Terminology

[Smite]

Blade Server = apart of a larger unit with special internal connectivity between each blade.

Rack Server = Standard server with rack mounts fits standard Unit sizing 1u,2u,3u,4u,etc…

Tower Server = Server in a tower cassis, similar to desktops just larger in overall size.

Raid = Redundant Array of (Inexpensive\Independent) Disks

Raid0 = striping data written to both disks without parity for speed.

Raid1 = mirroring same data written to both disks for fault tolerance of 1 disk

Raid 5 = minimum 3 disks with fault tolerance of 1 disk typical 2x speed of reads (common practice is to not use this raid level)

Raid 6 = minimum 4 disks with fault tolerance of 2 disks. Typical 2x speed of reads.

Raid 10 = minimum 4 disks with fault tolerance of 1 disk. Typical 4x read and 2x write speeds

ZFS file system and freenas give you access to RaidZ these are simplified in RAIDZ is speed RAIDZ1 is 1 drive tolerance RAIDZ2 is 2 drive tolerance, So on and so forth.

Generally speaking, freenas uses software raid and while standard raid is hardware based.

Rack’s, Server racks are 19” wide. 1U is 1.75” and common sizes are half and full racks, half being 24u and full being 42u (yes I am aware of 24 not being half of 42).

[Mikensan]

Server = any configuration of a system that serves 1 or more dedicated purposes. E.G. File Server.