Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a method of saving content on several hard disks simultaneously. A RAID can be software or hardware based on the hard drives that are used - physical or logical ones, yet what is common between them is that they all operate as one single unit where data is saved. The key advantage of employing a RAID is redundancy as the data on all of the drives will be exactly the same at all times, so even in case one of the drives fails for whatever reason, the info will still be available on the other drives. The overall performance is enhanced as well as the reading and writing processes can be split between multiple drives, so a single one will not be overloaded. There are different sorts of RAIDs where the capabilities and fault tolerance can vary depending on the particular setup - whether your data is written on all drives in real time or it's written on a single drive and then mirrored on another, what number of drives are used for the RAID, and so on.

RAID in Hosting

Our cutting-edge cloud Internet hosting platform where all hosting accounts are generated uses super fast SSD drives rather than the standard HDDs, and they function in RAID-Z. With this setup, numerous hard disk drives work together and at least one is a dedicated parity disk. Put simply, when data is written on the rest of the drives, it is cloned on the parity one adding an extra bit. This is carried out for redundancy as even in case a drive fails or falls out of the RAID for whatever reason, the information can be rebuilt and verified using the parity disk and the data recorded on the other ones, which means that not a thing will be lost and there will be no service interruptions. This is an additional level of security for your data in addition to the cutting-edge ZFS file system which uses checksums to ensure that all data on our servers is intact and is not silently corrupted.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers

The RAID type which we employ for the cloud hosting platform where your semi-dedicated server account will be created is named RAID-Z. What is different about it is that at least 1 of the disks is employed as a parity drive. Put simply, whenever any kind of data is copied on this particular hard drive, one more bit is included to it and in the event that a malfunctioning disk is replaced, the data that will be duplicated on it is a mix of the data on the remaining drives in the RAID and that on the parity one. We do this to ensure that the info is intact. During this process, your Internet sites will be working normally since RAID-Z enables a whole drive to fail without any service disruptions and it simply works by using one of the remaining ones as the main production drive. Employing RAID-Z together with the ZFS file system which uses checksums to warrant that no data will get silently corrupted on our servers, you will never have to worry about the integrity of your files.

RAID in VPS Servers

In case you employ one of our VPS server packages, any content you upload will be kept on SSD drives that operate in RAID. At least one drive is intended for parity 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 from the RAID breaks down, your sites will continue working and when a new disk substitutes the malfunctioning one, the bits of the information that will be cloned on it are calculated by using the healthy and the parity drives. By doing this, any probability of corrupting data throughout the process is avoided. We also use standard hard drives which work in RAID for storing backup copies, so in case you include this service to your VPS package, your website content will be stored on multiple drives and you won't ever have to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive failures.