Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a method of storing content on multiple hard disk drives simultaneously. A RAID can be software or hardware depending on the HDDs that are used - physical or logical ones, still what is common between them is that they all work as just a single unit where data is saved. The key advantage of using a RAID is redundancy because the data on all of the drives shall be the same at all times, so even if a drive fails for whatever reason, the info will still be present on the other drives. The overall performance is enhanced as well as the reading and writing processes can be split between different drives, so a single one will not be overloaded. There're different types of RAIDs where the functionality and fault tolerance can vary based on the particular setup - whether your data is written on all drives in real time or it's written on a single drive and afterwards mirrored on another, what amount of drives are used for the RAID, etc.

RAID in Cloud Hosting

Our advanced cloud web hosting platform where all cloud hosting accounts are made employs super fast NVMe drives instead of the standard HDDs, and they function in RAID-Z. With this configuration, multiple hard disks operate together and at least one of them is a dedicated parity disk. In simple terms, when data is written on the rest of the drives, it's copied on the parity one adding an extra bit. This is done for redundancy as even in case some drive fails or falls out of the RAID for whatever reason, the information can be rebuilt and verified thanks to the parity disk and the data saved on the other ones, thus absolutely nothing will be lost and there will not be any service disorders. This is an additional level of security for your info together with the advanced ZFS file system which uses checksums to ensure that all the data on our servers is intact and is not silently corrupted.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers

The NVMe drives that are used for keeping any site content uploaded to the semi-dedicated server accounts which we provide work in RAID-Z. This is a specific configuration where one or more hard drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will include an extra bit to any data duplicated on this kind of a disk drive. If a disk fails and is replaced with a new one, what info will be duplicated on the latter will be a combination calculated between the data on the other drives and that on the parity one. This is done to make sure that the info on the new drive will be correct. Throughout the process, the RAID will continue operating normally and the problematic drive will not affect the normal operation of your websites in any way. Using NVMes in RAID-Z is an outstanding addition to the ZFS file system that runs on our state-of-the-art cloud platform in terms of preserving the integrity of your files because ZFS uses specific digital identifiers named checksums in order to prevent silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS Servers

All VPS server accounts that our company provides are generated on physical servers which take advantage of NVMe drives functioning in RAID. At least 1 drive is employed for parity - one additional bit is included in the info duplicated on it and if a main disk stops working, this bit makes it much simpler to recalculate the bits of the files on the damaged drive so that the right information is recovered on the new drive included in the RAID. In the mean time, your Internet sites will stay online because all the info will still load from at least 1 more drive. In the event that you add routine backups to your VPS package, a copy of the data will be stored on standard disk drives which also function in RAID as we want to make certain that any kind of site content you upload will be risk-free at all times. Using multiple hard drives in RAID for all the main and backup servers permits us to offer fast and reliable web hosting service.