Choose which type of volume to create. The volume (often also referred to as a metadevice) is a group of physical slices that appear to the system as a single, logical device. You can choose from the following types:
RAID 0 (Concatenation) | A concatenation assembles several physical devices into a volume with a size equal to the total of the separate devices. Use a concatenation if you need a larger physical volume without additional data security. A concatenation consists of physical devices. |
RAID 0 (Stripe) | A stripe assembles several physical devices into a volume with a size equal to the total of the separate devices and distributes any stored data evenly across all physical volumes. Use a stripe if you need a larger physical volume and faster overall disk access without additional data security. A stripe consists of physical devices. |
RAID 1 (Mirror) | A mirror replicates data by maintaining multiple copies. A mirror is composed of one or more simple volumes (concatenations, stripes, or concat/stripes) called submirrors. A mirror provides protection against physical disk failure, but requires at least twice as much physical disk space as a traditional volume (e.g., to have a 1 GB mirror, you would need to have two or more 1 GB devices). A mirror can be made up of physical slices, or of concatenation, stripe, or concatenated stripe volumes. |
RAID 5 | A RAID 5 device replicates data by using parity information. In the case of missing data, the missing data can be regenerated using available data and the parity information. A RAID 5 volume is composed of slices. One slice's worth of space is allocated to parity information, but it is distributed across all slices in the RAID 5 volume. A RAID 5 device requires one additional unit more than the storage you require. For example, a RAID 5 device providing 20 GB of storage would require 5 simple volumes of 5 GB each, while a concatenation of GB would require only 20 GB of total space. A RAID 5 device can be made up of physical slices, or of concatenation, stripe, or concatenated stripe volumes. |
Transactional volume | A trans device is used to log a UFS file system. A trans volume is composed of a master device and a logging device. Either of these devices can be a slice, RAID 0 volume, mirror, or RAID 5 volume. The master device contains the UFS file system. Soft Partition volume A soft partition volume divides a disk slice into as many divisions as needed. Each soft partition has to have a name, which then enables it to be directly accessed by applications, including file systems, as long as it is not included in another volume. Soft partitions can be placed directly above a disk slice, or on top of a mirror, stripe, or RAID 5 volume. Nesting of a soft partition between volumes is not allowed. For example, a soft partition built on a stripe with a mirror built on the soft partition is not allowed. |