:RAID 0. I know, I know, it sounds almost suicidal but as I :said speed is more :important in this instance than recovery. We'll be testing :this 760 against :an Auspex, which can be configured to use RAID 0, so I was :wondering if the :NetApps could also do this. ---
Actually, the way RAID4 is used in conjunction with WAFL, really looks and feels like RAID0, just with a parity write at the end.
WAFL removes the problem on a UFS type filesystem of having that single parity drive just thrash to tiny bits, taking the stripe performance with it.
When a series of writes comes into the box, it is buffered *im making this simple*, and it flushed out to disk (on a 760) ever 10 seconds, of when 16Mb of data is in the buffer (NVRAM).
A single stripe (or series of stripes) is then written in a _very_ optimized manner using the WAFL filesystem, and a single parity calculation/write is created per stripe.
I direct you to a document Mr. Hitz wrote at http://www.netapp.com/tech_library/3001.html for more details.
I have every confidence you will enjoy our performance in your testing.