a file. A block k of a file can be accessed by traversing k blocks
sequentially (sequential access ) from the starting block of the file via block
pointers.
 Pointers required in the linked allocation incur some extra overhead.
3. Indexed Allocation
In this scheme, a special block known as the Index block contains the pointers to
all the blocks occupied by a file. Each file has its own index block. The ith entry
in the index block contains the disk address of the ith file block. The directory
entry contains the address of the index block as shown in the image:
Advantages:
 This supports direct access to the blocks occupied by the file and therefore
provides fast access to the file blocks.
 It overcomes the problem of external fragmentation.
Disadvantages:
 The pointer overhead for indexed allocation is greater than linked allocation.
 For very small files, say files that expand only 2-3 blocks, the indexed
allocation would keep one entire block (index block) for the pointers which is
inefficient in terms of memory utilization. However, in linked allocation we
lose the space of only 1 pointer per block.
For files that are very large, single index block may not be able to hold all the
pointers.
Following mechanisms can be used to resolve this:
1. Linked scheme: This scheme links two or more index blocks together for
holding the pointers. Every index block would then contain a pointer or the
address to the next index block.
2. Multilevel index: In this policy, a first level index block is used to point to
the second level index blocks which inturn points to the disk blocks occupied
by the file. This can be extended to 3 or more levels depending on the
maximum file size.
3. Combined Scheme: In this scheme, a special block called the Inode
(information Node) contains all the information about the file such as the
name, size, authority, etc and the remaining space of Inode is used to store the
 Disk Block addresses which contain the actual file as shown in the image
below. The first few of these pointers in Inode point to the direct blocks i.e
the pointers contain the addresses of the disk blocks that contain data of the
file. The next few pointers point to indirect blocks. Indirect blocks may be
single indirect, double indirect or triple indirect. Single Indirect block is the
disk block that does not contain the file data but the disk address of the blocks
that contain the file data. Similarly, double indirect blocks do not contain the
file data but the disk address of the blocks that contain the address of the
blocks containing the file data.

Free space management in Operating System

Introduction:

Free space management is a critical aspect of operating systems as it involves

managing the available storage space on the hard disk or other secondary storage
devices. The operating system uses various techniques to manage free space and
optimize the use of storage devices. Here are some of the commonly used free
space management techniques:
1. Linked Allocation: In this technique, each file is represented by a linked list of
disk blocks. When a file is created, the operating system finds enough free
 space on the disk and links the blocks of the file to form a chain. This method
is simple to implement but can lead to fragmentation and wastage of space.
2. Contiguous Allocation: In this technique, each file is stored as a contiguous
block of disk space. When a file is created, the operating system finds a
contiguous block of free space and assigns it to the file. This method is
efficient as it minimizes fragmentation but suffers from the problem of
external fragmentation.
3. Indexed Allocation: In this technique, a separate index block is used to store
the addresses of all the disk blocks that make up a file. When a file is created,
the operating system creates an index block and stores the addresses of all the
blocks in the file. This method is efficient in terms of storage space and
minimizes fragmentation.
4. File Allocation Table (FAT): In this technique, the operating system uses a
file allocation table to keep track of the location of each file on the disk. When
a file is created, the operating system updates the file allocation table with the
address of the disk blocks that make up the file. This method is widely used in
Microsoft Windows operating systems.
5. Volume Shadow Copy: This is a technology used in Microsoft Windows
operating systems to create backup copies of files or entire volumes. When a
file is modified, the operating system creates a shadow copy of the file and
stores it in a separate location. This method is useful for data recovery and
protection against accidental file deletion.
Overall, free space management is a crucial function of operating systems, as it
ensures that storage devices are utilized efficiently and effectively.
The system keeps tracks of the free disk blocks for allocating space to files when
they are created. Also, to reuse the space released from deleting the files, free
space management becomes crucial. The system maintains a free space list which
keeps track of the disk blocks that are not allocated to some file or directory. The
free space list can be implemented mainly as:
1. Bitmap or Bit vector – A Bitmap or Bit Vector is series or collection of bits
where each bit corresponds to a disk block. The bit can take two values: 0 and
1: 0 indicates that the block is allocated and 1 indicates a free block. The
given instance of disk blocks on the disk in Figure 1 (where green blocks are
 allocated) can be represented by a bitmap of 16 bits as: 0000111000000110.

