RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology of storing data on multiple hard disks that function together as one single logical unit. The drives could be physical or logical i.e. in the aforementioned case one drive is divided into separate ones via virtualization software. In either case, the very same data is stored on all of the drives and the main benefit of using this type of a setup is that in case a drive stops working, the data will remain available on the remaining ones. Having a RAID also enhances the performance as the input and output operations will be spread among a number of drives. There are several kinds of RAID depending on how many hard disks are used, whether writing is performed on all the drives in real time or just on a single one, and how the information is synchronized between the drives - whether it's written in blocks on one drive after another or all of it is mirrored from one on the others. These factors mean that the fault tolerance as well as the performance between the various RAID types may differ.
RAID in Shared Web Hosting
The hard drives which we use for storage with our state-of-the-art cloud hosting platform are not the traditional HDDs, but fast solid-state drives (SSD). They work in RAID-Z - a special setup designed for the ZFS file system which we employ. All the content that you upload to your shared web hosting account will be stored on multiple disk drives and at least one of them shall be used as a parity disk. This is a specific drive where an extra bit is added to any content copied on it. If a disk in the RAID stops working, it'll be changed with no service interruptions and the data will be recovered on the new drive by recalculating its bits thanks to the data on the parity disk plus that on the other disks. This is done to ensure the integrity of the data and along with the real-time checksum verification that the ZFS file system executes on all drives, you'll never need to be concerned about the loss of any information no matter what.
RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting
If you host your websites inside a semi-dedicated hosting account from our company, any content that you upload will be held on SSD drives which operate in RAID-Z. With this type of RAID, at least one of the disks is employed for parity - when data is synced between the disks, an additional bit is added to it on the parity one. The purpose behind this is to ensure the integrity of the info which is duplicated to a brand new drive if one of the disks in the RAID fails as the website content being copied on the new disk is recalculated from the info on the standard drives and on the parity one. Another advantage of RAID-Z is the fact that even in the event that a disk drive stops functioning, the system can easily switch to a different one instantly without service interruptions of any kind. RAID-Z adds an additional level of safety for the content which you upload on our cloud hosting platform along with the ZFS file system that uses unique checksums to verify the integrity of each file.
RAID in VPS Hosting
All virtual private server accounts that we provide are made on physical servers which employ SSD drives working in RAID. At least 1 drive is employed for parity - one extra bit is included in the information cloned on it and in case a main disk fails, this bit makes it easier to recalculate the bits of the files on the damaged disk drive so that the right information is restored on the new drive added to the RAID. At the same time, your Internet sites will remain online because all the info will still load from at least one other disk drive. In the event that you add routine backups to your VPS plan, a copy of your data will be saved on standard hard drives which also function in RAID as we want to make certain that any sort of content you add will be protected at all times. Working with multiple hard drives in RAID for all main and backup servers permits us to offer fast and reliable Internet hosting service.