RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology of storing data on multiple hard disks which operate together as one single logical unit. The drives can be physical or logical i.e. in the latter case a single drive is split into separate ones through virtualization software. Either way, identical data is saved on all the drives and the main advantage of using this type of a setup is that in the event that a drive fails, the data will remain available on the other ones. Employing 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 information is synced between the drives - whether it is recorded in blocks on one drive after another or all of it is mirrored from one on the others. These factors imply that the fault tolerance as well as the performance between the different RAID types may differ.
RAID in Cloud Web Hosting
Our state-of-the-art cloud Internet hosting platform where all cloud web hosting accounts are made employs fast SSD drives instead of the traditional HDDs, and they work in RAID-Z. With this setup, a number of hard disk drives operate together and at least one of them is a dedicated parity disk. In simple terms, when data is written on the remaining drives, it is cloned on the parity one adding an extra bit. This is performed for redundancy as even in case some drive fails or falls out of the RAID for some reason, the data can be rebuilt and verified using the parity disk and the data stored on the other ones, which means that not a thing will be lost and there won't be any service disorders. This is an additional level of protection for your info together with the top-notch ZFS file system that uses checksums to guarantee that all the data on our servers is intact and is not silently corrupted.
RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers
The data uploaded to any semi-dedicated server account is saved on SSD drives that operate in RAID-Z. One of the drives in such a setup is used for parity - whenever data is copied on it, an extra bit is added. If a disk turns out to be flawed, it will be taken out of the RAID without interrupting the work of the Internet sites as the data will load from the rest of the drives, and when a brand new drive is included, the info that will be duplicated on it will be a mix between the information on the parity disk and data kept on the other drives in the RAID. This is done to guarantee that the information which is being copied is correct, so once the new drive is rebuilt, it can be incorporated into the RAID as a production one. This is one more warranty for the integrity of your info since the ZFS file system that runs on our cloud hosting platform compares a special checksum of all of the copies of your files on the various drives to avoid any possibility of silent data corruption.
RAID in VPS Servers
If you employ one of our VPS server packages, any content you upload will be kept on SSD drives that function in RAID. At least a single drive is employed for parity so as to ensure the integrity of the info. In simple terms, this is a special drive where data is copied with one bit added to it. If a disk within the RAID breaks down, your websites will continue working and when a new disk takes the place of the malfunctioning one, the bits of the data that will be cloned on it are calculated using the healthy and the parity drives. By doing this, any potential for corrupting data during the process is prevented. We also employ conventional hard disks which operate in RAID for storing backups, so in case you include this service to your VPS plan, your content will be stored on multiple drives and you'll never have to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive breakdowns.