RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology of storing data on a number hard disks which function together as a single logical unit. The drives could be physical or logical i.e. in the aforementioned case one single drive is split into independent ones via virtualization software. In either case, the same information is stored on all drives and the main benefit of using this type of a setup is that in the event that a drive stops working, the data shall still be available on the remaining ones. Using a RAID also boosts the overall performance as the input and output operations will be spread among a couple of drives. There are several types of RAID dependant upon how many drives are used, whether writing is done on all the drives in real time or just on a single one, and how the info is synchronized between the drives - whether it is recorded in blocks on one drive after another or all of it is mirrored from one on the others. All these factors imply that the error tolerance as well as the performance between the various RAID types may vary.

RAID in Cloud Hosting

Our advanced cloud web hosting platform where all cloud hosting accounts are created uses super fast NVMe drives as opposed to the classic HDDs, and they work in RAID-Z. With this setup, multiple hard disks work together and at least one of them is a dedicated parity disk. Basically, when data is written on the remaining drives, it is duplicated on the parity one adding an extra bit. This is done for redundancy as even if a drive fails or falls out of the RAID for some reason, the information can be rebuilt and verified using the parity disk and the data recorded on the other ones, so not a single thing will be lost and there won't be any service disturbances. This is another level of protection for your information along with the top-notch ZFS file system that uses checksums to ensure that all the data on our servers is undamaged and is not silently corrupted.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers

If you host your sites inside a semi-dedicated server account from our firm, all of the content that you upload will be saved on NVMe drives that work in RAID-Z. With this type of RAID, at least one of the disks is used for parity - when data is synced between the hard drives, an additional bit is included in it on the parity one. The reasoning behind this is to guarantee the integrity of the data which is cloned to a new drive in case one of the drives in the RAID breaks down since the content being copied on the brand new disk is recalculated from the information on the standard hard drives and on the parity one. Another advantage of RAID-Z is the fact that even if a hard drive fails, the system could switch to a different one quickly without service interruptions of any type. RAID-Z adds one more level of protection for the content you upload on our cloud Internet hosting platform in addition to the ZFS file system that uses unique checksums as a way to verify the integrity of every single file.

RAID in VPS Servers

If you take advantage of one of our VPS server plans, any content you upload will be kept on NVMe drives that operate in RAID. At least one drive is used for parity to guarantee the integrity of the data. In simple terms, this is a special drive where data is copied with one bit added to it. In case a disk from the RAID stops functioning, your websites will continue working and when a new disk takes the place of the malfunctioning one, the bits of the info that will be duplicated on it are calculated using the healthy and the parity drives. That way, any possibility of corrupting data throughout the process is averted. We also use standard hard disk drives which work in RAID for storing backup copies, so should you add this service to your VPS package, your site content will be kept on multiple drives and you won't ever need to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive breakdowns.