RAID Performance Calculator

RAID 0 (Stripe set) Performance Calculation:

Total Performance = 340 IO/s
Total usable capacity = 1.00 TB

Reads 50%, Writes 50%
Number of RAID groups = 1
Number of drives per RAID group = 2
Total number of drives = 2
Single RAID group performance = 340 IO/s
Single drive cost = 75
Cost per TB usable = 150.00
Total cost = 150.00

Compare two RAID configurations...
Calculate RAID0 capacity...

Notes:
Minimum number of drives per RAID0 group = 1
IO penalty (read) = 1/1 (one RAID IO per each host IO)
IO penalty (write) = 1/1 (one RAID IO per each host IO)
Fault tolerance = 0 (none) disk drives per RAID group
RAID0 is not recommended for data with any business value.

How to use:
To calculate RAID performance select the RAID level and provide the following values: the performance (IO/s or MB/s) of a single disk, the number of disk drives in a RAID group, the number of RAID groups (if your storage system consists of more than one RAID group of the same configuration) and the percentage of read operations.

This calculator does not perform conversion between IO/s and MB/s, and vice versa. If you've switched the units, do not forget to adjust the value in the Single drive performance field.

Optionally, enter the single drive cost to calculate the total storage cost and the cost per TB of usable capacity.

Supported RAID levels are RAID0, RAID1, RAID5, RAID6, RAID10 (1+0), RAID50, RAID60. To calculate performance for RAID50 or RAID60 select the RAID Type as RAID5 or RAID6, respectevely, and provide the Number of RAID groups value matching your nested RAID configuration (minimum of 2 groups)

Approximate IOPS and throughput values for different drive types are provided for your reference in the table at the bottom of this page.

IOPS (IO/s) and throughput (MB/s) are two common performance measurements for storage devices, such as disk drives and RAID sets. Most often IOPS measurement is used for random small block (4-8 KB) read and/or write operations typical for OLTP applications. MB/s is used for large block (>= 64 KB) random or sequential operations, such as file transfer and streaming.

Approximate IOPS and throughput values for different disk drive types:

Drive (Type / RPM)	IOPS (4KB block, random)	IOPS (64KB block, random)	MB/s (64KB block, random)	IOPS (512KB block, random)	MB/s (512KB block, random)	MB/s (large block, sequential)
FC / 15K	163 - 178	151 - 169	9.7 – 10.8	97 – 123	49.7 – 63.1	73.5 – 127.5
SAS / 15K	188 - 203	175 - 192	11.2 – 12.3	115 – 135	58.9 – 68.9	91.5 – 126.3
FC / 10K	142 - 151	130 – 143	8.3 – 9.2	80 – 104	40.9 – 53.1	58.1 – 107.2
SAS / 10K	142 - 151	130 – 143	8.3 – 9.2	80 – 104	40.9 – 53.1	58.1 – 107.2
SAS/SATA / 7200	73 - 79	69 - 76	4.4 – 4.9	47 – 63	24.3 – 32.1	43.4 – 97.8
SATA / 5400	57	55	3.5	44	22.6
SSD	See the SSD RAID Performance Calculator...

Where did these numbers come from? Check the Hard Disk Performance Basics page.