RAID
Discover just what exactly RAID is and how RAID systems work. Exactly what are the primary advantages of being hosted on a RAID-powered server?
RAID, which is short for Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a software or hardware storage virtualization technology that enables a system to employ many hard drives as one single logical unit. To put it differently, all drives are used as one and the data on all of them is the same. This type of a configuration has 2 key advantages over using a single drive to save data - the first is redundancy, so if one drive fails, the data will be accessible from the others, and the second one is better performance because the input/output, or reading/writing operations will be distributed among several drives. There're different RAID types based on how many drives are used, whether reading and writing are both executed from all the 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 exact setup, the error tolerance and the performance may differ.
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RAID in Cloud Hosting
The hard disks which we use for storage with our state-of-the-art cloud hosting platform are not the classic HDDs, but fast NVMes. They work in RAID-Z - a special setup developed for the ZFS file system which we use. All of the content that you add to your
cloud hosting account will be held on multiple hard drives and at least one shall be used as a parity disk. This is a specific drive where an additional bit is added to any content copied on it. In the event that a disk in the RAID stops working, it will be replaced without any service disruptions and the information 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 guarantee the integrity of the data and together with the real-time checksum validation which the ZFS file system runs on all drives, you will never need to worry about losing any data no matter what.
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RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers
The NVMe drives which are used for holding any website content uploaded to the
semi-dedicated server accounts that we provide function in RAID-Z. This is a specific configuration where one or more disk drives are used for parity i.e. the system will include an extra bit to any data copied on this type of a hard drive. If a disk fails and is substituted with a new one, what data will be cloned on the latter shall be a combination calculated between the data on the remaining hard disks and that on the parity one. This is done to ensure that the data on the new drive will be accurate. Throughout the procedure, the RAID will continue operating adequately and the faulty drive will not have an effect on the adequate operation of your sites in any way. Using NVMes in RAID-Z is an amazing addition to the ZFS file system that runs on our cutting-edge cloud platform with regards to preserving the integrity of your files since ZFS uses specific digital identifiers referred to as checksums in order to avoid silent data corruption.
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RAID in VPS Servers
If you take advantage of one of our
VPS server solutions, any content you upload will be stored on NVMe drives that function in RAID. At least 1 drive is intended for parity so as to guarantee the integrity of your data. In simple terms, this is a special drive where info is copied with one bit added to it. In the event that a disk in the RAID stops functioning, your sites will continue working and when a new disk takes the place of the flawed one, the bits of the info that will be duplicated on it are calculated by using the healthy and the parity drives. That way, any potential for corrupting data during the process is averted. We also use regular hard disk drives which operate in RAID for storing backups, so in case you include this service to your VPS plan, your site content will be saved on multiple drives and you will never need to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive failures.