RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology of keeping data on multiple hard disk drives which operate together as one single logical unit. The drives can be physical or logical i.e. in the latter case one single drive is divided into independent ones via virtualization software. In either case, identical information is stored on all drives and the key advantage of using this kind of a setup is that in case a drive breaks down, the data will remain available on the remaining ones. Having a RAID also enhances the performance because the input and output operations will be spread among a number of drives. There are several types of RAID based on how many drives are used, whether writing is done on all of the drives in real time or just on a single one, and how the info is synchronized between the hard drives - whether it's recorded in blocks on one drive after another or it is mirrored from one on the others. All these factors mean that the fault tolerance and the performance between the different RAID types can vary.

RAID in Cloud Web Hosting

The NVMe drives which our cutting-edge cloud hosting platform uses for storage function in RAID-Z. This type of RAID is intended to work with the ZFS file system which runs on the platform and it uses the so-called parity disk - a special drive where information saved on the other drives is duplicated with an additional bit added to it. In case one of the disks fails, your Internet sites will continue working from the other ones and once we replace the problematic one, the data which will be duplicated on it will be recovered from what is stored on the other drives as well as the data from the parity disk. This is done so as to be able to recalculate the elements of every single file correctly and to authenticate the integrity of the info copied on the new drive. This is an additional level of security for the information you upload to your cloud web hosting account along with the ZFS file system that analyzes a special digital fingerprint for each and every file on all hard drives in real time.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers

The NVMe drives which are used for keeping any content uploaded to the semi-dedicated server accounts which we offer work in RAID-Z. This is a specific setup where one or more disk drives are used for parity i.e. the system will include an extra bit to any data duplicated on this type of a disk drive. If a disk fails and is replaced with another one, what information will be cloned on the latter will be a combination calculated between the data on the remaining disks and that on the parity one. This is done to guarantee that the information on the new drive shall be accurate. During the process, the RAID will continue functioning adequately and the faulty drive will not affect the normal operation of your Internet sites in any way. Using NVMes in RAID-Z is an amazing addition to the ZFS file system which runs on our cutting-edge cloud platform with regards to preserving the integrity of your files because ZFS uses special digital identifiers known as checksums so as to prevent silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS Servers

The physical servers where we make VPS server use extremely fast NVMe drives which will raise the speed of your sites significantly. The hard drives function in RAID to guarantee that you will not lose any info due to a power loss or a hardware failure. The production servers take advantage of a variety of drives where the data is stored and one disk is used for parity i.e. one bit is added to all information copied on it, which makes it easier to restore the site content without any loss in case a main drive fails. In case you pick our backup service, the data will be stored on an individual machine that uses standard hard-disk drives and even though there's no parity one in this case, they are also in a RAID to ensure that we will have a backup of your website content at all times. With this setup your info will always be safe since it will be available on multiple drives.