Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a method of keeping content on multiple hard drives simultaneously. A RAID could be software or hardware based on the HDDs that are used - physical or logical ones, but what is common between them is that they all function as just a single unit where your information is stored. The key advantage of employing a RAID is redundancy because the info on all the drives will be exactly the same all of the time, so even in the event that some drive fails for some reason, the data will still be present on the rest of the drives. The overall performance is also better as the reading and writing processes will be split between different drives, so a single one will never be overloaded. There're different kinds of RAIDs where the capabilities and fault tolerance could differ depending on the particular setup - whether info is written on all of 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 many others.

RAID in Shared Hosting

The NVMe drives which our cutting-edge cloud hosting platform employs for storage operate in RAID-Z. This kind of RAID is created to work with the ZFS file system which runs on the platform and it employs the so-called parity disk - a specific drive where information kept on the other drives is duplicated with an additional bit added to it. In case one of the disks stops functioning, your websites will continue working from the other ones and once we replace the malfunctioning one, the data that will be copied on it will be rebuilt from what is stored on the rest of the drives together with the data from the parity disk. This is done in order to be able to recalculate the bits of each file adequately and to confirm the integrity of the data cloned on the new drive. This is another level of security for the content which you upload to your shared hosting account along with the ZFS file system that compares a unique digital fingerprint for each and every file on all of the drives in real time.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting

The NVMe drives which are used for saving any site content uploaded to the semi-dedicated hosting accounts which we provide function in RAID-Z. This is a special setup where one or more hard drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will include an extra bit to any data cloned on this type of a disk drive. If a disk fails and is replaced with a new one, what data will be duplicated on the latter shall be a combination calculated between the data on the remaining hard disks and that on the parity one. This is done to guarantee that the info on the new drive shall be correct. Throughout the procedure, the RAID will continue functioning adequately and the malfunctioning drive won't have an effect on the proper operation of your websites in any respect. Using NVMes in RAID-Z is a great addition to the ZFS file system that runs on our advanced cloud platform with regard to preserving the integrity of your files since ZFS uses specific digital identifiers referred to as checksums in order to prevent silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS Web Hosting

If you use one of our virtual private server packages, any content which you upload will be stored on NVMe drives which work in RAID. At least 1 drive is intended for parity to ensure the integrity of your data. In simple terms, this is a special drive where data is copied with one bit added to it. In case a disk from the RAID stops functioning, your sites will continue working and when a new disk takes the place of the faulty one, the bits of the information that will be duplicated on it are calculated using the healthy and the parity drives. That way, any possibility of corrupting data throughout the process is averted. We also employ conventional hard disks which work in RAID for storing backup copies, so in case you add this service to your VPS plan, your website 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.