Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a method of keeping content on several hard disk drives at the same time. A RAID could be software or hardware depending on the HDDs that are used - physical or logical ones, but what’s common between them is that they all function as just one single unit where information is stored. The key advantage of employing a RAID is redundancy since the data on all the drives will be identical all of the time, so even in the event that a drive fails for whatever reason, the data will still be present on the other drives. The overall performance is also enhanced 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 could differ according to the specific setup - whether information is written on all drives in real time or it's written on a single drive and then mirrored on another, the number of drives are used for the RAID, etc.

RAID in Cloud Hosting

The SSD drives which our cutting-edge cloud hosting platform uses for storage function in RAID-Z. This type of RAID is intended to work with the ZFS file system that runs on the platform and it works by using the so-called parity disk - a special drive where data located on the other drives is cloned with an extra bit added to it. If one of the disks fails, your Internet sites will continue working from the other ones and as soon as we replace the malfunctioning one, the data that will be cloned on it will be rebuilt from what is stored on the rest of the drives as well as the information from the parity disk. This is done so as to be able to recalculate the bits of each and every file adequately and to confirm the integrity of the information cloned on the new drive. This is another level of security for the info that you upload to your cloud hosting account along with the ZFS file system that analyzes a special digital fingerprint for each file on all the hard drives in real time.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting

If you host your sites within a semi-dedicated hosting account from our firm, any content which you upload will be kept on SSD drives which operate in RAID-Z. With this kind of RAID, at least one of the hard disks is employed for parity - when data is synchronized between the hard drives, an additional bit is included in it on the parity one. The purpose behind this is to ensure the integrity of the data that is duplicated to a new drive in case one of the disks in the RAID fails since the site content being copied on the new disk is recalculated from the information on the standard drives and on the parity one. An additional advantage of RAID-Z is the fact that even in the event that a disk drive stops functioning, the system can switch to another one right away without service interruptions of any sort. RAID-Z adds one more level of security for the content that you upload on our cloud Internet hosting platform in addition to the ZFS file system that uses unique checksums so as to authenticate the integrity of every single file.

RAID in VPS

The SSD drives that we use on the physical machines where we create virtual private servers work in RAID to ensure that any content you upload will be available and intact all the time. At least a single drive is used for parity - one bit of data is added to any data copied on it. If a main drive breaks down, it is replaced and the data which will be duplicated on it is calculated between the remaining drives and the parity one. That’s done to make sure that the required data is copied and that no file is corrupted because the new drive will be incorporated into the RAID afterwards. Also, we use hard disks operating in RAID on the backup servers, so in case you add this upgrade to your VPS plan, you will use an even more reliable hosting service since your content will be available on multiple drives regardless of any kind of unexpected hardware malfunction.