Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a method of keeping content on multiple hard drives simultaneously. A RAID can be software or hardware based on the hard drives that are used - physical or logical ones, however what is common between them is that they all operate as one single unit where your information is kept. The main advantage of using a RAID is redundancy as the info on all the drives is identical all of the time, so even if some drive fails for some reason, the information will still be available on the other drives. The general performance is also better since the reading and writing processes will be split between a number of drives, so a single one will never be overloaded. There're different types of RAIDs where the functionality and fault tolerance could differ depending on the specific setup - whether your data is written on all the drives real-time or it is written on a single drive and after that mirrored on another, what amount of drives are used for the RAID, etc.

RAID in Cloud Hosting

The SSD drives that our cutting-edge cloud web hosting platform employs for storage work in RAID-Z. This type of RAID is intended to work with the ZFS file system which runs on the platform and it uses the so-called parity disk - a special drive where data located on the other drives is copied with an additional bit added to it. In case one of the disks fails, your websites shall continue working from the other ones and as soon as we replace the malfunctioning one, the info that will be cloned on it will be recovered from what is stored on the rest of the drives as well as the information from the parity disk. This is performed in order to be able to recalculate the elements of every single file adequately and to validate the integrity of the data copied on the new drive. This is an additional level of security for the info you upload to your cloud hosting account along with the ZFS file system that analyzes a special digital fingerprint for each file on all drives in real time.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers

The RAID type that we use for the cloud web hosting platform where your semi-dedicated server account will be created is called RAID-Z. What is different about it is that at least one of the disks is employed as a parity drive. In simple terms, whenever any kind of data is duplicated on this special hard drive, one more bit is added to it and if a faulty disk is changed, the data that will be copied on it is a combination of the data on the remaining hard disks in the RAID and that on the parity one. We do this to ensure that your data is intact. Throughout this process, your websites will be functioning normally since RAID-Z enables a whole drive to fail without service interruptions and it simply works by using one of the remaining ones as the main production drive. Using RAID-Z together with the ZFS file system which uses checksums to ensure that no data shall get silently corrupted on our servers, you'll never have to worry about the integrity of your files.

RAID in VPS Servers

In case you employ one of our VPS server solutions, any content which you upload will be saved on SSD drives which work in RAID. At least 1 drive is used for parity to guarantee the integrity of the data. In simple terms, this is a special drive where info is copied with one bit added to it. In the event that a disk from the RAID fails, your sites will continue working and when a new disk takes the place of the malfunctioning one, the bits of the info that will be copied on it are calculated using the healthy and the parity drives. By doing this, any probability of corrupting data during the process is averted. We also use conventional hard drives which function in RAID for storing backup copies, so in case you add this service to your VPS plan, your site content will be kept on multiple drives and you won't ever have to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive breakdowns.