RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology of keeping data on a number hard drives which work together as one logical unit. The drives could be physical or logical i.e. in the latter case one single drive is split into individual ones through virtualization software. Either way, the very same info is saved on all drives and the key benefit of employing this kind of a setup is that if a drive fails, the data shall still be available on the other ones. Having a RAID also enhances the performance since the input and output operations will be spread among several drives. There are several types of RAID depending on how many hard disks are used, whether writing is performed on all of the drives in real time or just on a single one, and how the data is synchronized between the drives - whether it is recorded in blocks on one drive after another or it is mirrored from one on the others. These factors show that the error tolerance as well as the performance between the different RAID types may vary.
RAID in Web Hosting
The state-of-the-art cloud hosting platform where all web hosting accounts are created uses quick NVMe drives instead of the standard HDDs, and they operate in RAID-Z. With this configuration, multiple hard disks work together and at least a single one is a dedicated parity disk. Put simply, when data is written on the rest of the drives, it is copied on the parity one adding an extra bit. This is carried out for redundancy as even in case a drive fails or falls out of the RAID for some reason, the data can be rebuilt and verified thanks to the parity disk and the data recorded on the other ones, therefore not a single thing will be lost and there will not be any service disturbances. This is another level of protection for your information along with the revolutionary ZFS file system which uses checksums to ensure that all of the data on our servers is intact and is not silently corrupted.
RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting
The NVMe drives that are used for holding any site content uploaded to the semi-dedicated hosting accounts that we provide function in RAID-Z. This is a special configuration where one or more drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will include an extra bit to any data cloned on this type of a hard drive. In case that a disk fails and is replaced with another one, what information will be copied on the latter will be a mix calculated between the data on the other hard disks and that on the parity one. This is done to ensure that the info on the new drive shall be correct. Throughout the process, the RAID will continue operating adequately and the malfunctioning drive won't affect the proper operation of your Internet sites by any means. Working with NVMes in RAID-Z is an excellent addition to the ZFS file system which runs on our revolutionary cloud platform in terms of preserving the integrity of your files because ZFS uses special digital identifiers referred to as checksums so as to prevent silent data corruption.
RAID in VPS Hosting
In case you use one of our virtual private server plans, any content that you upload will be stored on NVMe drives which function in RAID. At least 1 drive is intended for parity so as to ensure the integrity of the info. In simple terms, this is a special drive where information is copied with one bit added to it. In the event that a disk in the RAID stops functioning, your sites will continue working and when a new disk takes the place of the malfunctioning one, the bits of the data that will be duplicated on it are calculated using the healthy and the parity drives. By doing this, any possibility of corrupting data throughout the process is prevented. We also employ ordinary hard disk drives that function in RAID for storing backups, so should you include this service to your VPS plan, your content will be saved on multiple drives and you will never have to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive failures.