Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a method of keeping content on a number of hard drives at the same time. A RAID might be software or hardware based on the drives which are used - physical or logical ones, but what is common between them is that they all function as just a single unit where info is saved. The main advantage of using a RAID is redundancy since the data on all the drives will be exactly the same at all times, so even in the event that one of the drives fails for some reason, the info will still be present on the remaining drives. The general performance is also enhanced because the reading and writing processes could be split between a number of drives, so a single one won't be overloaded. There're different kinds of RAIDs where the capabilities and fault tolerance may differ according to the exact setup - whether your data is written on all drives in real time or it is written on one drive and after that mirrored on another, what amount of drives are used for the RAID, etc.
RAID in Cloud Hosting
The cutting-edge cloud hosting platform where all cloud hosting accounts are made employs fast NVMe drives instead of the standard HDDs, and they function in RAID-Z. With this setup, numerous hard drives operate together and at least 1 is a dedicated parity disk. Simply put, when data is written on the other drives, it's copied on the parity one adding an extra bit. This is performed for redundancy as even if some drive fails or falls out of the RAID for some reason, the information can be rebuilt and verified thanks to the parity disk and the data recorded on the other ones, so not a thing will be lost and there will be no service disturbances. This is an additional level of protection for your data along with the revolutionary ZFS file system which uses checksums to make sure that all data on our servers is intact and is not silently corrupted.
RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers
In case you host your websites inside a semi-dedicated server account from our firm, all of the content which you upload will be held on NVMe drives that work in RAID-Z. With this type of RAID, at least one of the drives is employed for parity - when data is synchronized between the disks, an additional bit is included in it on the parity one. The idea behind this is to guarantee the integrity of the information that is cloned to a new drive in the event that one of the disks in the RAID breaks down as the site content being copied on the brand new disk is recalculated from the info on the standard drives and on the parity one. An additional advantage of RAID-Z is that even in the event that a drive fails, the system could switch to another one instantly without service interruptions of any kind. RAID-Z adds one more level of protection for the content you upload on our cloud Internet hosting platform together with the ZFS file system that uses unique checksums to validate the integrity of every single file.
RAID in VPS Servers
If you employ one of our VPS server solutions, any content you upload will be stored on NVMe drives that operate in RAID. At least one drive is used for parity so as to guarantee the integrity of your data. In simple terms, this is a special drive where info is copied with one bit added to it. If a disk in the RAID stops functioning, your websites 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 by using the healthy and the parity drives. By doing this, any probability of corrupting data throughout the process is prevented. We also use regular hard disk drives which operate in RAID for storing backup copies, so in case you add this service to your VPS package, your site content will be kept on multiple drives and you will never need to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive failures.