RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology of saving data on multiple hard disks which operate together as one logical unit. The drives can be physical or logical i.e. in the aforementioned case one drive is split into independent ones via virtualization software. Either way, the very same information is stored on all of the drives and the basic advantage of employing 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. Employing a RAID also boosts the performance since the input and output operations will be spread among a few drives. There are several types of RAID dependant upon how many hard drives are used, whether writing is done on all the drives in real time or just on a single one, and how the data is synchronized between the drives - whether it's recorded in blocks on one drive after another or all of it is mirrored from one on the others. All these factors suggest that the error tolerance and the performance between the various RAID types may differ.

RAID in Cloud Web Hosting

Our state-of-the-art cloud web hosting platform where all cloud web hosting accounts are generated employs fast NVMe drives rather than the standard HDDs, and they function in RAID-Z. With this setup, numerous hard disk drives work together and at least a single one is a dedicated parity disk. Put simply, when data is written on the other drives, it's cloned on the parity one adding an extra bit. This is done for redundancy as even in case some drive fails or falls out of the RAID for whatever reason, the data can be rebuilt and verified thanks to the parity disk and the data stored on the other ones, thus not a single thing will be lost and there will be no service disturbances. This is another level of protection for your information in addition to the cutting-edge ZFS file system which uses checksums to make sure that all data on our servers is undamaged and is not silently corrupted.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting

The NVMe drives that are used for storing any website content uploaded to the semi-dedicated hosting accounts which we provide operate 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 cloned on this kind of a drive. In the event that a disk fails and is substituted with a new one, what information will be copied on the latter shall be a mix calculated between the data on the remaining disks and that on the parity one. This is done to guarantee that the data on the new drive will be accurate. Throughout the process, the RAID will continue functioning adequately and the problematic drive won't affect the normal operation of your websites in any respect. Using NVMes in RAID-Z is a great addition to the ZFS file system which runs on our cutting-edge cloud platform in terms of preserving the integrity of your files because ZFS uses specific digital identifiers identified as checksums in order to prevent silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS

If you take advantage of one of our virtual private server plans, any content you upload will be saved on NVMe drives that function in RAID. At least 1 drive is employed for parity so as 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. If a disk part of the RAID stops working, your Internet sites will continue working and when a new disk takes the place of the defective one, the bits of the data that will be duplicated on it are calculated by using the healthy and the parity drives. By doing this, any chance of corrupting data during the process is averted. We also employ ordinary hard drives which function in RAID for storing backup copies, so if you add this service to your VPS plan, your site content will be saved on multiple drives and you will never have to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive breakdowns.