RAID, which is short for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a software or hardware storage virtualization technology which permits a system to use multiple hard drives as one single logical unit. Put simply, all drives are used as one and the information on all of them is identical. Such a setup has two key advantages over using a single drive to save data - the first is redundancy, so if one drive stops working, the info will be accessed from the remaining ones, and the second one is improved performance because the input/output, or reading/writing operations will be distributed among multiple drives. You can find different RAID types based on how many drives are used, whether reading and writing are both performed from all of the drives at the same time, if data is written in blocks on one drive after another or is mirrored between drives in the same time, and so on. Determined by the exact setup, the fault tolerance and the performance could differ.
RAID in Shared Website Hosting
The disk drives which we use for storage with our ground-breaking cloud Internet hosting platform are not the standard HDDs, but extremely fast solid-state drives (SSD). They operate in RAID-Z - a special setup created for the ZFS file system that we work with. All of the content that you add to the shared website hosting account will be held on multiple hard drives and at least one of them will be employed as a parity disk. This is a special drive where an extra bit is included to any content copied on it. In the event that a disk in the RAID stops functioning, it will be changed with no service disturbances and the info will be rebuilt on the new drive by recalculating its bits using the data on the parity disk along with that on the remaining disks. This is done so as to ensure the integrity of the data and along with the real-time checksum authentication which the ZFS file system performs on all drives, you won't ever need to be concerned about losing any info no matter what.
RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting
The SSD drives that are used for storing any content uploaded to the semi-dedicated hosting accounts that we provide operate in RAID-Z. This is a specific configuration where one or more hard drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will include an additional bit to any data cloned on this type of a hard drive. If a disk fails and is replaced with another one, what info will be copied on the latter shall be a mix calculated between the data on the remaining disks and that on the parity one. This is done to guarantee that the data on the new drive shall be accurate. Throughout the process, the RAID will continue working adequately and the malfunctioning drive will not impact the adequate operation of your sites by any means. Using SSDs in RAID-Z is an amazing addition to the ZFS file system that runs on our top-notch cloud platform in terms of preserving the integrity of your files as ZFS uses specific digital identifiers named checksums in order to prevent silent data corruption.
RAID in VPS Web Hosting
The SSD drives which we use on the machines where we generate virtual private servers work in RAID to make sure that any content which you upload will be available and intact at all times. At least one drive is employed for parity - one bit of info is added to any data copied on it. If a main drive breaks down, it is replaced and the information which will be copied on it is calculated between the remaining drives and the parity one. That’s done to ensure that the right info is copied and that not a single file is corrupted since the new drive will be used in the RAID afterwards. We also use hard disk drives functioning in RAID on the backup servers, so in the event that you add this upgrade to your VPS package, you'll use an even more reliable Internet hosting service because your content will be available on multiple drives regardless of any kind of unpredicted hardware failure.