RAID, which stands short for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a software or hardware storage virtualization technology which allows a system to use a number of hard drives as a single logical unit. Simply put, all of the drives are used as one and the data on all of them is the same. Such a configuration has 2 key advantages over using just a single drive to store data - the first is redundancy, so in the event that one drive breaks down, the info will be accessible from the others, and the second is better performance as the input/output, or reading/writing operations will be distributed among a number of drives. There are different RAID types based on what number of drives are used, if reading and writing are both executed from all the drives simultaneously, if data is written in blocks on one drive after another or is mirrored between drives in the same time, etcetera. Depending on the particular setup, the fault tolerance and the performance may differ.

RAID in Website Hosting

The SSD drives which our cutting-edge cloud web hosting platform employs for storage work in RAID-Z. This type 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 data kept on the other drives is copied with an extra bit added to it. In case one of the disks stops working, your Internet sites will continue working from the other ones and once we replace the problematic one, the info that will be copied on it will be recovered from what is stored on the remaining drives together with the info from the parity disk. This is done so as to be able to recalculate the bits of every single file properly and to confirm the integrity of the info duplicated on the new drive. This is one more level of security for the information which you upload to your website hosting account together with the ZFS file system that analyzes a special digital fingerprint for every single file on all of the hard drives in real time.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting

The info uploaded to any semi-dedicated hosting account is stored on SSD drives that function in RAID-Z. One of the drives in type of a configuration is used for parity - every time data is cloned on it, an additional bit is added. If a disk turns out to be problematic, it will be taken out of the RAID without interrupting the work of the sites as the data will load from the other drives, and when a new drive is added, the information which will be cloned on it will be a mix between the info on the parity disk and data saved on the other hard drives in the RAID. That is done to guarantee that the data which is being copied is accurate, so the moment the new drive is rebuilt, it could be integrated into the RAID as a production one. This is an extra guarantee for the integrity of your information because the ZFS file system which runs on our cloud web hosting platform analyzes a unique checksum of all copies of your files on the various drives to avoid any possibility of silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS Hosting

All virtual private server accounts that our company provides are generated on physical servers that take advantage of SSD drives functioning in RAID. At least one drive is employed for parity - one extra bit is included in the information cloned on it and if a main disk stops working, this bit makes it much simpler to recalculate the bits of the files on the failed drive so that the accurate info is recovered on the new drive included in the RAID. In the mean time, your sites will stay online since all the information will still load from at least one more hard disk. In case you add routine backups to your VPS package, a copy of your information will be saved on standard hard disks which also work in RAID since we want to make certain that any sort of site content you upload will be protected at all times. Employing multiple drives in RAID for all the main and backup servers permits us to offer fast and reliable hosting service.