Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a method of keeping content on multiple hard disks concurrently. A RAID can be software or hardware depending on the HDDs that are used - physical or logical ones, but what is common between them is the fact that they all operate as one single unit where info is kept. The biggest advantage of using a RAID is redundancy since the data on all of the drives shall be identical at all times, so even in case some drive fails for whatever reason, the info will still be available on the other drives. The general performance is also better as the reading and writing processes will be split between multiple drives, so a single one won't be overloaded. There are different sorts of RAIDs where the performance and fault tolerance may vary depending on the specific setup - whether your data is written on all of the drives real-time or it is written on one drive and afterwards mirrored on another, the number of drives are used for the RAID, and many others.

RAID in Shared Website Hosting

The SSD drives which our cutting-edge cloud web hosting platform employs for storage work in RAID-Z. This kind of RAID is intended to work with the ZFS file system that runs on the platform and it employs the so-called parity disk - a specific drive where information kept on the other drives is cloned with an extra bit added to it. In case one of the disks stops working, your Internet sites will continue working from the other ones and after we replace the faulty one, the info which will be duplicated on it will be recovered from what is stored on the rest of the drives as well as the data from the parity disk. This is performed in order to be able to recalculate the bits of every single file correctly and to verify the integrity of the info cloned on the new drive. This is one more level of security for the information that you upload to your shared website hosting account in addition to the ZFS file system that analyzes a special digital fingerprint for every single file on all of the drives in real time.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers

The SSD drives that are used for holding any content uploaded to the semi-dedicated server accounts that we provide function in RAID-Z. This is a specific configuration where one or more drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will include an additional bit to any data duplicated on this kind of a drive. In the event that a disk fails and is substituted with another one, what info will be cloned on the latter shall be a combination calculated between the data on the other drives and that on the parity one. This is done to make sure that the info on the new drive will be correct. Throughout the process, the RAID will continue functioning adequately and the faulty drive won't impact the normal operation of your Internet sites in any way. Working with SSDs in RAID-Z is a fantastic addition to the ZFS file system which runs on our cutting-edge cloud platform in terms of preserving the integrity of your files as ZFS uses unique digital identifiers identified as checksums to avoid silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS Servers

The SSD drives which we use on the physical machines where we generate VPS servers work in RAID to ensure that any content that you upload will be available and intact all of the time. At least 1 drive is employed for parity - one bit of info is added to any data cloned on it. If a main drive breaks down, it is replaced and the information that will be duplicated on it is calculated between the remaining drives and the parity one. That’s done to make sure that the right data is copied and that no file is corrupted as the new drive will be used in the RAID afterwards. Also, we use hard disk drives operating in RAID on the backup servers, so in the event that you add this upgrade to your VPS plan, you'll use an even more reliable hosting service because your content will be available on multiple drives regardless of any sort of unexpected hardware failure.