RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology of keeping data on multiple hard drives that operate together as one logical unit. The drives could be physical or logical i.e. in the aforementioned case one single drive is split into different ones using virtualization software. Either way, the same information is saved on all drives and the key benefit of using such a setup is that if a drive fails, the data shall still be available on the remaining ones. Using a RAID also boosts the overall performance because the input and output operations will be spread among a few drives. There are several types of RAID based on how many hard disks are used, whether writing is performed on all the drives in real time or just on one, and how the data is synchronized between the hard drives - whether it is recorded in blocks on one drive after another or it is mirrored from one on the others. These factors imply that the error tolerance and the performance between the different RAID types may vary.

RAID in Website Hosting

The cutting-edge cloud hosting platform where all website hosting accounts are created employs fast SSD drives rather than the classic HDDs, and they function in RAID-Z. With this configuration, a number of hard drives work together and at least 1 is a dedicated parity disk. Simply put, when data is written on the remaining drives, it is duplicated on the parity one adding an extra bit. This is carried out for redundancy as even if some drive fails or falls out of the RAID for whatever reason, the info can be rebuilt and verified thanks to the parity disk and the data saved on the other ones, therefore practically nothing will be lost and there will not be any service disturbances. This is one more level of protection for your data together with the advanced ZFS file system that uses checksums to ensure that all of the data on our servers is intact and is not silently corrupted.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers

The SSD drives which are used for saving any content uploaded to the semi-dedicated server accounts that we offer function in RAID-Z. This is a specific configuration where one or more disk drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will include an additional bit to any data cloned on this kind of a drive. If a disk fails and is replaced with a new one, what information will be duplicated on the latter shall be a mix calculated between the data on the other hard disks and that on the parity one. This is done to make sure that the info on the new drive shall be accurate. Throughout the procedure, the RAID will continue functioning normally and the problematic drive will not have an effect on the normal operation of your websites at all. Working with SSDs in RAID-Z is a fantastic addition to the ZFS file system which runs on our advanced cloud platform with regards to preserving the integrity of your files as ZFS uses specific digital identifiers known as checksums to avoid silent data corruption.

RAID in VPS Servers

The SSD drives which we use on the physical machines where we generate VPS servers operate in RAID to make sure that any content which you upload will be available and intact all of the time. At least a single drive is used for parity - one bit of data is added to any data copied on it. In case a main drive stops working, it is replaced and the information that will be duplicated on it is calculated between the other drives and the parity one. That’s done to ensure that the needed info is copied and that no file is corrupted as the new drive will be included in the RAID afterwards. Also, we use hard disks operating in RAID on the backup servers, so if you add this upgrade to your VPS plan, you'll use an even more reliable hosting service as your content will be available on multiple drives regardless of any kind of unforeseen hardware malfunction.