What is the minimum number of disks required to create a RAID DP data aggregate?

To create a RAID DP (Double Parity) data aggregate, a minimum of six disks is required. RAID DP is NetApp’s proprietary implementation of RAID 6, which uses two parity blocks for each row of data. This design allows the system to tolerate the failure of up to two disks simultaneously without losing data integrity.

In a RAID DP configuration, the first four disks are needed for the data, while at least two additional disks are necessary for storing the two parity blocks. This is essential for ensuring that in the event of a disk failure, data can be reconstructed from the remaining disks using the parity information.

Utilizing fewer than six disks would not provide the necessary redundancy and would not meet the requirements for RAID DP operation, thus compromising data protection in the event of disk failures.