Thecus N5550 User Manual

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Appendix B: RAID Basics
Overview
A Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) is an array of several hard disks
that provide data security and high performance. A RAID system accesses several
hard disks simultaneously, which improves I/O performance over a single hard disk.
Data security is enhanced by a RAID, since data loss due to a hard disk failure is
minimized by regenerating redundant data from the other RAID hard disks.
Benefits
RAID improves I/O performance, and increases data security through fault
tolerance and redundant data storage.
Improved Performance
RAID provides access to several hard disk drives simultaneously, which greatly
increases I/O performance.
Data Security
Hard disk drive failure unfortunately is a common occurrence. A RAID helps prevent
against the loss of data due to hard disk failure. A RAID offers additional hard disk
drives that can avert data loss from a hard disk drive failure. If a hard drive fails,
the RAID volume can regenerate data from the data and parity stored on its other
hard disk drives.
RAID Levels
The Thecus IP storage supports standard RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50, 60 and JBOD.
You choose a RAID level when you create a system volume. The factors for
selecting a RAID level are:
 Your requirements for performance
 Your need for data security
 Number of hard disk drives in the system, capacity of hard disk drives in the
system
The following is a description of each RAID level:
RAID 0
RAID 0 is best suited for applications that need high bandwidth but do not require
a high level of data security. The RAID 0 level provides the best performance of all
the RAID levels, but it does not provide data redundancy.
RAID 0 uses disk striping and breaking up data into blocks to write across all hard
drives in the volume. The system can then use multiple hard drives for faster read
and write. The stripe size parameter that was set when the RAID was created
determines the size of each block. No parity calculations complicate the write
operation.
RAID 1
RAID 1 mirrors all data from one hard disk drive to a second one hard disk drive,
thus providing complete data redundancy. However, the cost of data storage
capacity is doubled.

Thecus N5550 Specifications

General

RAID levels	0, 1, 5, 6, 10, JBOD
Hot-swap drive bays	Yes
Storage drive capacity	0 GB
Supported file systems	ext3, ext4, XFS
Storage drive interface	Serial ATA
Total installed storage capacity	0 TB
Number of storage drives installed	0
Number of storage drives supported	5
Internal memory	2 GB
Internal memory type	DDR3
Processor family	Intel Atom®
Number of processors installed	1
Wi-Fi	No
Data link protocols	TCP/IP/AppleTalk
Ethernet LAN data rates	10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
Maximum data transfer rate	1000 Mbit/s
Supported network protocols	SMB/CIFS, HTTP/HTTPS, FTP, NFS v4, AFP
I/O ports	1 x mic in 1 x line in 1 x audio out
Networking features	Gigabit Ethernet
Compatible operating systems	Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/ 7 UNIX/Linux Mac OS X
Security algorithms	256-bit AES
Cables included	AC
FireWire 400	FireWire-interface with a data transmission speed of 400 Mbit/s (50MB/s). FireWire is a serial computer bus technology designed as replacement of SCSI and is based on the IEEE 1394 and 1394b standards.
USB 2.0 ports quantity	4
Ethernet LAN (RJ-45) ports	2
Bundled software	Acronis True Image Thecus Backup Utility
Display type	LCD
Product color	Black
Power supply unit (PSU) capacity	200 W
Operating temperature (T-T)	5 - 40 °C
Operating relative humidity (H-H)	0 - 80 %
Sustainability certificates	RoHS
Certification	CE/FCC/C-Tick/VCCI/BSMI VMware, Citrix, WEEE

Weight and Dimensions

Depth	240 mm
Width	190 mm
Height	230 mm