RAID, which is short for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a software or hardware storage virtualization technology which permits a system to take advantage of several hard drives as a single logical unit. Put simply, all drives are used as one and the information on all of them is identical. Such a configuration has 2 key advantages over using a single drive to keep data - the first is redundancy, so if one drive doesn't work, the info will be accessed from the others, and the second is better performance since the input/output, or reading/writing operations will be distributed among several drives. There are different RAID types in accordance with how many drives are employed, whether reading and writing are both done from all drives simultaneously, if data is written in blocks on one drive after another or is mirrored between drives in the same time, and many others. Based on the particular setup, the fault tolerance and the performance could differ.
RAID in Cloud Web Hosting
The hard drives which we use for storage with our state-of-the-art cloud hosting platform are not the traditional HDDs, but quick NVMes. They function in RAID-Z - a special setup intended for the ZFS file system which we employ. All the content that you upload to your cloud web hosting account will be stored on multiple hard drives and at least 1 shall be used as a parity disk. This is a special drive where an additional bit is included to any content copied on it. In the event that a disk in the RAID stops working, it will be replaced without any service interruptions and the info 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 info and along with the real-time checksum authentication that the ZFS file system performs on all drives, you'll never have to concern yourself with losing any data no matter what.
RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting
The NVMe drives that are used for keeping any website content uploaded to the semi-dedicated hosting accounts which we offer work in RAID-Z. This is a specific setup where one or more disk drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will include an extra bit to any data cloned on this type of a disk drive. If a disk fails and is replaced with another one, what information will be duplicated on the latter will be a mix calculated between the data on the other hard disks and that on the parity one. This is done to ensure that the info on the new drive shall be accurate. Throughout the process, the RAID will continue working adequately and the malfunctioning drive won't have an effect on the proper operation of your Internet sites by any means. Using NVMes in RAID-Z is an amazing addition to the ZFS file system which runs on our revolutionary cloud platform in terms of preserving the integrity of your files as ZFS uses special digital identifiers called checksums so as to prevent silent data corruption.
RAID in VPS Hosting
The NVMe drives that we use on the machines where we create virtual private servers work in RAID to ensure that any content you upload will be available and intact at all times. At least a single drive is employed for parity - one bit of info is added to any data cloned on it. In case a main drive breaks down, it is replaced and the information that will be duplicated on it is calculated between the remaining drives and the parity one. This is done to ensure that the required info is copied and that no file is corrupted because the new drive will be incorporated into the RAID afterwards. We also use hard disk drives functioning in RAID on the backup servers, so in case you add this upgrade to your VPS package, you'll use an even more reliable web hosting service since your content will be available on multiple drives irrespective of any sort of sudden hardware failure.