RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology for saving data on multiple hard disks which function together as one single logical unit. The drives can be physical or logical i.e. in the aforementioned case one single drive is divided into separate ones using virtualization software. In any case, identical data is saved on all of the drives and the main benefit of employing this type of a setup is that in case a drive stops working, the data will remain available on the other ones. Having a RAID also boosts the performance since the input and output operations will be spread among a few drives. There are several kinds of RAID depending on how many drives are used, whether writing is carried out on all drives in real time or just on one, and how the information is synchronized between the drives - whether it is written in blocks on one drive after another or it is mirrored from one on the others. These factors imply that the error tolerance and the performance between the various RAID types can differ.

RAID in Hosting

The state-of-the-art cloud web hosting platform where all hosting accounts are created uses quick NVMe drives instead of the classic HDDs, and they work in RAID-Z. With this configuration, several hard disks work together and at least a single one is a dedicated parity disk. Put simply, when data is written on the remaining drives, it is cloned on the parity one adding an extra bit. This is done for redundancy as even in case a drive fails or falls out of the RAID for whatever reason, the info can be rebuilt and verified using the parity disk and the data stored on the other ones, which means that nothing will be lost and there won't be any service disturbances. This is an additional level of security for your info together with the revolutionary ZFS file system which uses checksums to guarantee that all data on our servers is undamaged and is not silently corrupted.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting

The information uploaded to any semi-dedicated hosting account is stored on NVMe drives which function in RAID-Z. One of the drives in such a configuration is used for parity - any time data is cloned on it, an extra bit is added. In case a disk turns out to be problematic, it will be taken out of the RAID without interrupting the work of the websites since the data will load from the other drives, and when a brand new drive is added, the information that will be cloned on it will be a blend between the information on the parity disk and data saved on the other drives in the RAID. This is done so as to guarantee that the data which is being cloned is correct, so as soon as the new drive is rebuilt, it could be incorporated into the RAID as a production one. This is one more warranty for the integrity of your info as the ZFS file system that runs on our cloud Internet hosting platform compares a unique checksum of all the copies of the files on the separate drives so as to avoid any chance of silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS

The NVMe drives which we use on the machines where we generate virtual private servers operate in RAID to ensure that any content which you upload will be available and intact at all times. At least 1 drive is employed for parity - one bit of info is added to any data copied on it. If a main drive stops working, it is replaced and the data that will be copied on it is calculated between the rest of the drives and the parity one. This is done to make sure that the correct info is copied and that no file is corrupted since the new drive will be included in the RAID afterwards. In addition, we use hard drives operating in RAID on the backup servers, so in case you add this upgrade to your VPS package, you'll use an even more reliable web hosting service since your content will be available on multiple drives irrespective of any kind of unforeseen hardware malfunction.