RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology for saving data on several hard drives which operate together as a single logical unit. The drives can be physical or logical i.e. in the latter case one single drive is divided into different ones using virtualization software. In any case, exactly the same information is stored on all drives and the basic benefit of employing this type of a setup is that if a drive fails, the data will still be available on the remaining ones. Having a RAID also enhances the performance since the input and output operations will be spread among several drives. There are several kinds of RAID dependant upon how many hard 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 drives - whether it's written in blocks on one drive after another or all of it is mirrored from one on the others. All of these factors indicate that the error tolerance and the performance between the various RAID types can differ.

RAID in Hosting

The hard drives that we use for storage with our outstanding cloud web hosting platform are not the classic HDDs, but fast NVMes. They function in RAID-Z - a special setup developed for the ZFS file system that we work with. All the content that you upload to the hosting account will be held on multiple hard disks and at least 1 shall be used as a parity disk. This is a specific drive where an extra bit is included to any content copied on it. If a disk in the RAID stops working, it'll be replaced without any service disturbances and the information will be recovered on the new drive by recalculating its bits thanks to the data on the parity disk plus that on the remaining disks. This is done in order to ensure the integrity of the information and together with the real-time checksum authentication that the ZFS file system runs on all drives, you'll never have to concern yourself with the loss of any information no matter what.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting

The NVMe drives that are used for storing any site content uploaded to the semi-dedicated hosting accounts that we offer function in RAID-Z. This is a special configuration where one or more disk drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will include an extra bit to any data duplicated on this type of a drive. If a disk fails and is replaced with a new one, what data will be copied on the latter will be a combination calculated between the data on the remaining hard disks and that on the parity one. This is done to make sure that the information on the new drive will be accurate. During the process, the RAID will continue working adequately and the faulty drive will not impact the adequate operation of your sites at all. Using NVMes in RAID-Z is an amazing addition to the ZFS file system which runs on our cutting-edge cloud platform with regard to preserving the integrity of your files since ZFS uses unique digital identifiers identified as checksums to avoid silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS

The NVMe drives that we use on the machines where we set up virtual private servers function in RAID to make sure that any content you upload will be available and intact all the time. At least a single drive is used for parity - one bit of information is added to any data cloned on it. In case a main drive fails, it is changed and the information that will be copied on it is calculated between the rest of the drives and the parity one. This is done to ensure that the correct data is copied and that no file is corrupted because the new drive will be a part of the RAID afterwards. We also use hard disks operating in RAID on the backup servers, so if you add this upgrade to your VPS plan, you'll use an even more reliable hosting service since your content will be available on multiple drives regardless of any sudden hardware malfunction.