Creating RAID5 Array - changing cluster size?

[fibroptikl]

I am creating a RAID5 array for storage of some data.

The average file size is between 4 and 8MB; would it be beneficial to changing the cluster size to 4 or 8MB for improved performance?

[DougLite]

RAID-5 is not a performance orietned RAID level. RAID-5 is used to achieve the highest available capacity in a given physical volume in a case/rackmount. RAID-5 has the lowest overhead of the fault tolerant RAID levels, and that advantage continues to increase as more drives are added to the array.

With that said, smaller stripe sizes generally help linear transfer performance, while larger sizes can help out seek performance a little bit. However, the total swing from one stripe size to the other is not great - the mechanical limits of the drives and the effectiveness of the controller and driver are still the biggest limitations of performance. If performance is a bigger concern than capacity, you need to look at RAID 0+1.

[Lazn_Work]

Dang Doug,

You are absolutly right, but you are sounding more and more offical :D with each of your posts. Are you taking your moderating duties too seriously? ;)

==>Lazn