RAID, which is short for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a software or hardware storage virtualization technology that permits a system to use several hard drives as a single logical unit. Put simply, all drives are used as one and the data on all of them is the same. Such a configuration has 2 major advantages over using just a single drive to save data - the first one is redundancy, so in case one drive breaks down, the info will be accessible from the remaining ones, and the second is improved performance because the input/output, or reading/writing operations will be spread among several drives. There are different RAID types in accordance with what amount of drives are used, whether reading and writing are both performed from all the drives concurrently, whether data is written in blocks on one drive after another or is mirrored between drives in the same time, and so on. Based on the exact setup, the error tolerance and the performance may differ.

RAID in Cloud Website Hosting

Our cutting-edge cloud web hosting platform where all cloud website hosting accounts are made employs fast NVMe drives as an alternative to the standard HDDs, and they work in RAID-Z. With this configuration, numerous hard disks function together and at least a single one is a dedicated parity disk. Simply put, when data is written on the remaining drives, it is copied on the parity one adding an extra bit. This is done for redundancy as even in case a drive fails or falls out of the RAID for whatever reason, the information can be rebuilt and verified using the parity disk and the data recorded on the other ones, which means that not a single thing will be lost and there won't be any service disturbances. This is an additional level of protection for your information in addition to the state-of-the-art ZFS file system that uses checksums to guarantee that all of the data on our servers is intact and is not silently corrupted.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers

The NVMe drives which are used for storing any website content uploaded to the semi-dedicated server accounts which we provide operate in RAID-Z. This is a specific configuration where one or more drives are used for parity i.e. the system will include an additional bit to any data duplicated on this kind of a drive. If a disk fails and is substituted with a new one, what information will be copied on the latter will be a combination 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 will be accurate. During the process, the RAID will continue working adequately and the faulty drive will not affect the adequate operation of your websites in any respect. Working with NVMes in RAID-Z is an excellent addition to the ZFS file system that runs on our advanced cloud platform in terms of preserving the integrity of your files as ZFS uses unique digital identifiers referred to as checksums to prevent silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS Servers

The NVMe drives which we use on the machines where we set up VPS servers function in RAID to make sure that any content you upload will be available and intact all the time. At least 1 drive is employed for parity - one bit of data is added to any data copied on it. If a main drive stops working, it is changed and the data which will be duplicated on it is calculated between the remaining drives and the parity one. It's done this way to make sure that the required data is copied and that no file is corrupted because the new drive will be a part of the RAID afterwards. We also use hard drives operating in RAID on the backup servers, so in the event that you add this upgrade to your VPS package, you'll use an even more reliable hosting service since your content will be available on multiple drives irrespective of any unexpected hardware failure.