CompTIA Cloud+ Practice Test

What RAID level would be used for a database file that requires minimum write requests, a large amount of read requests, and fault tolerance?

1. RAID 10

2. RAID 1

3. RAID 5

4. RAID 0

The correct answer is: RAID 5

The choice of RAID 5 for a database file that requires minimum write requests, a large number of read requests, and fault tolerance is well justified. RAID 5 utilizes block-level striping with distributed parity. This means that data is spread across multiple disks, enhancing read performance significantly due to parallel access. Since database operations often involve more read than write activity, RAID 5 is optimal in that it allows for efficient read operations. Fault tolerance is also a critical factor that RAID 5 addresses effectively. The distributed parity allows the RAID array to survive the failure of one disk without data loss. In case of a disk failure, the system can reconstruct the lost data using the parity information from the remaining disks, ensuring data availability and reliability. RAID 5 is particularly beneficial in environments where read operations dominate and high data integrity is needed, making it a suitable choice for database applications with the specified requirements. In contrast, while RAID 10 does offer fault tolerance and improved read and write performance, it requires more disks and is less efficient in terms of storage capacity utilization compared to RAID 5. RAID 1 also provides fault tolerance but has lower storage efficiency and may not meet the requirement for handling large amounts of read requests as effectively as RAID 5