Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a method of storing content on multiple hard drives at the same time. A RAID could be software or hardware based on the HDDs that are used - physical or logical ones, still what’s common between them is the fact that they all operate as a single unit where data is stored. The key advantage of using a RAID is redundancy since the information on all the drives shall be exactly the same all of the time, so even in case some drive fails for whatever reason, the information will still be present on the other drives. The overall performance is also enhanced since the reading and writing processes could be split between various drives, so a single one won't be overloaded. There're different kinds of RAIDs where the efficiency and fault tolerance may vary according to the particular setup - whether data is written on all drives real-time or it is written on a single drive and after that mirrored on another, what amount of drives are used for the RAID, and so on.

RAID in Shared Hosting

The drives that we use for storage with our top-notch cloud hosting platform are not the traditional HDDs, but quick NVMes. They function in RAID-Z - a special setup created for the ZFS file system that we employ. All of the content that you upload to your shared hosting account will be stored on multiple drives and at least one will be employed as a parity disk. This is a specific drive where a further bit is added to any content copied on it. In the event that a disk in the RAID stops working, it'll be replaced with no service interruptions and the data will be recovered on the new drive by recalculating its bits thanks to the data on the parity disk plus that on the remaining disks. This is done so as to guarantee the integrity of the information and together with the real-time checksum authentication which the ZFS file system executes on all drives, you'll never have to worry about losing any information no matter what.

RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers

The NVMe drives that are used for holding any site content uploaded to the semi-dedicated server accounts that we provide function in RAID-Z. This is a special configuration where one or more drives are used for parity i.e. the system will include an additional bit to any data duplicated on this kind of a disk drive. If a disk fails and is replaced with a new one, what information will be copied on the latter will be a combination calculated between the data on the remaining disks and that on the parity one. This is done to guarantee that the info on the new drive shall be accurate. Throughout the process, the RAID will continue working adequately and the problematic drive will not have an effect on the adequate operation of your Internet sites at all. Using NVMes in RAID-Z is an outstanding addition to the ZFS file system which runs on our top-notch cloud platform with regards to preserving the integrity of your files as ZFS uses special digital identifiers called checksums in order to prevent silent data corruption.