Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a method of storing content on multiple hard disks concurrently. A RAID can be software or hardware based on the HDDs which are used - physical or logical ones, yet what’s common between them is the fact that they all operate as a single unit where data is kept. The main advantage of employing a RAID is redundancy as the data on all drives is exactly the same all the time, so even in the event that one of the drives fails for some reason, the information will still be available on the remaining drives. The overall performance will also improve as the reading and writing processes could be split between multiple drives, so a single one will never be overloaded. There are different sorts of RAIDs where the performance and fault tolerance may differ based on the exact setup - whether info is written on all drives real-time or it is written on one drive and then mirrored on another, what number of drives are used for the RAID, and many others.
RAID in Cloud Website Hosting
The cutting-edge cloud web hosting platform where all cloud website hosting accounts are made employs super fast NVMe drives as an alternative to the traditional HDDs, and they work in RAID-Z. With this configuration, a number of hard disks function together and at least 1 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 carried out for redundancy as even in case some drive fails or falls out of the RAID for some reason, the info can be rebuilt and verified thanks to the parity disk and the data saved on the other ones, so not a single thing will be lost and there will be no service disturbances. This is an additional level of protection for your data together with the cutting-edge ZFS file system that uses checksums to ensure that all of the data on our servers is undamaged and is not silently corrupted.
RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting
In case you host your websites inside a semi-dedicated hosting account from our firm, all the content you upload will be saved on NVMe drives that work in RAID-Z. With this type of RAID, at least 1 of the hard disks is used for parity - when data is synchronized between the hard drives, an extra bit is added to it on the parity one. The purpose behind this is to guarantee the integrity of the data which is cloned to a brand new drive if one of the drives in the RAID breaks down because the content being copied on the brand new disk is recalculated from the data on the standard drives and on the parity one. Another advantage of RAID-Z is that even in the event that a disk drive fails, the system could switch to another one quickly without service interruptions of any type. RAID-Z adds an extra level of safety for the content that you upload on our cloud hosting platform together with the ZFS file system which uses unique checksums as a way to validate the integrity of each and every file.
RAID in VPS Web Hosting
The NVMe drives which we use on the machines where we set up virtual private servers operate in RAID to ensure that any content you upload will be available and intact all the time. At least a single drive is used for parity - one bit of information is added to any data copied on it. In the event that a main drive stops working, it is changed and the data that will be copied on it is calculated between the other drives and the parity one. It's done this way to make sure that the right data is copied and that no file is corrupted since the new drive will be incorporated into the RAID afterwards. In addition, we use hard drives working in RAID on the backup servers, so in case you add this upgrade to your VPS package, you will use an even more reliable web hosting service as your content will be available on multiple drives regardless of any sort of unpredicted hardware failure.