Advantages –
 Simple to understand.
 Finding the first free block is efficient. It requires scanning the words (a
group of 8 bits) in a bitmap for a non-zero word. (A 0-valued word has all
bits 0). The first free block is then found by scanning for the first 1 bit in
the non-zero word.
2. Linked List – In this approach, the free disk blocks are linked together i.e. a
free block contains a pointer to the next free block. The block number of the
 very first disk block is stored at a separate location on disk and is also cached

in memory.
3. In Figure-2, the free space list head points to Block 5 which points to Block 6,
the next free block and so on. The last free block would contain a null pointer
indicating the end of free list. A drawback of this method is the I/O required
for free space list traversal.
4. Grouping – This approach stores the address of the free blocks in the first free
block. The first free block stores the address of some, say n free blocks. Out of
these n blocks, the first n-1 blocks are actually free and the last block contains
the address of next free n blocks. An advantage of this approach is that the
addresses of a group of free disk blocks can be found easily.
5. Counting – This approach stores the address of the first free disk block and a
number n of free contiguous disk blocks that follow the first block. Every
entry in the list would contain:
1. Address of first free disk block
2. A number n
Here are some advantages and disadvantages of free space management
techniques in operating systems:

Advantages:

1. Efficient use of storage space: Free space management techniques help to

optimize the use of storage space on the hard disk or other secondary storage
devices.
2. Easy to implement: Some techniques, such as linked allocation, are simple to
implement and require less overhead in terms of processing and memory
resources.
3. Faster access to files: Techniques such as contiguous allocation can help to
reduce disk fragmentation and improve access time to files.

Disadvantages:

1. Fragmentation: Techniques such as linked allocation can lead to fragmentation

of disk space, which can decrease the efficiency of storage devices.
2. Overhead: Some techniques, such as indexed allocation, require additional
overhead in terms of memory and processing resources to maintain index
blocks.
3. Limited scalability: Some techniques, such as FAT, have limited scalability in
terms of the number of files that can be stored on the disk.
4. Risk of data loss: In some cases, such as with contiguous allocation, if a file
becomes corrupted or damaged, it may be difficult to recover the data.
5. Overall, the choice of free space management technique depends on the
specific requirements of the operating system and the storage devices being
used. While some techniques may offer advantages in terms of efficiency and
speed, they may also have limitations and drawbacks that need to be
considered.
RAID (Redundant Arrays of Independent Disks)
AID is a technique that makes use of a combination of multiple disks instead of
using a single disk for increased performance, data redundancy, or both. The term
was coined by David Patterson, Garth A. Gibson, and Randy Katz at the
University of California, Berkeley in 1987.
Why Data Redundancy?
Data redundancy, although taking up extra space, adds to disk reliability. This
means, that in case of disk failure, if the same data is also backed up onto another
disk, we can retrieve the data and go on with the operation. On the other hand, if
the data is spread across multiple disks without the RAID technique, the loss of a
single disk can affect the entire data.
Key Evaluation Points for a RAID System
 Reliability: How many disk faults can the system tolerate?
 Availability: What fraction of the total session time is a system in uptime
mode, i.e. how available is the system for actual use?
 Performance: How good is the response time? How high is the throughput
(rate of processing work)? Note that performance contains a lot of parameters
and not just the two.
 Capacity: Given a set of N disks each with B blocks, how much useful
capacity is available to the user?
RAID is very transparent to the underlying system. This means, that to the host
system, it appears as a single big disk presenting itself as a linear array of blocks.
This allows older technologies to be replaced by RAID without making too many
changes to the existing code.
Different RAID Levels
1. RAID-0 (Stripping)
2. RAID-1 (Mirroring)
3. RAID-2 (Bit-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)
4. RAID-3 (Byte-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)
5. RAID-4 (Block-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)
6. RAID-5 (Block-Level Stripping with Distributed Parity)
7. RAID-6 (Block-Level Stripping with two Parity Bits)

Raid Controller
1. RAID-0 (Stripping)
 Blocks are “stripped” across disks.

RAID-0

 In the figure, blocks “0,1,2,3” form a stripe.

 Instead of placing just one block into a disk at a time, we can work with two
(or more) blocks placed into a disk before moving on to the next one.

Raid-0
Evaluation
 Reliability: 0
There is no duplication of data. Hence, a block once lost cannot be recovered.
 Capacity: N*B
The entire space is being used to store data. Since there is no duplication, N
disks each having B blocks are fully utilized.
Advantages
1. It is easy to implement.
2. It utilizes the storage capacity in a better way.
Disadvantages
1. A single drive loss can result in the complete failure of the system.
2. Not a good choice for a critical system.
2. RAID-1 (Mirroring)
 More than one copy of each block is stored in a separate disk. Thus, every
block has two (or more) copies, lying on different disks.

Raid-1

 The above figure shows a RAID-1 system with mirroring level 2.

