Raid Levels for Video Work with Xsan

For video media work, there is little reason for going with any RAID level other than RAID 5 when using Xserve RAIDs for media storage, since the built-in RAID 5 optimization makes their performance very close to RAID 0. Xserve RAIDs out of the box come preconfigured for RAID 5. Render volumes could arguably be RAID level 0there is no need for backup because in a failed situation renders can easily be recreated. Raid level 1 is an option for your metadata and journaling pool since the minimum number of drives necessary is two, and you will have true redundancy in a mirroring situation.

Minimum Number of Drives per LUN

RAID 0	2
RAID 1	2
RAID 3	3
RAID 5	3