Storage system
• Databases are stored in file formats, which contain records.
• At physical level, the actual data is stored in electromagnetic format
on some device.
• These storage devices can be broadly categorized into three types
• Primary Storage −The memory storage that is directly accessible
to the CPU comes under this category.
• CPU's internal memory (registers), fast memory (cache), and main
memory (RAM) are directly accessible to the CPU, as they are all
placed on the motherboard or CPU chipset.
• This storage is typically very small, ultra-fast, and volatile.
• Primary storage requires continuous power supply in order to
maintain its state. In case of a power failure, all its data is lost.
• Secondary Storage − Secondary storage devices are used to store data for future
use or as backup.
• Secondary storage includes memory devices that are not a part of the CPU chipset
or motherboard, for example, magnetic disks, optical disks (DVD, CD, etc.), hard
disks, flash drives, and magnetic tapes.
• Tertiary Storage − Tertiary storage is used to store huge volumes of data.
• Since such storage devices are external to the computer system, they are the
slowest in speed.
• These storage devices are mostly used to take the back up of an entire system.
• Optical disks and magnetic tapes are widely used as tertiary storage.
• Magnetic Disks
• Hard disk drives are the most common secondary storage devices in present computer
systems.
• These are called magnetic disks because they use the concept of magnetization to store
information.
• Hard disks consist of metal disks coated with magnetizable material.
• These disks are placed vertically on a spindle
• A read/write head moves in between the disks and is used to magnetize or de-
magnetize the spot under it.
• A magnetized spot can be recognized as 0 (zero) or 1 (one).
• A hard disk plate has many concentric circles on it, called tracks.
• Every track is further divided into sectors.
Disk drive components
Main Components of a Magnetic Disk
1. Platter
•A circular disk coated with magnetic material.
•Multiple platters are mounted on a spindle.
•Each surface stores data.
2. Spindle
•A shaft that holds all platters.
•Rotates the platters at high speed (e.g., 5400–15000 RPM).
3. Read–Write Head
•Reads or writes data by sensing magnetic patterns on the disk.
•One head per platter surface.
4. Actuator Arm (Head Arm)
•Moves the read–write head radially over the platter.
•Controlled by an actuator mechanism.
5. Tracks
•Concentric circles on a platter surface where data is stored.
6. Sectors
•Each track is divided into small arc-shaped portions called sectors.
•A sector is the minimum storage unit (typically 512 bytes or 4 KB).
7. Cylinders
•A group of tracks aligned vertically across all platters.
•Data is accessed cylinder-wise for faster performance.
Working Mechanism of a Magnetic Disk
A magnetic disk works on the principle of electromagnetic induction, where data is stored and retrieved using magnetic
patterns on a rotating platter.
1. Disk Rotation
•All platters are mounted on a spindle.
•The spindle rotates the disk at a constant speed
(e.g., 5400, 7200, 10000, or 15000 RPM).
•As the disk spins, the read/write head stays extremely close (micrometers) to the surface.
2. Movement of Read–Write Head
•Each platter surface has its own read/write head.
•Heads are attached to an actuator arm.
•The actuator arm moves radially (inwards and outwards) to reach the correct track.
•Movement is controlled by a voice coil actuator.
3. Data Organization
The disk surface is divided into:
•Tracks → Concentric circles
•Sectors → Sections of a track
•Blocks → Minimum data unit read/written
When data is to be accessed, the disk performs:
a) Seek Operation
•Actuator arm moves the head to the required track.
•This time is called Seek Time.
b) Rotational Latency
•After reaching the track, the disk must rotate until the required sector comes under the head.
c) Data Transfer
•When the head reaches the correct sector:
• Write: Magnetic polarity is changed to represent bits (0/1).
• Read: Head senses the magnetic field to detect stored bits.
4. Writing Mechanism
•A current is passed through the coil inside the write head.
•This produces a magnetic field.
•The field magnetizes the disk surface in patterns representing 0s and 1s.
5. Reading Mechanism
•The read head detects magnetic flux changes as the disk rotates.
•These changes induce a voltage signal.
•The signal is converted into binary data (0/1).
Redundant Array of Independent Disks
Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks
• RAID is a technique that makes use of a combination of multiple disks instead of using a single disk for
increased performance, data redundancy, or both.
Why Data Redundancy?
• Data redundancy, although taking up extra space, adds to disk reliability.
• This means, that in case of disk failure, if the same data is also backed up onto another disk, we can retrieve
the data and go on with the operation.
