Overview of I/O Performance and RAID in an RDBMS Environment

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Abstract
This paper covers the fundamentals of I/O topics and an overview of RAID levels
commonly found in an RDBMS environment. This paper will cover both the
performance and fault tolerant properties of those RAID levels. By understanding the
base concepts of I/O performance and technology used in your system you will be better
able to size and configure your system. By understanding the various RAID levels you
will be better able to design and configure your own system using the most appropriate
RAID level for the type of activity being done.
This paper first starts with an overview of disk drive performance followed by a survey
of RAID levels including RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 0+1 and RAID 5. Once you have read
this paper you should have a better understanding of the I/O subsystem and how it relates
to the performance of your system and your database.
Following the overview of RAID and disk performance is a survey of different I/O
storage systems including SAN, NAS and direct attached storage. An explanation of
these types of storage systems and their performance characteristics will be provided.