RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology for saving data on a number hard drives that work together as one logical unit. The drives could be physical or logical i.e. in the aforementioned case a single drive is divided into independent ones using virtualization software. In any case, identical information is kept on all the drives and the key benefit of employing such a setup is that in case a drive stops working, the data will still be available on the remaining ones. Having a RAID also boosts the overall performance since the input and output operations will be spread among a couple of drives. There are several types of RAID dependant upon how many drives are used, whether writing is done on all drives in real time or just on one, and how the info is synced between the hard drives - whether it is written in blocks on one drive after another or it is mirrored from one on the others. These factors imply that the fault tolerance and the performance between the various RAID types may vary.
RAID in Shared Web Hosting
The NVMe drives which our cutting-edge cloud hosting platform uses for storage work in RAID-Z. This kind of RAID is developed 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 information located on the other drives is cloned with an extra bit added to it. In the event that one of the disks fails, your websites shall continue working from the other ones and as soon as we replace the malfunctioning one, the information which will be cloned on it will be rebuilt from what is stored on the remaining drives along with the information from the parity disk. This is done so as to be able to recalculate the elements of each file correctly and to authenticate the integrity of the info copied on the new drive. This is an additional level of security for the info which you upload to your shared web hosting account along with the ZFS file system which analyzes a unique digital fingerprint for each and every file on all hard drives in real time.
RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers
The NVMe drives that are used for holding any site content uploaded to the semi-dedicated server accounts that we offer work in RAID-Z. This is a specific setup where one or more disk drives are used for parity i.e. the system will include an extra bit to any data copied on such a disk drive. In the event that a disk fails and is replaced with a new one, what info will be copied on the latter will be a mix calculated between the data on the remaining hard disks and that on the parity one. This is done to ensure that the data on the new drive shall be correct. During the procedure, the RAID will continue functioning adequately and the faulty drive won't have an impact on the normal operation of your Internet sites by any means. Using NVMes in RAID-Z is a fantastic addition to the ZFS file system which runs on our state-of-the-art cloud platform with respect to preserving the integrity of your files because ZFS uses unique digital identifiers referred to as checksums to avoid silent data corruption.
RAID in VPS Servers
If you use one of our VPS server solutions, any content you upload will be saved on NVMe drives that work in RAID. At least 1 drive is intended for parity so as to ensure the integrity of your information. In simple terms, this is a special drive where information is copied with one bit added to it. If a disk inside the RAID breaks down, your sites will continue working and when a new disk replaces the malfunctioning one, the bits of the information that will be duplicated on it are calculated by using the healthy and the parity drives. That way, any chance of corrupting data throughout the process is averted. We also use regular hard drives that work in RAID for storing backup copies, so should you include this service to your VPS package, your content will be kept on multiple drives and you won't ever have to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive breakdowns.