Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a way of keeping content on a number of hard disk drives concurrently. A RAID might be software or hardware depending on the drives which are used - physical or logical ones, still what is common between them is that they all operate as just a single unit where your information is kept. The main advantage of using a RAID is redundancy because the info on all the drives will be identical all of the time, so even if one of the drives fails for whatever reason, the data will still be present on the remaining drives. The general performance is enhanced as well as the reading and writing processes can be split between various drives, so a single one can't be overloaded. There are different sorts of RAIDs where the capabilities and fault tolerance could differ according to the specific setup - whether your data is written on all drives in real time or it is written on a single drive and then mirrored on another, what number of drives are used for the RAID, and many others.
RAID in Shared Website Hosting
The NVMe drives that our cutting-edge cloud web hosting platform uses for storage operate in RAID-Z. This kind of RAID is intended 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 stored on the other drives is copied with an additional bit added to it. In the event that one of the disks stops working, your websites will continue working from the other ones and after we replace the bad one, the info which will be duplicated 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 bits of each and every file correctly and to validate the integrity of the data cloned on the new drive. This is an additional level of security for the info which you upload to your shared website hosting account in addition to the ZFS file system which analyzes a unique digital fingerprint for each and every file on all of the disk drives in real time.
RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers
The NVMe drives which are used for storing any site content uploaded to the semi-dedicated server accounts that we provide work in RAID-Z. This is a specific setup where one or more hard drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will include an additional bit to any data copied on this type of a hard drive. In case that a disk fails and is replaced with a new one, what info will be cloned on the latter will be a mix 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 will be accurate. Throughout the process, the RAID will continue working adequately and the faulty drive will not affect the proper operation of your websites by any means. Using NVMes in RAID-Z is an amazing addition to the ZFS file system which runs on our top-notch cloud platform with regard to preserving the integrity of your files because ZFS uses unique digital identifiers known as checksums to prevent silent data corruption.
RAID in VPS Servers
If you use one of our VPS server solutions, any content which you upload will be stored on NVMe drives which function in RAID. At least 1 drive is intended for parity to ensure the integrity of your data. In simple terms, this is a special drive where information is copied with one bit added to it. In case a disk part of the RAID stops functioning, your websites will continue working and when a new disk substitutes the malfunctioning one, the bits of the data that will be copied on it are calculated using the healthy and the parity drives. That way, any probability of corrupting data throughout the process is avoided. We also use conventional hard disks which operate in RAID for storing backup copies, so should you include this service to your VPS plan, your website content will be kept on multiple drives and you won't ever need to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive breakdowns.