RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology of storing data on multiple hard disks which operate together as a single logical unit. The drives can be physical or logical i.e. in the aforementioned case one drive is split into independent ones via virtualization software. Either way, the same information is stored on all drives and the key benefit of using this kind of a setup is that if a drive fails, the data will remain available on the remaining ones. Using a RAID also enhances the performance because the input and output operations will be spread among a number of drives. There are several kinds of RAID depending on how many hard drives are used, whether writing is carried out on all drives in real time or just on one, and how the information is synchronized between the hard drives - whether it is recorded in blocks on one drive after another or it is mirrored from one on the others. These factors show that the fault tolerance as well as the performance between the different RAID types could differ.
RAID in Shared Website Hosting
The SSD drives which our cutting-edge cloud Internet hosting platform uses for storage work in RAID-Z. This kind of RAID is developed to work with the ZFS file system which runs on the platform and it employs the so-called parity disk - a specific drive where info stored on the other drives is copied with an extra bit added to it. In case one of the disks fails, your Internet sites shall continue working from the other ones and as soon as we replace the problematic one, the data which will be cloned on it will be recovered from what is stored on the remaining drives together with the information from the parity disk. This is performed so as to be able to recalculate the elements of each file correctly and to validate the integrity of the info duplicated on the new drive. This is an additional level of security for the info which you upload to your shared website hosting account along with the ZFS file system which analyzes a unique digital fingerprint for each file on all drives in real time.
RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting
If you host your sites inside a semi-dedicated hosting account from our company, any content that you upload will be saved on SSD drives that work in RAID-Z. With this type of RAID, at least 1 of the hard disks is employed for parity - when data is synced between the disks, an additional bit is added to it on the parity one. The reasoning behind this is to ensure the integrity of the data which is duplicated to a brand new drive in the event that one of the disks in the RAID stops working as the content being copied on the brand new disk is recalculated from the data on the standard hard drives and on the parity one. Another advantage of RAID-Z is that even if a hard drive stops working, the system can easily switch to a different one promptly without service disruptions of any kind. RAID-Z adds an extra level of security for the content you upload on our cloud hosting platform along with the ZFS file system which uses unique checksums so as to authenticate the integrity of each file.
RAID in VPS Web Hosting
If you use one of our virtual private server plans, any content that you upload will be stored on SSD drives which function in RAID. At least a single drive is used for parity so as to ensure the integrity of the data. In simple terms, this is a special drive where information is copied with one bit added to it. If a disk from the RAID fails, your sites will continue working and when a new disk takes the place of the defective one, the bits of the data that will be cloned on it are calculated by using the healthy and the parity drives. That way, any potential for corrupting data throughout the process is prevented. We also employ regular hard disks that work in RAID for storing backup copies, so should you add this service to your VPS plan, your website content will be saved on multiple drives and you will never need to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive breakdowns.