RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology of saving data on a number hard drives which operate together as a single logical unit. The drives could be physical or logical i.e. in the latter case a single drive is split into independent ones via virtualization software. In either case, the very same information is stored on all the drives and the basic advantage of using this type of a setup is that in the event that a drive stops working, the data will remain available on the other ones. Using a RAID also boosts the overall performance because the input and output operations will be spread among several drives. There are several kinds of RAID based 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 written in blocks on one drive after another or it is mirrored from one on the others. These factors imply that the error tolerance as well as the performance between the various RAID types can differ.

RAID in Shared Hosting

The disk drives that we employ for storage with our ground-breaking cloud Internet hosting platform are not the classic HDDs, but quick solid-state drives (SSD). They operate in RAID-Z - a special setup created for the ZFS file system that we use. Any content that you add to your shared hosting account will be saved on multiple disk drives and at least one shall be used as a parity disk. This is a specific drive where an additional bit is included to any content copied on it. In the event that a disk in the RAID stops working, it'll be changed without any service disturbances and the info will be rebuilt on the new drive by recalculating its bits using the data on the parity disk plus that on the remaining disks. This is done so as to ensure the integrity of the information and together with the real-time checksum authentication which the ZFS file system runs on all drives, you won't ever have to worry about losing any info no matter what.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting

The SSD drives that are used for storing any site content uploaded to the semi-dedicated hosting accounts that we offer function in RAID-Z. This is a special setup where one or more disk drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will add an extra bit to any data copied on such a disk drive. In case that a disk fails and is replaced with a new one, what data will be copied on the latter will be a combination calculated between the data on the remaining drives and that on the parity one. This is done to ensure that the data on the new drive shall be accurate. During the process, the RAID will continue working normally and the malfunctioning drive will not have an effect on the adequate operation of your websites at all. Working with SSDs in RAID-Z is an excellent addition to the ZFS file system that runs on our top-notch cloud platform with regards to preserving the integrity of your files as ZFS uses specific digital identifiers known as checksums so as to prevent silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS Web Hosting

If you use one of our virtual private server plans, any content you upload will be saved on SSD drives that work in RAID. At least a single drive is employed for parity to guarantee the integrity of the information. In simple terms, this is a special drive where data is copied with one bit added to it. In case a disk from the RAID breaks down, your websites will continue working and when a new disk replaces the malfunctioning one, the bits of the info that will be duplicated on it are calculated using the healthy and the parity drives. This way, any potential for corrupting data during the process is avoided. We also employ standard hard drives which work in RAID for storing backups, so if you add this service to your VPS package, your site content will be saved on multiple drives and you won't ever need to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive breakdowns.