RAID protection for third-party storage

Third-party storage arrays provide the RAID protection for the array LUNs that they make available to V-Series systems.

Data ONTAP uses RAID 0 (striping) for array LUNs. Data ONTAP supports a variety of RAID types on the storage arrays, except RAID 0 because it does not provide storage protection. The storage arrays provide the data protection, not Data ONTAP.

When creating "RAID groups" on storage arrays, follow the best practices of the storage array vendor to ensure that there is an adequate level of protection on the storage array so that disk failure does not result in loss of data or loss of access to data.

Note: A RAID group on a storage array is the arrangement of disks that together form the defined RAID level. Each RAID group supports only one RAID type. The number of disks that you select for a RAID group determines the RAID type that a particular RAID group supports. Different storage array vendors use different terms to describe this entity—RAID groups, parity groups, disk groups, Parity RAID groups, and other terms.

V-Series systems support native disk shelves as well as third-party storage. Data ONTAP supports RAID4 and RAID-DP on the native disk shelves connected to a V-Series system but does not support RAID4 and RAID-DP with array LUNs.

See the V-Series Implementation Guide for Third-Party Storage to determine whether there are specific requirements or limitations about RAID types for your storage array.