RAID 5 Hard Drive Loss

[ITJedi]

I have a server that is running 8 - 18GB hard drives in a RAID 5 configuration. I am understanding that I can lose multiple drives as long as they are not next to each other.

Am I correct?

Please let me know.

Thanks!

 

[Ecniv]

http://www.acnc.com/04_01_05.html

 

[ITJedi]

Thanks, but it didn't really answer my question.

 

[Ecniv]

Disk failure has a medium impact on throughput

I would take this to mean that disk failure does not bring the array down, just impacts throughput.

 

[ITJedi]

Thanks!

I guess my real question is how many drives can I lose before data is compromised?

I appreciate your help.

 

[Ecniv]

Well since the data is stripped to all drives, technically that means all but 1 drive can be lost on each set of bloacks before any data may be lost.