CCTV DVR with RAID Hard Drive Backup

Some iDVR-PRO CCTV DVRs support advanced RAID hard drive configurations. RAID hard drive configurations can ensure a reliable backup of your recorded video surveillance footage. In this article we will be going over and giving a brief explanation of our iDVR-PROH Series DVR RAID feature.

The iDVR-PRO DVR supports RAID 1 and RAID 5, please see short explanation of RAID 1 and 5 below.

RAID 1 : The recorded data is stored / duplicated on 2 internal Hard Drives. You will need at least two hard drives to use this feature.

RAID 5 : This mode is the best known as RAID array. It distributes and stores data and parity across at least 3 drives. You will need at least 3 drives to use this feature.

To create a RAID array on the iDVR-PROH model DVR go to MENU > SYSTEM SETUP > STORAGE > DISK CONFIGURATION > Click CREATE RAID

2. Select the RAID 1 or RAID 5 tab at the top of the pop up window > Select your drives and click the OK button once drives have been selected.

Still not sure which RAID option is best for your CCTV application?

By default the iDVR-PROH comes set in RAID 0 which simply means the video just records and there is no option for any sort of recovery if a hard drive fails. RAID 0 writes to the hard drive much faster so playback is available seconds after it happens.

When should I use RAID 0?

In applications where video recording reliability is less of a concern and speed is important.

What is RAID 1?

RAID 1 is used for redundancy, in order to run RAID 1 you will need at least 2 Hard Drives and you lose one Hard Drive, since it will be used as the “backup drive” (eg. If you have (2) 1 Terabyte Hard Drives you will only have (1) terabyte worth of video recordings). RAID 1 unlike RAID 0 runs at a much slower writing speed since you are not only recording to one drive, it will be copying info to both drives. Another thing to note when RAID 1 is recovering from an issue it typically slows performance, it is recommended to stop recording when a drive is being recovered to help with performance. See reference image below.

When should I use RAID 1?

For applications where data redundancy is required. NOTE: There are cases where both drives fail and it is possible to lose both drives. In this case you will not be able to recover video footage.

What is RAID 5?

RAID 5 uses striping and parity to achieve fault tolerance with improved read speeds. You will need at least 3 drives and lose the equivalent of 1 drive worth of storage to the parity copy on each drive. Each drive in the array puts aside a portion of itself for parity. In the event of a drive failure, the array will be used from each of the drives to recover the lost data. When a drive is failing performance is typically reduced until the failing drive has been replaced. See reference image below.

When should I use RAID 5?

For applications where a more balanced approach is required, RAID 5 offers efficient storage, good performance and failure resistances.

You can learn more about our iDVR-PRO8H and iDVR-PRO16H here
https://www.cctvcamerapros.com/CCTV-System-DVR-p/idvr-pro8h.htm
https://www.cctvcamerapros.com/CCTV-Camera-DVR-p/idvr-pro16h.htm

• This topic was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by James Haldas.
• This topic was modified 5 years, 8 months ago by James Haldas.