🧬 RAID 100, also known as RAID 10+0, is a nested RAID configuration that layers RAID 0 striping on top of multiple RAID 10 arrays. It’s like a supercharged version of RAID 10—designed for environments demanding extreme performance and high fault tolerance.

⚙️ How RAID 100 Works

• Step 1: RAID 10 arrays are created by mirroring pairs of drives and then striping across those mirrors.
• Step 2: RAID 0 striping is applied across multiple RAID 10 arrays.
• This results in a stripe of stripes of mirrors—sometimes humorously called “plaid RAID”.

📈 Benefits

• Blazing performance: Multiple layers of striping allow for high-speed read/write operations.
• Strong fault tolerance: Each RAID 10 array can survive a drive failure, and the overall system can tolerate multiple failures as long as no mirrored pair is completely lost.
• Scalability: Ideal for large-scale enterprise setups with many drives.

⚠️ Drawbacks

• Complex setup: Requires advanced RAID controllers and careful planning.
• High cost: Needs a large number of drives—minimum of 8, but often many more.
• Storage efficiency: Only 50% of total drive capacity is usable due to mirroring.

🧪 Ideal Use Cases

• Enterprise data centers
• High-performance computing
• Large-scale virtualization
• Mission-critical applications with massive I/O demands

RAID 100 is like a high-speed bullet train with armored cars—fast, resilient, and built for serious workloads.