 RAID 0 was unable to tolerate any disk failure. But RAID 1 is capable of
reliability.
Evaluation
Assume a RAID system with mirroring level 2.
 Reliability: 1 to N/2
1 disk failure can be handled for certain because blocks of that disk would
have duplicates on some other disk. If we are lucky enough and disks 0 and 2
fail, then again this can be handled as the blocks of these disks have duplicates
on disks 1 and 3. So, in the best case, N/2 disk failures can be handled.
 Capacity: N*B/2
Only half the space is being used to store data. The other half is just a mirror
of the already stored data.
Advantages
1. It covers complete redundancy.
2. It can increase data security and speed.
Disadvantages
1. It is highly expensive.
2. Storage capacity is less.
3. RAID-2 (Bit-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)
 In Raid-2, the error of the data is checked at every bit level. Here, we
use Hamming Code Parity Method to find the error in the data.
 It uses one designated drive to store parity.
 The structure of Raid-2 is very complex as we use two disks in this technique.
One word is used to store bits of each word and another word is used to store
error code correction.
 It is not commonly used.
Advantages
1. In case of Error Correction, it uses hamming code.
2. It Uses one designated drive to store parity.
Disadvantages
1. It has a complex structure and high cost due to extra drive.
2. It requires an extra drive for error detection.
4. RAID-3 (Byte-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)
 It consists of byte-level striping with dedicated parity striping.
 At this level, we store parity information in a disc section and write to a
dedicated parity drive.
 Whenever failure of the drive occurs, it helps in accessing the parity drive,
through which we can reconstruct the data.
 Raid-3

 Here Disk 3 contains the Parity bits for Disk 0, Disk 1, and Disk 2. If data loss
occurs, we can construct it with Disk 3.
Advantages
1. Data can be transferred in bulk.
2. Data can be accessed in parallel.
Disadvantages
1. It requires an additional drive for parity.
2. In the case of small-size files, it performs slowly.
5. RAID-4 (Block-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)
 Instead of duplicating data, this adopts a parity-based approach.
 Raid-4

 In the figure, we can observe one column (disk) dedicated to parity.

 Parity is calculated using a simple XOR function. If the data bits are 0,0,0,1
the parity bit is XOR(0,0,0,1) = 1. If the data bits are 0,1,1,0 the parity bit is
XOR(0,1,1,0) = 0. A simple approach is that an even number of ones results in
parity 0, and an odd number of ones results in parity 1.

Raid-4
 Assume that in the above figure, C3 is lost due to some disk failure. Then, we
can recompute the data bit stored in C3 by looking at the values of all the
other columns and the parity bit. This allows us to recover lost data.
Evaluation
 Reliability: 1
RAID-4 allows recovery of at most 1 disk failure (because of the way parity
works). If more than one disk fails, there is no way to recover the data.
 Capacity: (N-1)*B
One disk in the system is reserved for storing the parity. Hence, (N-1) disks
are made available for data storage, each disk having B blocks.
Advantages
1. It helps in reconstructing the data if at most one data is lost.
Disadvantages
1. It can’t help in reconstructing when more than one data is lost.
6. RAID-5 (Block-Level Stripping with Distributed Parity)
 This is a slight modification of the RAID-4 system where the only difference
is that the parity rotates among the drives.

Raid-5

 In the figure, we can notice how the parity bit “rotates”.

 This was introduced to make the random write performance better.
Evaluation
 Reliability: 1
RAID-5 allows recovery of at most 1 disk failure (because of the way parity
works). If more than one disk fails, there is no way to recover the data. This is
identical to RAID-4.
 Capacity: (N-1)*B
Overall, space equivalent to one disk is utilized in storing the parity. Hence,
(N-1) disks are made available for data storage, each disk having B blocks.
Advantages
1. Data can be reconstructed using parity bits.
2. It makes the performance better.
Disadvantages
1. Its technology is complex and extra space is required.
2. If both discs get damaged, data will be lost forever.
7. RAID-6 (Block-Level Stripping with two Parity Bits)
 Raid-6 helps when there is more than one disk failure. A pair of independent
parities are generated and stored on multiple disks at this level. Ideally, you
need four disk drives for this level.
 There are also hybrid RAIDs, which make use of more than one RAID level
nested one after the other, to fulfill specific requirements.

Raid-6
Advantages
1. Very high data Accessibility.
2. Fast read data transactions.
Disadvantages
1. Due to double parity, it has slow write data transactions.
2. Extra space is required.
Advantages of RAID
 Data redundancy: By keeping numerous copies of the data on many disks,
RAID can shield data from disk failures.
 Performance enhancement: RAID can enhance performance by distributing
data over several drives, enabling the simultaneous execution of
several read/write operations.
 Scalability: RAID is scalable, therefore by adding more disks to the array, the
storage capacity may be expanded.
 Versatility: RAID is applicable to a wide range of devices, such as
workstations, servers, and personal PCs
Disadvantages of RAID
 Cost: RAID implementation can be costly, particularly for arrays with large
capacities.
 Complexity: The setup and management of RAID might be challenging.
 Decreased performance: The parity calculations necessary for some RAID
configurations, including RAID 5 and RAID 6, may result in a decrease in
speed.
 Single point of failure: RAID is not a comprehensive backup solution, while
offering data redundancy. The array’s whole contents could be lost if the
RAID controller malfunctions.
Conclusion
In Conclusion, RAID technology in database management systems distributes
and replicates data across several drives to improve data performance and
reliability. It is a useful tool in contemporary database setups since it is essential
to preserving system availability and protecting sensitive data.