RAID configuration on NL disks

[tiger_woods]

Need some advise from experience on Nearline storage. I'm undecided whether to define my 2TB NL disks a RAID 5 or 6 CPG. RAID 6 would probably consume more space for better data protection but since the rebuild time on a failed disk is halved due to the simultaneous writes on different disks, is RAID 5 a better option? Is RAID 6's performance comparable with a RAID 5 on the 3PAR?

[Richard Siemers]

Interesting questions. You're right, raid6 will use more space, and have slightly less performance than raid5 at the benefit of greater redundancy.

What is better for me, or someone else is not necessarily what is best for you. You should consider what kind of data you will be storing on the Nearline and the determine if its a better fit fiscally and performance wise for R5 or R6.