Drag and Drop Question A security administrator is given the security and availability profiles for servers that are being deployed. 1) Match each RAID type with the correct configuration and…

RAID Configuration Exam Question - Full Explanation Overall Goal This question tests whether you understand how RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) types differ in fault tolerance, performance, storage efficiency, and minimum hardware requirements - and whether you can…

Submitted by stefanr· Mar 4, 2026Security architecture

Question

Drag and Drop Question A security administrator is given the security and availability profiles for servers that are being deployed. 1) Match each RAID type with the correct configuration and MINIMUM number of drives. 2) Review the server profiles and match them with the appropriate RAID type based on integrity, availability, I/O, storage requirements. Instructions: - All drive definitions can be dragged as many times as necessary - Not all placeholders may be filled in the RAID configuration boxes - If parity is required, please select the appropriate number of parity checkboxes - Server profiles may be dragged only once If at any time you would like to bring back the initial state of the simulation, please select the Reset button. When you have completed the simulation, please select the Done button to submit. Once the simulation is submitted, please select the Next button to continue. Answer:

Exhibits

Explanation

RAID Configuration Exam Question - Full Explanation

Overall Goal

This question tests whether you understand how RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) types differ in fault tolerance, performance, storage efficiency, and minimum hardware requirements - and whether you can match real-world server roles to the RAID type that best fits their operational demands.

Part 1: RAID Type Configurations

RAID-0 - Striping

Drive definitions: Striping Data (on every drive)
Minimum drives: 2
Parity: None
How it works: Data is split ("striped") across all drives simultaneously. No redundancy exists.
Trade-offs: Fastest read/write speeds, but zero fault tolerance - losing one drive destroys all data.

RAID-1 - Mirroring

Drive definitions: Mirror Data (identical copy on each drive)
Minimum drives: 2
Parity: None
How it works: Every write goes to both drives simultaneously. One drive is an exact duplicate.
Trade-offs: Excellent availability and integrity. Storage efficiency is 50% (you pay for 2 drives, get 1 usable). Read speeds can be doubled; write speeds are the same as a single drive.

RAID-5 - Striping with Single Parity

Drive definitions: Striping Data + 1 Parity block (distributed)
Minimum drives: 3
Parity: 1 checkbox selected
How it works: Data is striped across drives, and a calculated parity block is distributed across all drives. If one drive fails, the parity allows full data reconstruction.
Trade-offs: Good balance of performance, capacity, and fault tolerance. Can survive 1 drive failure. Usable capacity = (n-1) drives.

RAID-6 - Striping with Double Parity

Drive definitions: Striping Data + 2 Parity blocks (distributed)
Minimum drives: 4
Parity: 2 checkboxes selected
How it works: Like RAID-5 but with two independent parity calculations. Can reconstruct data even if 2 drives fail simultaneously.
Trade-offs: Highest fault tolerance of the four types. Usable capacity = (n-2) drives. Slower writes than RAID-5 due to double parity overhead.

Part 2: Server Profile Matching

Server Profile	Best RAID	Reasoning
Media Streaming Server	RAID-0	Requires maximum I/O throughput (streaming video/audio). Availability is not mission-critical; content can be re-fetched or re-encoded. Striping maximizes sequential read/write speed.
Authentication Server	RAID-1	Availability and integrity are paramount - users cannot log in if this server is down. RAID-1's mirroring provides instant failover with zero data loss. Storage needs are modest (auth data is small).
Email Archive	RAID-5	Requires large storage capacity (archiving years of email) and reasonable fault tolerance. RAID-5 gives the best balance: good capacity efficiency with protection against a single drive failure.
Identity Management Server	RAID-6	The most availability- and integrity-critical server. Identity stores (directory services, certificates, credentials) cannot be offline or corrupted. RAID-6 survives 2 simultaneous drive failures, making it the highest-resilience option.

Step-by-Step Reasoning

Step 1 - Assign drive definitions to each RAID type

Why necessary: Each RAID type has a fundamentally different data layout. Assigning the wrong definition (e.g., putting "Mirror" on RAID-5) demonstrates a conceptual misunderstanding. Striping, mirroring, and parity are mutually exclusive mechanisms.

If skipped: You cannot correctly evaluate how each RAID handles failure, which makes server matching guesswork.

Step 2 - Set the minimum drive count

Why necessary: Minimum drive counts are architectural constraints, not preferences. RAID-5 cannot function with 2 drives (no room to distribute parity). RAID-6 cannot function with 3 drives.

If done wrong: The RAID array is physically impossible to construct, or you may confuse RAID-5 and RAID-6 in the server matching phase.

Step 3 - Select parity checkboxes for RAID-5 and RAID-6

Why necessary: Parity is what enables fault tolerance in RAID-5/6. Selecting 1 vs. 2 parity blocks directly maps to surviving 1 vs. 2 drive failures - a critical distinction for availability requirements.

If skipped: You conflate RAID-5 and RAID-6, making it impossible to correctly justify why the Identity Management Server needs RAID-6 over RAID-5.

Step 4 - Review each server profile's requirements

Why necessary: Server profiles encode four dimensions - integrity (no data corruption), availability (uptime), I/O (throughput/IOPS), and storage (capacity needs). You must weigh all four, not just one.

If skipped: You might assign RAID-0 to the authentication server just because it's "fast," ignoring that a single drive failure would lock out every user in the organization.

Step 5 - Drag server profiles to matching RAID types

Why necessary: This is the synthesis step. It validates that you can apply theoretical knowledge to practical scenarios - the core skill of a security administrator evaluating infrastructure.

Order matters: You must complete Part 1 first. If you don't know what RAID-6 is, you cannot recognize that the Identity Management Server needs it.

Memory Tips

RAID-0: "Zero redundancy, zero mercy" - fast but fragile.

RAID-1: "One mirror, one backup" - safety first, storage halved.

RAID-5: "Five feels alive" - the workhorse, survives 1 failure, needs 3+ drives.

RAID-6: "Six survives six feet under" - survives 2 failures, needs 4+ drives, for critical systems.

Server matching shortcut:

Streaming -> Speed -> RAID-0
Auth -> Always up -> RAID-1
Archive -> Big + safe -> RAID-5
Identity -> Never fail -> RAID-6

Topics

#RAID#Data storage#Availability#Data integrity

Community Discussion

No community discussion yet for this question.

Full SY0-501 Practice