Nested RAID levels

Nested RAID levels, also known as hybrid RAID, combine two or more of the standard RAID levels (where 'RAID' stands for 'redundant array of independent disks') to gain performance, additional redundancy or both, as a result of combining properties of different standard RAID layouts. Nested RAID levels, also known as hybrid RAID, combine two or more of the standard RAID levels (where 'RAID' stands for 'redundant array of independent disks') to gain performance, additional redundancy or both, as a result of combining properties of different standard RAID layouts. Nested RAID levels are usually numbered using a series of numbers, where the most commonly used levels use two numbers. The first number in the numeric designation denotes the lowest RAID level in the 'stack', while the rightmost one denotes the highest layered RAID level; for example, RAID 50 layers the data striping of RAID 0 on top of the distributed parity of RAID 5. Nested RAID levels include RAID 01, RAID 10, RAID 100, RAID 50 and RAID 60, which all combine data striping with other RAID techniques; as a result of the layering scheme, RAID 01 and RAID 10 represent significantly different nested RAID levels. RAID 01, also called RAID 0+1, is a RAID level using a mirror of stripes, achieving both replication and sharing of data between disks. The usable capacity of a RAID 01 array is the same as in a RAID 1 array made of the same drives, in which one half of the drives is used to mirror the other half. ( N / 2 ) ⋅ S m i n {displaystyle (N/2)cdot S_{mathrm {min} }} , where N {displaystyle N} is the total number of drives and S m i n {displaystyle S_{mathrm {min} }} is the capacity of the smallest drive in the array.