Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a method of storing content on several hard disks concurrently. A RAID could be software or hardware based on the drives that are used - physical or logical ones, still what’s common between them is the fact that they all operate as one single unit where your information is saved. The key advantage of using a RAID is redundancy because the info on all drives will be identical all of the time, so even if a drive fails for whatever reason, the data will still be present on the other drives. The overall performance is also better since the reading and writing processes could be split between multiple drives, so a single one will not be overloaded. There are different kinds of RAIDs where the functionality and fault tolerance may vary according to the exact setup - whether information is written on all of the drives in real time or it is written on one drive and then mirrored on another, what number of drives are used for the RAID, etcetera.

RAID in Web Hosting

The hard disks that we employ for storage with our top-notch cloud Internet hosting platform are not the standard HDDs, but fast NVMes. They operate in RAID-Z - a special setup developed for the ZFS file system that we use. All the content that you upload to your web hosting account will be held on multiple hard disks and at least one of them will be employed as a parity disk. This is a specific drive where an extra bit is added to any content copied on it. In case a disk in the RAID fails, it will be changed without any service disruptions and the data will be rebuilt on the new drive by recalculating its bits using the data on the parity disk plus that on the other disks. This is done so as to ensure the integrity of the data and together with the real-time checksum verification which the ZFS file system runs on all drives, you'll never need to concern yourself with the loss of any info no matter what.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting

The NVMe drives that are used for keeping any site content uploaded to the semi-dedicated hosting accounts which we provide work in RAID-Z. This is a specific setup where one or more drives are used for parity i.e. the system will add an extra bit to any data copied on this type of a drive. In the event that a disk fails and is replaced with another one, what data will be cloned on the latter shall be a combination calculated between the data on the remaining drives and that on the parity one. This is done to make sure that the info on the new drive will be correct. During the process, the RAID will continue working adequately and the problematic drive won't impact the normal operation of your sites by any means. Using NVMes in RAID-Z is a superb addition to the ZFS file system which runs on our cutting-edge cloud platform in terms of preserving the integrity of your files since ZFS uses special digital identifiers called checksums in order to avoid silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS Web Hosting

In case you take advantage of one of our virtual private server plans, any content that you upload will be stored on NVMe drives which operate in RAID. At least a single 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. In case a disk within the RAID stops working, your Internet sites will continue working and when a new disk substitutes the flawed one, the bits of the information that will be cloned on it are calculated using the healthy and the parity drives. This way, any probability of corrupting data during the process is avoided. We also use conventional hard disk drives that operate in RAID for storing backup copies, so if you add this service to your VPS package, your site content will be kept on multiple drives and you will never need to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive failures.