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USB Flash Drives RAID 0 on Linux - Pair of SanDisk Ultra 32gb CZ48 USB 3.0

Gear Review

Linux RAID 0 on USB Flash Drives

*Doubling Speed and Storage with Off-the-Shelf USBs*

2
Drives
64
GB Array
RAID
0
~50%
Read Increase
Section I

Introduction: The Quest for USB RAID

I was able to create a Linux RAID 0 Array with two (2) SanDisk 32gb Ultra USB 3.0 Flash Drives. I opted for RAID 0 - Striping as it would give me one logical 64gb Drive with theoretically 'double' the speed.

Due to the Linux Test Machine having only USB 2.0 ports, the theoretical maximum it could achieve is limited by USB 2.0 max speed of 480mbits/sec (roughly 60mb/sec).

 

Section II

Building the RAID 0 Array

Initial Setup & Single Drive Performance

Initial test of a Single USB Flash Drive showed a 30mb/sec Read Speed.

To begin, I installed mdadm, which was conveniently located in the Ubuntu Software Center. I reviewed other users' guides, and none worked exactly as described. However, after reviewing each one, I was able to piece together the necessary terminal commands and steps to take.

 

Steps Taken to Create RAID 0
  • →sudo -s — Enter Superuser mode
  • →Enter Admin Password — Provide administrative credentials
  • →mdadm -Cv /dev/md0 -l0 -n2 /dev/sdc /dev/sdd — Create the RAID 0 array
  • →mke2fs /dev/md0 — Format the new RAID array with ext2 filesystem
  • →mount /dev/md0 /mnt/samsung — Mount the array to a designated directory

I also had to mess around in disks to get things to work. Afterward, I renamed the Lost+Found folder to 'USB Files' as that was the only folder that allowed me to edit data on the new RAID Array.

Section III

Performance Benchmarks

RAID 0 Array Performance

The RAID 0 array did improve speeds by 50% on READ, achieving 46mb/sec. This might be the most I can expect on USB 2.0 ports. On a USB 3.0 machine, I anticipate a more significant boost; I was experiencing about 75mb/sec READ on a Windows PC with USB 3.0 ports, and it might enjoy 150mb/sec+ if that were a Linux machine!

Benchmark Results Comparison

I tried the Disks Utility - Benchmark and it gave me these results:

ConfigurationObserved Read SpeedObserved Write SpeedAvg Access Time
Single USB Flash Drive30 MB/sN/AN/A
RAID 0 Array (Actual)46 MB/sN/AN/A
RAID 0 Array (Benchmark)70 MB/s20 MB/sN/A
Laptop HDD (Benchmark)47 MB/sN/AN/A
Single USB Drive (Benchmark)~30 MB/s~6 MB/sBetter than RAID
I'm skeptical of the 70mb/sec READ speed from the Disk Utility benchmark as I was only able to get at most 54mb/sec in actual transfers. However, the WRITE speed seems reasonable and I did observe that on actual file transfers.

Another possibility of why I'm not observing 70mb/sec READ speeds is maybe the laptop's HDD is the bottleneck? The WD 250gb HDD is giving me about 47mb/sec which is what I was observing in the data transfer from the RAID USBs. The RAID improved the READ speed, however...interestingly the Avg Access Time is better on the single USB Flash Drive vs. the RAID.

  

Section IV

Conclusion: Practicality and Future Thoughts

The plus-side, I now have a logical 64gb USB Flash Drive and don't feel 'as bad' in buying two (2) 32gb drives...when I should have gotten another bad-ass 64gb CZ80 Extreme. To make it even better...this running RAID 0 makes it technically faster than the a single CZ80 could have ever been in a USB 2.0 port. And perhaps make it on par in READ speed at least on a USB 3.0 port.

This isn't practical at the moment. One technical problem I haven't figured out is how to automatically get the RAID Array identified and mounted properly without having to manually access it in the DISKS utility. If that were automated and allowed the USB Flash Drives to instantly build the RAID Array mount, that would be awesome.

The other downside...the USB Flash Drives must work as a pair and on a Linux Environment that can recognize them. Maybe that's okay as I'll only use these in the Lab.

Happy to have experimented with this unique storage setup!
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