RAID vs JBOD: which configuration is right for me?
Here you will find out:
- what are RAID and JBOD
- what is the difference in JBOD vs RAID
- what is the recovery difference in RAID vs JBOD
Are you ready? Let's read!
What is JBOD?
JBOD is a sequential combination of disks. It is easily implemented programmatically and is used in many operating systems, such as Windows.
JBOD does not offer speed or reliability advantages, but it is very easy to implement and efficiently uses disk space.
You can immediately forget about any guarantee of information security, as the normal mode of operation stops when any number of disks fails. 100% of the capacity of all disks is used and is equal to the sum of the capacities of these disks. This is truly the most economical way to increase space. Disk space is formed by the sequential combination of disks; no block rotations or checksums are used.
It should be noted that if some drive fails, not all data may be lost, but this is a dubious advantage.
What is RAID?
It is a data virtualization technology that also integrates multiple drives into a logical element.
However, this does not happen simply to increase space but to create redundancy and increase productivity, increase fault tolerance, and more. Accordingly, there is a minimum of required disks: 2 or more, depending on the type of array. RAID has a fairly widespread use, both in-home use and in large offices, all this due to the diversity of its types.
What is a JBOD/RAID combination?
RAID/JBOD is actually not a RAID level, but due to the use of JBOD as an additional function of RAID controllers or software, it began to be referred to as RAID arrays.
JBOD vs RAID: availability
The lack of fault tolerance or redundancy in JBOD leads to the fact that work stops when even one drive fails. Therefore, when using this technology, backups of important data should be made with a certain frequency. However, this is not always done by all users. However, data that was not on broken disks will remain intact and accessible.
As for RAID, everything except RAID 0 has sufficient redundancy and protects the array from sudden failures.
RAID vs JBOD: usage of the disks
JBOD is used at 100% capacity of all drives and equals the sum of the capacities of these drives. Yes, this is the most economical array; only RAID 0 can compare with it, provided that all disks of the same capacity are used. In JBOD, disks can be completely different both in manufacturer and in volume and quantity.
Almost all RAIDs allocate half the space for recovery when a disk crashes.
JBOD vs RAID: speed and performance
Basically, RAIDs are designed to improve the performance of multiple drives simultaneously.
Consequently, RAID is far superior on this point than JBOD. The latter, in turn, in practice, can also reduce reading speed due to the sequential processing of disks. In general, it all depends on which particular drive is currently being accessed: if the drive is fast, then the speed will be the same. But in theory, the speed of reading and writing can increase if these actions come from different streams of information on different disks.
RAID vs JBOD: expansion
Increasing the capacity of a JBOD array, if necessary, can be increased by adding additional disks of any size and quantity. With the increase in RAID, things are a little different: here you must take into account the brand of the disk (they all should be the same), the number of disks (most often this is an even number), the size of the disks (also should all be the same).
Of course, if necessary, all these requirements can be fulfilled, but it will take more time and money than for JBOD.
RAID vs JBOD: it's all about the money
Of course, based on all the above statements, JBOD will be much cheaper. In addition to the fact that you can use the simplest and cheapest hard drives, the choice of controllers is also much larger.
RAID can be either expensive or very expensive, but its benefits in terms of performance, redundancy and more are worth it.
Differences in RAID vs JBOD data recovery
If there is a question about RAID or JBOD recovery, there is no difference at all: in both cases, recovery is best performed using DiskInternals RAID Recovery.
The application does an excellent job of recovering any kind of data, while automatically determining the desired type and size or array, as well as the order of the disks. You can store files on another hard drive or partition, use virtual disks, or even upload files via FTP. The ability to create a disk image may be a pleasant surprise for you, especially since this is done for free. In addition, there is a free preview and a recovery wizard for beginners and amateurs.
The licensed version of the application is always available. Therefore, you can export data at any time convenient for you.