RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology for keeping data on multiple hard drives that operate together as one single logical unit. The drives can be physical or logical i.e. in the second case one single drive is split into separate ones using virtualization software. Either way, the very same info is stored on all the drives and the key advantage of using this type of a setup is that in case a drive fails, the data shall still be available on the other ones. Having a RAID also enhances the overall performance since the input and output operations will be spread among a few drives. There are several kinds of RAID dependant upon how many hard drives are used, whether writing is done on all of the drives in real time or just on a single one, and how the info is synced between the drives - whether it's written in blocks on one drive after another or all of it is mirrored from one on the others. All these factors imply that the fault tolerance and the performance between the various RAID types may vary.
RAID in Cloud Web Hosting
The advanced cloud hosting platform where all cloud web hosting
accounts are made employs super fast SSD drives rather than the classic HDDs, and they work in RAID-Z. With this setup, numerous hard disks work together and at least a single one is a dedicated parity disk. Basically, when data is written on the rest of the drives, it's cloned on the parity one adding an extra bit. This is carried out 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 thanks to the parity disk and the data saved on the other ones, which means that absolutely nothing will be lost and there will not be any service disturbances. This is one more level of protection for your information together with the revolutionary ZFS file system which uses checksums to ensure that all of the data on our servers is undamaged and is not silently corrupted.
RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting
In case you host your websites in a semi-dedicated hosting
account from our firm, all of the content which you upload will be kept on SSD drives which operate in RAID-Z. With this form of RAID, at least one of the hard drives is employed for parity - when data is synchronized between the disks, an extra bit is included in it on the parity one. The reasoning behind this is to guarantee the integrity of the information that is cloned to a new drive in case one of the disks in the RAID stops working because the website content being copied on the new disk is recalculated from the info on the standard drives and on the parity one. An additional advantage of RAID-Z is that even in the event that a drive fails, the system can switch to another one right away without service interruptions of any type. RAID-Z adds one more level of safety for the content that you upload on our cloud hosting platform along with the ZFS file system which uses unique checksums to validate the integrity of each and every file.
RAID in VPS Hosting
The SSD drives which we use on the machines where we create virtual private servers
function in RAID to ensure that any content that you upload will be available and intact at all times. At least one drive is employed for parity - one bit of data is added to any data copied on it. In the event that a main drive stops working, it is replaced and the info that will be copied on it is calculated between the rest of the drives and the parity one. It's done this way to make sure that the needed information is copied and that no file is corrupted as the new drive will be used in the RAID afterwards. Also, we use hard disks working in RAID on the backup servers, so in case you add this upgrade to your VPS package, you will use an even more reliable Internet hosting service since your content will be available on multiple drives regardless of any type of unforeseen hardware failure.