Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a method of storing content on multiple hard drives at the same time. A RAID could be software or hardware based on the hard drives that are used - physical or logical ones, yet what is common between them is the fact that they all operate as one single unit where data is saved. The top advantage of using a RAID is redundancy since the information on all of the drives shall be identical all the time, so even if some drive fails for some reason, the information will still be available on the other drives. The general performance will also improve because the reading and writing processes can be split between different drives, so a single one can't be overloaded. There are different types of RAIDs where the effectiveness and fault tolerance may vary based on the particular setup - whether your data is written on all of the drives real-time or it is written on a single drive and afterwards mirrored on another, what amount of drives are used for the RAID, and so on.

RAID in Shared Hosting

The disk drives which we employ for storage with our outstanding cloud Internet hosting platform are not the standard HDDs, but high-speed NVMes. They function in RAID-Z - a special setup designed for the ZFS file system that we use. Any content that you upload to your shared hosting account will be kept on multiple drives and at least one will be employed as a parity disk. This is a special drive where a further bit is included to any content copied on it. In case a disk in the RAID stops functioning, it'll be changed without any service disruptions and the data will be rebuilt on the new drive by recalculating its bits thanks to the data on the parity disk plus that on the remaining disks. This is done to ensure the integrity of the info and along with the real-time checksum verification which the ZFS file system executes on all drives, you'll never have to concern yourself with the loss of any info no matter what.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers

The NVMe drives which are used for storing any site content uploaded to the semi-dedicated server accounts that we provide function in RAID-Z. This is a specific configuration where one or more drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will include an additional bit to any data cloned on such a hard drive. In case that a disk fails and is replaced with another one, what info will be duplicated on the latter will be a mix calculated between the data on the other disks and that on the parity one. This is done to make sure that the info on the new drive shall be correct. During the process, the RAID will continue functioning normally and the problematic drive won't affect the proper operation of your sites in any respect. Using NVMes in RAID-Z is an impressive addition to the ZFS file system which runs on our revolutionary cloud platform with regards to preserving the integrity of your files as ZFS uses specific digital identifiers identified as checksums to avoid silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS Servers

All VPS server accounts which we offer are generated on physical servers which use NVMe drives functioning in RAID. At least one drive is used for parity - one extra bit is added to the information cloned on it and in case a main disk stops working, this bit makes it much easier to recalculate the bits of the files on the failed drive so that the correct information is recovered on the new drive added to the RAID. Meanwhile, your sites will still be online since all the info will still load from at least one other drive. In the event that you add routine backups to your VPS package, a copy of the information will be saved on standard disk drives that also function in RAID because we would like to make sure that any content you add will be safe and sound all of the time. Employing multiple hard drives in RAID for all main and backup servers enables us to offer fast and reliable hosting service.