RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology of saving data on several hard disk drives which function together as one logical unit. The drives can be physical or logical i.e. in the aforementioned case a single drive is divided into individual ones using virtualization software. Either way, the very same information is kept on all of the drives and the basic benefit of using this kind of a setup is that if a drive breaks down, the data shall still be available on the remaining ones. Using a RAID also boosts the performance as the input and output operations will be spread among a couple of drives. There are several kinds of RAID depending on how many drives are used, whether writing is performed on all the drives in real time or just on one, and how the info is synchronized between the hard drives - whether it is written in blocks on one drive after another or it is mirrored from one on the others. All of these factors mean that the error tolerance and the performance between the various RAID types could differ.
RAID in Shared Web Hosting
The SSD drives which our cutting-edge cloud hosting platform uses for storage work in RAID-Z. This type of RAID is created to work with the ZFS file system that runs on the platform and it takes advantage of the so-called parity disk - a specific drive where data located on the other drives is duplicated with an extra bit added to it. If one of the disks fails, your sites shall continue working from the other ones and after we replace the malfunctioning one, the info that will be cloned on it will be rebuilt from what is stored on the remaining drives together with the information from the parity disk. This is performed in order to be able to recalculate the elements of every file correctly and to confirm the integrity of the information duplicated on the new drive. This is another level of security for the content which you upload to your shared web hosting account along with the ZFS file system which analyzes a unique digital fingerprint for each file on all of the drives in real time.
RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting
The SSD drives which are used for storing any website content uploaded to the semi-dedicated hosting accounts that we provide function in RAID-Z. This is a specific setup where one or more drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will add an extra bit to any data duplicated on this type of a disk drive. In the event that a disk fails and is replaced with another one, what information will be copied on the latter will 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 information on the new drive will be accurate. Throughout the procedure, the RAID will continue operating adequately and the malfunctioning drive will not affect the normal operation of your Internet sites at all. Working with SSDs in RAID-Z is a fantastic addition to the ZFS file system that runs on our state-of-the-art cloud platform with regard to preserving the integrity of your files because ZFS uses specific digital identifiers named checksums so as to avoid silent data corruption.
RAID in VPS Web Hosting
In case you use one of our virtual private server packages, any content you upload will be saved on SSD drives which operate in RAID. At least one drive is employed for parity so as to ensure the integrity of your information. In simple terms, this is a special drive where data is copied with one bit added to it. In case a disk within the RAID stops working, your websites will continue working and when a new disk replaces the faulty one, the bits of the info that will be cloned on it are calculated by using the healthy and the parity drives. By doing this, any possibility of corrupting data during the process is avoided. We also use regular hard disks that function in RAID for storing backup copies, so in case you include this service to your VPS package, 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 breakdowns.