RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology of storing data on several hard drives that function together as one single logical unit. The drives could be physical or logical i.e. in the second case a single drive is split into individual ones via virtualization software. In any case, exactly the same information is kept on all of the drives and the main advantage of using such a setup is that if a drive breaks down, the data will still be available on the other ones. Using a RAID also improves the overall performance since the input and output operations will be spread among a few drives. There are several kinds of RAID depending on how many hard drives are used, whether writing is done on all the drives in real time or just on one, and how the info is synchronized between the hard drives - whether it's recorded in blocks on one drive after another or all of it is mirrored from one on the others. All of these factors imply that the fault tolerance as well as the performance between the different RAID types can differ.

RAID in Cloud Web Hosting

The NVMe drives which our cutting-edge cloud hosting platform employs for storage work in RAID-Z. This type of RAID is intended to work with the ZFS file system that runs on the platform and it works by using the so-called parity disk - a special drive where information located on the other drives is cloned with an additional bit added to it. In case one of the disks stops working, your websites shall continue working from the other ones and as soon as we replace the faulty one, the info which will be cloned on it will be rebuilt from what is stored on the rest of the drives along with the data from the parity disk. This is performed so as to be able to recalculate the bits of every single file adequately and to confirm the integrity of the information cloned on the new drive. This is an additional level of security for the information which you upload to your cloud web hosting account together with the ZFS file system which compares a special digital fingerprint for each and every file on all of the hard drives in real time.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting

The RAID type which we use for the cloud hosting platform where your semi-dedicated hosting account shall be created is known as RAID-Z. What's different about it is that at least one of the disks is used as a parity drive. Simply put, whenever any kind of data is cloned on this particular hard drive, one more bit is included to it and if a malfunctioning disk is replaced, the data which will be copied on it is a mix of the data on the other hard disks in the RAID and that on the parity one. We do this to guarantee that the information is intact. Throughout this process, your websites will be functioning normally since RAID-Z allows for a whole drive to fail without causing any service disturbances and it simply uses one of the remaining ones as the main production drive. Using RAID-Z together with the ZFS file system which uses checksums to warrant that no data will get silently corrupted on our servers, you'll never have to worry about the integrity of your files.

RAID in VPS Hosting

If you take advantage of one of our virtual private server plans, any content which you upload will be saved on NVMe drives which work in RAID. At least 1 drive is used for parity so as to guarantee the integrity of the info. In simple terms, this is a special drive where data is copied with one bit added to it. If a disk in the RAID stops working, your websites will continue working and when a new disk substitutes the defective one, the bits of the info that will be cloned on it are calculated by using the healthy and the parity drives. That way, any potential for corrupting data throughout the process is averted. We also use ordinary hard disk drives that function in RAID for storing backup copies, so if you add this service to your VPS plan, your website content will be saved on multiple drives and you won't ever need to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive failures.