RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology of keeping data on multiple hard disk drives which function together as one single logical unit. The drives can be physical or logical i.e. in the second case a single drive is split into separate ones using virtualization software. Either way, exactly the same info is saved on all the drives and the key benefit of using such a setup is that if a drive stops working, the data shall still be available on the other ones. Using a RAID also enhances the overall performance as the input and output operations will be spread among several drives. There are several types of RAID depending on how many hard disks are used, whether writing is done on all drives in real time or just on a single one, and how the data is synchronized between the hard drives - whether it is written in blocks on one drive after another or all of it is mirrored from one on the others. All of these factors indicate that the error tolerance as well as the performance between the various RAID types may vary.

RAID in Web Hosting

The SSD drives which our cutting-edge cloud hosting platform uses for storage work in RAID-Z. This type of RAID is designed to work with the ZFS file system that runs on the platform and it employs the so-called parity disk - a special drive where data stored on the other drives is cloned with an additional bit added to it. If one of the disks stops working, your websites will continue working from the other ones and after we replace the problematic one, the information which will be copied on it will be recovered from what is stored on the rest of the drives as well as the info from the parity disk. This is performed in order to be able to recalculate the bits of every single file correctly and to validate the integrity of the information copied on the new drive. This is another level of security for the information that you upload to your web hosting account along with the ZFS file system which compares a unique digital fingerprint for each file on all the drives in real time.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting

The RAID type which we use for the cloud hosting platform where your semi-dedicated hosting account shall be created is named RAID-Z. What's different about it is that at least one of the disks is used as a parity drive. Put simply, whenever any data is copied on this special disk drive, one more bit is added to it and in case a malfunctioning disk is replaced, the data which will be copied on it is a mix of the data on the other disk drives in the RAID and that on the parity one. It's done this way to make sure that your data is intact. Throughout this process, your sites will be functioning normally since RAID-Z allows for a whole drive to fail without causing any service disturbances and it simply works by using one of the remaining ones as the main production drive. Using RAID-Z together with the ZFS file system which uses checksums to warrant that no data shall get silently corrupted on our servers, you will never need to worry about the integrity of your files.

RAID in VPS

All virtual private server accounts that we offer are created on physical servers that employ SSD drives operating in RAID. At least one drive is intended for parity - one extra bit is added to the info copied on it and in case a main disk fails, this bit makes it much simpler to recalculate the bits of the files on the damaged hard disk so that the right data is restored on the new drive added to the RAID. Meanwhile, your Internet sites will still be online since all the data will still load from at least one other hard disk. In case you add routine backups to your VPS plan, a copy of your info will be kept on standard hard disks which also operate in RAID because we would like to make sure that any type of content you upload will be protected all the time. Employing multiple hard disks in RAID for all the main and backup servers permits us to offer fast and reliable web hosting service.