Good Morning All. Has anyone successfully created a RAID array using external SSD other than the 0, 1 and JBOD alternatives in Disk Utility? I would like to create a RAID 6 using 4x1TB disks that I own, (Photography storage) but cannot seem to find a software package supporting this. Any help would be gratefully recieved. Thank you.
Mac Studio
SoftRAID is the only third party app/driver for macOS that I have ever seen recommended since SoftRAID is developed by OWC who has been providing third party peripherals for Macs for many decades. Apple support is OWC's first & main priority. If there are any other software RAID based options, I am not aware of them and have never seen any others mentioned on these forums. As you discovered Apple's software RAID options through Disk Utility are limited.
The only other way to get multiple RAID options is if the external enclosure provides hardware based RAID with the options you desire.
There are advantages & disadvantages to both hardware & software RAID. If the enclosure is managing a hardware RAID, then you can only access data on that RAID with that enclosure. While a software RAID will work with the drives installed (moved) into any enclosure supporting JBOD. Of course a hardware RAID tends to be a bit faster & more reliable since even a software RAID with all the drives in a single enclosure can some times break the RAID if any of the drives takes too long to respond (either due to a software issue or a hardware issue) which I've seen happen with some of our Apple/SoftRAID setups.
SoftRAID is the only third party app/driver for macOS that I have ever seen recommended since SoftRAID is developed by OWC who has been providing third party peripherals for Macs for many decades. Apple support is OWC's first & main priority. If there are any other software RAID based options, I am not aware of them and have never seen any others mentioned on these forums. As you discovered Apple's software RAID options through Disk Utility are limited.
The only other way to get multiple RAID options is if the external enclosure provides hardware based RAID with the options you desire.
There are advantages & disadvantages to both hardware & software RAID. If the enclosure is managing a hardware RAID, then you can only access data on that RAID with that enclosure. While a software RAID will work with the drives installed (moved) into any enclosure supporting JBOD. Of course a hardware RAID tends to be a bit faster & more reliable since even a software RAID with all the drives in a single enclosure can some times break the RAID if any of the drives takes too long to respond (either due to a software issue or a hardware issue) which I've seen happen with some of our Apple/SoftRAID setups.
Unless you need the ultimate in performance, via directly connecting, what about considering a NAS? Most NAS boxes provide all kinds of RAID options.
The Synology NAS I use has RAID 5, RAID 6, plus you can have hot spares that automatically get swapped in when one of the existing RAID set drivers fails, so you are immediately re-silvering the RAID onto the hot spare.
Obviously you are speed limited to the Ethernet (or WiFi if that is your connection to your home network).
Are all of your SSDs installed into a single enclosure? If not, then you will more than likely encounter problems.
Check out the paid third party software SoftRAID.
Thank you. I have looked at SoftRaid as an option to create a RAID 5 but I shall hold off for a while to see if a RAID 6 comes along elsewhere. Once again, thanks.
RAIDs other than 0,1 and JBOD
