RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology of storing data on a number hard disks which operate together as one logical unit. The drives could be physical or logical i.e. in the latter case a single drive is divided into individual ones via virtualization software. Either way, the same info is kept on all of the drives and the main benefit of employing this type of a setup is that in the event that a drive fails, the data will remain available on the remaining ones. Using a RAID also boosts the performance since the input and output operations will be spread among a couple of drives. There are several kinds of RAID based on how many drives are used, whether writing is performed on all of the drives in real time or just on a single one, and how the information is synced between the hard drives - whether it is recorded in blocks on one drive after another or it is mirrored from one on the others. All of these factors mean that the fault tolerance as well as the performance between the various RAID types could differ.

RAID in Cloud Web Hosting

The hard disks that we employ for storage with our revolutionary cloud hosting platform are not the traditional HDDs, but extremely fast NVMes. They work in RAID-Z - a special setup created for the ZFS file system that we employ. All of the content that you add to the cloud web hosting account will be saved on multiple drives and at least 1 will be employed as a parity disk. This is a specific drive where an extra bit is included to any content copied on it. In case a disk in the RAID fails, it'll be replaced without any service disruptions and the data will be rebuilt on the new drive by recalculating its bits using the data on the parity disk plus that on the remaining disks. This is done so as to ensure the integrity of the information and together with the real-time checksum validation that the ZFS file system executes on all drives, you'll never have to be concerned about losing any info no matter what.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers

The NVMe drives that are used for storing any content uploaded to the semi-dedicated server accounts which we provide function in RAID-Z. This is a special configuration where one or more drives are used for parity i.e. the system will include an extra bit to any data cloned on such a drive. If a disk fails and is replaced with a new one, what info will be cloned on the latter will be a mix calculated between the data on the other disks and that on the parity one. This is done to ensure that the data on the new drive will be correct. During the process, the RAID will continue functioning normally and the malfunctioning drive will not have an impact on the adequate operation of your Internet sites by any means. Using NVMes in RAID-Z is an outstanding addition to the ZFS file system which runs on our revolutionary cloud platform in terms of preserving the integrity of your files since ZFS uses specific digital identifiers referred to as checksums so as to avoid silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS Servers

In case you take advantage of one of our VPS server packages, any content which you upload will be kept on NVMe drives which work in RAID. At least one drive is used for parity to guarantee the integrity of your data. In simple terms, this is a special drive where info is copied with one bit added to it. In case a disk in the RAID breaks down, your websites will continue working and when a new disk substitutes the malfunctioning one, the bits of the information that will be copied on it are calculated using the healthy and the parity drives. That way, any probability of corrupting data throughout the process is averted. We also use regular hard drives that work in RAID for storing backups, so if you include this service to your VPS plan, your website content will be stored on multiple drives and you'll never have to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive breakdowns.