Storage Protection and Data Redundancy in UniFi (RAID)

UniFi Network Video Recorders (NVRs) and UniFi Network Attached Storage (UNAS) devices use RAID technology to enhance storage reliability, maximize availability, and protect your UniFi Protect surveillance recordings and UniFi Drive files from data loss. By combining multiple drives into a RAID array, these devices provide increased redundancy and longer data retention, helping to safeguard your important footage and files even during hardware failures.

Learn more about drive statuses in UniFi NVRs and UNAS here. 

Protection Options

UniFi takes care of your data by offering advanced RAID options tailored to your needs. With choices like Basic Protection, Advanced Protection, and Better Performance, you can ensure your data is secure and your storage is optimized.

Use our storage calculator to determine the ideal setup for your system before you make a purchase by planning ahead. The table below further helps clarify how retention time and redundancy are intertwined as you select your size and quantity of drives on UNVR, ENVR, or UNAS.

For UNVR and ENVR

* Basic Protection: Two drives are configured as RAID 1, and three or more as RAID 5. On ENVR, nine or more drives are configured as RAID 6.

* Percentages represent how much of the total drive capacity is usable for storing data.

For UNAS

If you're using Basic Protection (RAID 5) or Advanced Protection (RAID 6), you can create multiple RAID groups within a storage pool.

• Combined Protection: The storage pool's fault tolerance is the sum of each RAID group's protection.
  • Example: On a UNAS-Pro, if you create two RAID groups (each with 3 drives using Basic Protection), the system can handle up to 2 drive failures (1 per group) as long as the failed drives are in different RAID groups.
• Plan for Drive Bay Limits: It is important to plan your storage layout carefully, as UNAS, like the UNAS-Pro, have a limited number of drive bays (7 in total). Consider your long-term storage needs before setting up RAID groups to ensure flexibility and scalability.
  • Example: On a UNAS-Pro, if your first RAID group uses Advanced Protection (RAID 6), you'll need at least 4 drives. That leaves only 3 bays, meaning any second RAID group can only use Basic Protection (RAID 5).

* Basic Protection: Two drives are configured as RAID 1, and three or more as RAID 5. 

* Advanced Protection: Two drives are configured as RAID 1, three as RAID 5, and four or more as RAID 6.

* Advanced Performance: Two drives are configured as RAID 1, and four or more as RAID 10.

* Percentages represent how much of the total drive capacity is usable for storing data.

Hot Spare

A Hot Spare is a standby drive reserved for emergencies. If a drive in your array fails, the system automatically uses the hot spare to rebuild the data and retires the failed drive, minimizing downtime and helping prevent data loss. You can assign hot spares in advance for added protection.

• Hot spares on UNAS work globally. They can automatically replace any failed drive across all storage pools and RAID groups.
• A hot spare must be the same type (HDD or SSD) and have equal or greater capacity than the failed drive.
• During data transfer, performance speeds may be affected. Ensure your array has enough capacity and that your initial setup includes a drive reserved for this purpose.

Optimizing Your Deployment

For UNVR and ENVR

To ensure smooth performance and data protection during setup:

• Select Uniform Drive Sizes: All drives in the RAID array must have the same storage size for optimal performance. Using mismatched capacity and speed drives will limit overall retention to the smallest and slowest drive.
• Initial Configuration: Install all drives before beginning setup. Adding or replacing drives later requires rebuilding the RAID array, which can take several hours and temporarily affect system performance.
• Retention Considerations: Choose the largest drives your budget allows if retention period is a priority.
• Setup Wizard: Use the setup wizard to configure the RAID array and ensure your system is operational.
  • Note that this process may take several hours to several days to build your RAID array, depending on the storage protection used and the size and quantity of drives.
• Storage Manager: After setup, check the UniFi OS Storage Manager to optimize your system further.

If you are using UniFi Protect, leverage Storage Manager to optimize your retention further.

For UNAS

After setting up your UNAS, ensure to configure storage in UniFi Drive. To ensure smooth performance and strong data protection, follow these best practices:

• Select Uniform Drive Sizes: All drives in the same RAID group must have the same storage size. Using mismatched capacity and speed drives will limit overall retention to the smallest and slowest drive.
• Initial Configuration: Install all drives before beginning setup. Adding or replacing drives later requires rebuilding the RAID array, which can take several hours and temporarily affect system performance.
• Retention Considerations: Choose the largest drives your budget allows if retention period is a priority.
• Setup Storage: Log in to your UNAS to configure the Storage Pool and RAID group and ensure your system is operational.
  • This process may take several hours to several days to build your Storage Pool and RAID group, depending on the storage protection used and the size and quantity of drives.
• Storage Manager: After setup, check the UniFi OS Storage Manager to optimize your system further.

Drive Health

UniFi simplifies monitoring drive and storage health, helping to protect data by identifying healthy, at-risk, or failed drives. You’ll get alerts about at-risk or failed drives, so you can address issues long before facing data loss. Learn more here.

Additionally, all drives have an LED indicator, which displays a White light when the drive is inserted, and an Amber light when there is a drive error.

Replacing Broken Drives

When a drive in your array fails, you can replace it without compromising the RAID configuration:

1. Remove the failed drive.
2. Insert a new drive of equal or greater storage size.
3. Follow the prompts in the UniFi OS Storage interface to rebuild the array.

For detailed instructions, refer to Storage Replacement.

Changing RAID Types

Planning to switch RAID types? Here is some key information you should know before making any changes.

For UNAS

You can convert between RAID types without reformatting, as long as the following conditions are met:

• Convert Advanced Protection to Basic Protection: Allowed only if the RAID group currently has 1 to 3 drives.
• Convert Basic Protection to Advanced Protection: Allowed only if the RAID group currently has 1 to 6 drives.

Example: If you're using Basic Protection with a 3-drive RAID group (RAID 5), you can convert to Advanced Protection by adding one more drive. After applying the change, the RAID type will become Advanced Protection (RAID 6).