Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a method of storing content on multiple hard disk drives concurrently. A RAID could be software or hardware depending on the HDDs that are used - physical or logical ones, however what’s common between them is that they all function as just a single unit where data is stored. The main advantage of employing a RAID is redundancy because the information on all the drives is identical all of the time, so even if a drive fails for whatever reason, the information will still be available on the other drives. The general performance is also enhanced as the reading and writing processes will be split between multiple drives, so a single one won't be overloaded. There're different kinds of RAIDs where the performance and fault tolerance may differ based on the particular setup - whether your data is written on all the drives real-time or it is written on a single drive and after that mirrored on another, what number of drives are used for the RAID, and so on.

RAID in Cloud Hosting

Our advanced cloud web hosting platform where all cloud hosting accounts are created employs quick NVMe drives as opposed to the traditional HDDs, and they function in RAID-Z. With this setup, numerous hard drives operate together and at least a single one is a dedicated parity disk. Put simply, when data is written on the other drives, it's copied on the parity one adding an extra bit. This is done for redundancy as even if some drive fails or falls out of the RAID for whatever reason, the info can be rebuilt and verified thanks to the parity disk and the data stored on the other ones, therefore not a single thing will be lost and there will be no service interruptions. This is one more level of security for your data along with the state-of-the-art ZFS file system that uses checksums to ensure that all of the data on our servers is intact and is not silently corrupted.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting

The NVMe drives which are used for keeping any website content uploaded to the semi-dedicated hosting accounts that we provide function in RAID-Z. This is a special setup where one or more disk drives are used for parity i.e. the system will add an extra bit to any data copied on such a drive. If a disk fails and is substituted with another one, what information will be duplicated on the latter shall be a mix calculated between the data on the other disks and that on the parity one. This is done to make sure that the info on the new drive will be accurate. During the process, the RAID will continue operating adequately and the malfunctioning drive won't have an impact on the normal operation of your Internet sites in any respect. Using NVMes in RAID-Z is an amazing addition to the ZFS file system that runs on our advanced cloud platform in terms of preserving the integrity of your files since ZFS uses unique digital identifiers identified as checksums so as to avoid silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS Web Hosting

If you use one of our virtual private server plans, any content which you upload will be kept on NVMe drives which operate in RAID. At least 1 drive is used for parity so as to guarantee the integrity of your data. In simple terms, this is a special drive where info is copied with one bit added to it. In case a disk inside the RAID breaks down, your Internet sites will continue working and when a new disk replaces the faulty one, the bits of the information that will be copied on it are calculated by using the healthy and the parity drives. That way, any potential for corrupting data during the process is averted. We also employ ordinary hard disks that operate in RAID for storing backup copies, so in case you add this service to your VPS plan, your content will be kept on multiple drives and you will never need to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive breakdowns.