RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology of keeping data on a number hard disks that work together as one single logical unit. The drives could be physical or logical i.e. in the latter case one single drive is split into independent ones via virtualization software. In either case, exactly the same information is stored on all of the drives and the basic benefit of using this kind of a setup is that in case a drive breaks down, the data will remain available on the remaining ones. Employing a RAID also enhances the overall performance because the input and output operations will be spread among a number of drives. There are several kinds of RAID based on how many hard drives are used, whether writing is performed on all the drives in real time or just on a single one, and how the information is synced between the drives - whether it is written in blocks on one drive after another or all of it is mirrored from one on the others. All of these factors imply that the fault tolerance and the performance between the various RAID types may vary.

RAID in Web Hosting

The hard disks that we use for storage with our ground-breaking cloud web hosting platform are not the standard HDDs, but extremely fast solid-state drives (SSD). They function in RAID-Z - a special setup designed for the ZFS file system that we work with. All the content that you upload to the web hosting account will be saved on multiple disk drives and at least one of them will be employed as a parity disk. This is a specific drive where an additional bit is added to any content copied on it. In case a disk in the RAID stops working, it'll be changed without service interruptions and the data will be recovered on the new drive by recalculating its bits thanks to the data on the parity disk along with that on the other disks. This is done in order to guarantee the integrity of the data and along with the real-time checksum authentication that the ZFS file system runs on all drives, you won't ever need to concern yourself with the loss of any information no matter what.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting

In case you host your sites inside a semi-dedicated hosting account from our firm, all of the content you upload will be saved on SSD drives which work in RAID-Z. With this type of RAID, at least 1 of the disks is employed for parity - when data is synchronized between the drives, an additional bit is added to it on the parity one. The idea behind this is to ensure the integrity of the data which is duplicated to a brand new drive in the event that one of the hard drives in the RAID stops functioning as the website content being copied on the new disk is recalculated from the data on the standard hard drives and on the parity one. Another advantage of RAID-Z is the fact that even if a drive stops functioning, the system can switch to a different one instantly without service disturbances of any kind. RAID-Z adds one more level of security for the content which you upload on our cloud web hosting platform in addition to the ZFS file system which uses unique checksums so as to authenticate the integrity of each and every file.

RAID in VPS Web Hosting

If you take advantage of one of our virtual private server solutions, any content you upload will be stored on SSD drives which work in RAID. At least a single drive is used for parity so as to ensure the integrity of the data. In simple terms, this is a special drive where data is copied with one bit added to it. In case a disk inside the RAID stops functioning, your websites will continue working and when a new disk substitutes the malfunctioning one, the bits of the information that will be copied on it are calculated using the healthy and the parity drives. By doing this, any potential for corrupting data throughout the process is prevented. We also employ regular hard disks which operate in RAID for storing backups, so if you add this service to your VPS plan, your website content will be stored on multiple drives and you will never have to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive failures.