RAID, which stands short for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a software or hardware storage virtualization technology which permits a system to use multiple hard drives as one single logical unit. Put simply, all of the drives are used as one and the data on all of them is identical. This kind of a setup has 2 key advantages over using a single drive to save data - the first is redundancy, so in case one drive fails, the data will be accessible from the remaining ones, and the second is better performance since the input/output, or reading/writing operations will be distributed among multiple drives. There're different RAID types in accordance with what amount of drives are used, whether reading and writing are both handled from all drives at the same time, if data is written in blocks on one drive after another or is mirrored between drives in the same time, and many others. Determined by the exact setup, the fault tolerance and the performance could differ.
RAID in Shared Web Hosting
Our advanced cloud hosting platform where all shared web hosting accounts are made employs super fast NVMe drives as opposed to the standard HDDs, and they operate in RAID-Z. With this configuration, several hard disk drives operate together and at least one of them is a dedicated parity disk. Put simply, when data is written on the remaining drives, it is copied on the parity one adding an extra bit. This is done for redundancy as even in case some drive fails or falls out of the RAID for whatever reason, the data can be rebuilt and verified using the parity disk and the data saved on the other ones, so nothing will be lost and there will be no service disorders. This is another level of security for your info in addition to the revolutionary ZFS file system that uses checksums to guarantee that all data on our servers is intact and is not silently corrupted.
RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting
The RAID type that we employ 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 employed as a parity drive. Simply put, whenever any kind of data is duplicated on this specific drive, one more bit is included to it and if a faulty disk is replaced, the info that will be copied on it is a combination of the data on the other drives in the RAID and that on the parity one. We do this to guarantee that the information is intact. Throughout this process, your websites will be up and running normally because RAID-Z makes it possible for a whole drive to fail without causing any service disturbances and it simply works by using one of the other ones as the main production drive. Using RAID-Z together with the ZFS file system which uses checksums to guarantee that no data will get silently corrupted on our servers, you won't ever need to worry about the integrity of your files.
RAID in VPS Web Hosting
All virtual private server accounts that we provide are made on physical servers which employ NVMe drives working in RAID. At least one drive is intended for parity - one additional bit is included in the information copied on it and if a main disk fails, this bit makes it much simpler to recalculate the bits of the files on the failed drive so that the accurate data is recovered on the new drive included in the RAID. In the mean time, your websites will still be online as all the info will still load from at least 1 other disk drive. If you add regular backups to your VPS plan, a copy of the information will be saved on standard disk drives that also operate in RAID as we want to make certain that any type of content you upload will be safe and sound all of the time. Using multiple hard disks in RAID for all the main and backup servers enables us to offer fast and reliable hosting service.