RAID 6 — Redundant Array of Independent Disks Level 6
Definition
A RAID configuration using dual distributed parity, allowing the array to survive simultaneous failure of any two drives.
Context & Usage
RAID 6 protects against the rebuild-window failure scenario that affects RAID 5 on modern large drives (where rebuild times of 18+ TB drives approach 2 weeks). With dual parity, a second drive failure during rebuild is recoverable. RAID 6 capacity efficiency is (n-2)/n. Performance hit on writes is significant (parity must be calculated and written twice). Typical use cases: file storage, backup targets, video archive — capacity-optimized but read-heavy workloads.
Examples
- 12-drive RAID 6 array = 10 drives of capacity, survives 2 failures
- Dell PowerEdge R740xd2 with 24× 22 TB drives in RAID 6 = 460 TB usable
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