RAID, which is short for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a software or hardware storage virtualization technology which permits a system to take advantage of a number of hard drives as one single logical unit. In other words, all of the drives are used as one and the information on all of them is identical. This type of a configuration has 2 huge advantages over using a single drive to store data - the first one is redundancy, so if one drive fails, the data will be accessed through the remaining ones, and the second one is improved performance because the input/output, or reading/writing operations will be spread among several drives. There're different RAID types depending on what amount of drives are employed, if reading and writing are both done from all the drives concurrently, whether data is written in blocks on one drive after another or is mirrored between drives in the same time, and so on. Based on the particular setup, the fault tolerance and the performance could differ.

RAID in Cloud Hosting

The hard drives which we use for storage with our top-notch cloud hosting platform are not the standard HDDs, but high-speed solid-state drives (SSD). They work in RAID-Z - a special setup intended for the ZFS file system which we employ. Any content that you add to the cloud hosting account will be stored on multiple hard drives and at least 1 shall be used as a parity disk. This is a special drive where an additional bit is included to any content copied on it. In the event that a disk in the RAID fails, it will be replaced without service disruptions and the info will be rebuilt on the new drive by recalculating its bits thanks to the data on the parity disk along with that on the remaining disks. This is done in order to ensure the integrity of the data and together with the real-time checksum verification that the ZFS file system runs on all drives, you'll never have to concern yourself with losing any information no matter what.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting

The SSD drives that are used for storing any site content uploaded to the semi-dedicated hosting accounts which we offer operate in RAID-Z. This is a specific setup where one or more disk drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will include an extra bit to any data duplicated on such a hard drive. In case that a disk fails and is substituted with a new one, what info will be cloned on the latter will be a mix calculated between the data on the other drives and that on the parity one. This is done to ensure that the data on the new drive shall be accurate. During the process, the RAID will continue functioning adequately and the faulty drive won't affect the adequate operation of your Internet sites by any means. Working with SSDs in RAID-Z is a fantastic addition to the ZFS file system that runs on our state-of-the-art cloud platform with regards to preserving the integrity of your files because ZFS uses unique digital identifiers named checksums so as to prevent silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS

If you employ one of our virtual private server plans, any content that you upload will be kept on SSD drives that operate in RAID. At least one drive is employed for parity so as to ensure the integrity of your information. In simple terms, this is a special drive where information is copied with one bit added to it. In case a disk within the RAID stops functioning, your Internet sites will continue working and when a new disk takes the place of the faulty one, the bits of the info that will be copied on it are calculated by using the healthy and the parity drives. This way, any potential for corrupting data throughout the process is prevented. We also employ conventional hard disks 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'll never have to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive failures.