Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a way of keeping content on a number of hard disk drives concurrently. A RAID could be software or hardware based on the drives that are used - physical or logical ones, still what is common between them is that they all work as just one single unit where data is saved. The main advantage of using a RAID is redundancy as the data on all the drives is exactly the same at all times, so even in case a drive fails for some reason, the data will still be present on the remaining drives. The overall performance is enhanced as well because the reading and writing processes will be split between a number of drives, so a single one will not be overloaded. There are different types of RAIDs where the functionality and fault tolerance may differ according to the particular setup - whether data is written on all drives in real time or it's written on a single drive and then mirrored on another, what amount of drives are used for the RAID, etcetera.

RAID in Shared Hosting

Any content that you upload to your new shared hosting account will be stored on quick SSD drives which operate in RAID-Z. This configuration is built to work with the ZFS file system that runs on our cloud web hosting platform and it adds one more level of protection for your site content on top of the real-time checksum verification that ZFS uses to ensure the integrity of the data. With RAID-Z, the data is stored on a number of disks and at least one is a parity disk - whenever info is recorded on it, an extra bit is added, so in case any drive fails for whatever reason, the stability of the information can be verified by recalculating its bits in accordance with what is kept on the production hard disks and on the parity one. With RAID-Z, the functioning of our system will not be interrupted and it'll continue functioning efficiently until the faulty drive is replaced and the data is synced on it.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting

The SSD drives that are used for storing any site content uploaded to the semi-dedicated hosting accounts which we offer work in RAID-Z. This is a special setup where one or more disk drives are used for parity i.e. the system will add an extra bit to any data duplicated on this kind of a hard drive. If a disk fails and is replaced with a new one, what information will be cloned on the latter shall be a combination calculated between the data on the other hard disks and that on the parity one. This is done to guarantee that the data on the new drive will be correct. Throughout the procedure, the RAID will continue functioning normally and the problematic drive will not have an effect on the normal operation of your Internet sites in any respect. Working with SSDs in RAID-Z is an excellent addition to the ZFS file system that runs on our state-of-the-art cloud platform with regard to preserving the integrity of your files because ZFS uses special digital identifiers referred to as checksums so as to avoid silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS Web Hosting

The SSD drives that we use on the machines where we create virtual private servers function in RAID to make sure that any content which you upload will be available and intact all the time. At least a single drive is employed for parity - one bit of data is added to any data copied on it. If a main drive breaks down, it is replaced and the data which will be copied on it is calculated between the remaining drives and the parity one. That’s done to make sure that the required information is copied and that not a single file is corrupted as the new drive will be incorporated into the RAID afterwards. We also use hard drives working in RAID on the backup servers, so if you add this upgrade to your VPS plan, you will use an even more reliable web hosting service because your content will be available on multiple drives regardless of any kind of sudden hardware failure.