Key Evaluation Points for a RAID System
• Reliability: How many disk faults can the system tolerate?
• Availability: What fraction of the total session time is a system in uptime mode, i.e. how available is the
system for actual use?
• Performance: How good is the response time? How high is the throughput (rate of processing
work)? (Read/write)
• Capacity: Given a set of N disks each with B blocks, how much useful capacity is available to the user?
Different RAID Levels
RAID-0 (Stripping)
• Data is distributed as blocks and blocks are distributed among disks
Advantages
It is easy to implement.
It utilizes the storage capacity in a better way.
Disadvantages
A single drive loss can result in the complete failure of the
system.
Not a good choice for a critical system.
RAID-1 (Mirroring)
• More than one copy of each block is stored in a separate disk.
• Thus, every block has two (or more) copies, lying on different disks.
• 11
The above figure shows a RAID-1 system with mirroring level 2.
RAID 0 was unable to tolerate any disk failure. But RAID 1 is capable of
reliability.
Advantages
•It covers complete redundancy.
•It can increase data security and speed.
Disadvantages
•It is highly expensive.
•Storage capacity is less.
Nested Raid-RAID 01 (RAID 0+1)
Nested Raid-RAID 10 (RAID 1+0)
Nested RAID are used in real time applications
• RAID 3(Byte-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)
•It consists of byte-level striping with dedicated parity striping.
•At this level, we store parity information in a disc section and write to a dedicated parity drive.
•Whenever failure of the drive occurs, it helps in accessing the parity drive, through which we can
reconstruct the data.
•Here Disk 3 contains the Parity bits for Disk 0, Disk 1, and Disk 2. If data loss occurs, we can
construct it with Disk 3.
• Advantages
• Data can be transferred in bulk.
• Data can be accessed in parallel.
• Disadvantages
• It requires an additional drive for parity.
• In the case of small-size files, it performs slowly.
• failure of 2 disk data cant be retrieved
• Parity disk Failure
• Bottle neck because when we write new data or update data, the parity value
[Link] parity value is written for every write or update operation -Parity disk
overhead
• 5. RAID-4 (Block-Level Stripping with Dedicated Parity)
• Instead of duplicating data, this adopts a parity-based approach.
•In the figure, we can observe one column (disk) dedicated to parity.
•Parity is calculated using a simple XOR function.
•If the data bits are 0,0,0,1 the parity bit is XOR(0,0,0,1) = 1.
•If the data bits are 0,1,1,0 the parity bit is XOR(0,1,1,0) = 0.
•A simple approach is that an even number of ones results in parity
0, and an odd number of ones results in parity 1.
Advantages
It helps in reconstructing the data if at most one data is lost.
Disadvantages
•It can’t help in reconstructing when more than one data is lost.
•Parity disk Failure
•Bottleneck because when we write new data or update data, the
parity value changes. so parity value is written for every write or
update operation -Parity disk overhead
• RAID-5 (Block-Level Stripping with Distributed Parity)
This is a slight modification of the RAID-4 system where
the only difference is that the parity rotates among the
drives.
Advantages
•Data can be reconstructed using parity bits.
•It makes the performance better.
Disadvantages
•Its technology is complex.
•If both discs get damaged, data will be lost forever.
• RAID-6 (Block-Level Stripping with two Parity Bits)
• Raid-6 helps when there is more than one disk failure.
• A pair of independent parities are generated and stored on multiple
disks at this level.
• Ideally, you need four disk drives for this level.
Advantages
•Very high data Accessibility.
•Fast read data transactions.
Disadvantages
•Due to double parity, it has slow write data transactions.
•Extra space is required.
Advantages of RAID
• Data redundancy: By keeping numerous copies of the data on many disks, RAID can shield data from disk
failures.
• Performance enhancement: RAID can enhance performance by distributing data over several drives,
enabling the simultaneous execution of several read/write operations.
• Scalability: RAID is scalable, therefore by adding more disks to the array, the storage capacity may be
expanded.
• Versatility: RAID is applicable to a wide range of devices, such as workstations, servers, and personal PCs
Disadvantages of RAID
• Cost: RAID implementation can be costly, particularly for arrays with large capacities.
• Complexity: The setup and management of RAID might be challenging.
• Decreased performance: The parity calculations necessary for some RAID configurations, including RAID 5
and RAID 6, may result in a decrease in speed.
• Single point of failure: RAID is not a comprehensive backup solution, while offering data redundancy. The
array’s whole contents could be lost if the RAID controller malfunctions.