Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a method of saving content on a number of hard disk drives simultaneously. A RAID can be software or hardware depending on the hard drives which are used - physical or logical ones, yet what’s common between them is the fact that they all perform as just one single unit where data is stored. The top advantage of using a RAID is redundancy since the information on all drives is the same all of the time, so even in case some drive fails for some reason, the information will still be available on the remaining drives. The overall performance is also better as the reading and writing processes can be split between various drives, so a single one won't be overloaded. There are different types of RAIDs where the capabilities and fault tolerance could differ according to the specific setup - whether info is written on all drives real-time or it is written on one drive and then mirrored on another, what number of drives are used for the RAID, etc.

RAID in Shared Hosting

The SSD drives which our cutting-edge cloud Internet hosting platform employs for storage work in RAID-Z. This sort 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 specific drive where information located on the other drives is duplicated with an additional bit added to it. If one of the disks stops functioning, your websites shall continue working from the other ones and once we replace the malfunctioning one, the data that will be duplicated on it will be rebuilt from what is stored on the other drives together with the data from the parity disk. This is done so as to be able to recalculate the elements of each and every file adequately and to validate the integrity of the info duplicated on the new drive. This is another level of security for the information that you upload to your shared hosting account in addition to the ZFS file system that analyzes a unique digital fingerprint for each and every file on all the hard drives in real time.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting

The RAID type which we use for the cloud Internet hosting platform where your semi-dedicated hosting account shall be created is called RAID-Z. What's different about it is that at least one of the disks is used as a parity drive. Simply put, whenever any kind of data is cloned on this particular disk drive, one more bit is included to it and in case a problematic disk is changed, the information which will be cloned on it is a combination of the data on the other hard disks in the RAID and that on the parity one. We do this to ensure that your data is intact. Throughout this process, your websites will be working normally since RAID-Z enables a whole drive to fail without causing any service disruptions and it simply uses one of the other ones as the main production drive. Employing RAID-Z together with the ZFS file system that uses checksums to guarantee that no data can get silently corrupted on our servers, you won't have to worry about the integrity of your files.

RAID in VPS Web Hosting

If you employ one of our virtual private server solutions, any content you upload will be saved on SSD drives which operate in RAID. At least a single drive is employed for parity so as to guarantee 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 in the RAID stops functioning, your sites will continue working and when a new disk substitutes the malfunctioning one, the bits of the info that will be copied on it are calculated by using the healthy and the parity drives. By doing this, any chance of corrupting data during the process is averted. We also employ standard hard disk drives which work in RAID for storing backups, so should you include this service to your VPS plan, your website content will be saved on multiple drives and you'll never need to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive breakdowns.