Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a way of saving content on several hard disk drives concurrently. A RAID might be software or hardware depending on the HDDs that are used - physical or logical ones, however what is common between them is that they all operate as one single unit where data is saved. The biggest advantage of employing a RAID is redundancy because the info on all drives is exactly the same all of the time, so even if some drive fails for some reason, the data will still be available on the rest of the drives. The overall performance is also enhanced because the reading and writing processes will 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 could differ based on the specific setup - whether info is written on all the drives real-time or it is written on a single drive and then mirrored on another, the number of drives are used for the RAID, and so on.

RAID in Cloud Web Hosting

The NVMe drives that our cutting-edge cloud web hosting platform uses for storage operate in RAID-Z. This type of RAID is intended to work with the ZFS file system that runs on the platform and it takes advantage of the so-called parity disk - a special drive where information saved on the other drives is cloned with an extra bit added to it. If one of the disks stops functioning, your Internet sites shall continue working from the other ones and once we replace the malfunctioning one, the info which will be duplicated on it will be rebuilt from what is stored on the remaining drives together with the data from the parity disk. This is performed so as to be able to recalculate the bits of each and every file adequately and to validate the integrity of the info copied on the new drive. This is another level of security for the information you upload to your cloud web hosting account together 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 Servers

The NVMe drives which are used for saving any content uploaded to the semi-dedicated server accounts which we offer operate in RAID-Z. This is a specific setup where one or more disk drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will include an additional bit to any data duplicated on such a disk drive. In case that a disk fails and is replaced with a new one, what info will be copied on the latter will be a combination calculated between the data on the other hard disks and that on the parity one. This is done to guarantee that the data on the new drive shall be correct. Throughout the process, the RAID will continue operating normally and the malfunctioning drive won't have an impact on the proper operation of your websites in any way. Using NVMes in RAID-Z is a superb addition to the ZFS file system that runs on our top-notch cloud platform in terms of preserving the integrity of your files because ZFS uses specific digital identifiers identified as checksums so as to prevent silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS Servers

All VPS server accounts that our company offers are made on physical servers that use NVMe drives working in RAID. At least 1 drive is used for parity - one additional bit is included in the data duplicated on it and if a main disk fails, this bit makes it much easier to recalculate the bits of the files on the failed hard disk so that the correct info is restored on the new drive included in the RAID. At the same time, your websites will stay online as all the information will still load from at least one other hard disk. In case you add regular backups to your VPS package, a copy of your data will be kept on standard hard drives which also operate in RAID as we want to make certain that any sort of site content you add will be safe and sound all the time. Working with multiple hard drives in RAID for all main and backup servers permits us to offer fast and reliable hosting service.