RAID, or Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a technology for keeping data on multiple hard disks which function together as one logical unit. The drives could be physical or logical i.e. in the aforementioned case one single drive is split into separate ones through virtualization software. Either way, identical information is saved on all the drives and the main benefit of using this kind of a setup is that in the event that a drive fails, the data shall still be available on the remaining ones. Having a RAID also enhances the overall performance as the input and output operations will be spread among a couple of drives. There are several types of RAID based on how many hard disks are used, whether writing is done on all the drives in real time or just on one, and how the info is synced between the drives - whether it is recorded in blocks on one drive after another or it is mirrored from one on the others. All of these factors imply that the fault tolerance and the performance between the different RAID types may vary.
RAID in Website Hosting
The NVMe drives that our cutting-edge cloud Internet hosting platform uses for storage function in RAID-Z. This kind of RAID is intended to work with the ZFS file system that runs on the platform and it employs the so-called parity disk - a special drive where info kept on the other drives is cloned with an extra bit added to it. In case one of the disks stops functioning, your Internet sites shall continue working from the other ones and as soon as we replace the malfunctioning one, the information which will be duplicated on it will be recovered from what is stored on the other drives as well as the data from the parity disk. This is done in order to be able to recalculate the bits of each file adequately and to validate the integrity of the data copied on the new drive. This is an additional level of security for the information that you upload to your website hosting account in addition to the ZFS file system that analyzes a unique digital fingerprint for every single file on all of the drives in real time.
RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers
The NVMe drives that are used for holding any content uploaded to the semi-dedicated server accounts that we offer operate in RAID-Z. This is a specific setup where one or more drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will add an additional bit to any data duplicated on such a hard drive. In the event that a disk fails and is replaced with a new one, what info will be cloned on the latter will be a mix calculated between the data on the remaining hard disks and that on the parity one. This is done to ensure that the information on the new drive shall be accurate. During the procedure, the RAID will continue working normally and the problematic drive will not have an impact on the adequate operation of your sites at all. Working with NVMes in RAID-Z is an amazing addition to the ZFS file system that runs on our top-notch cloud platform with regards to preserving the integrity of your files as ZFS uses unique digital identifiers called checksums so as to prevent silent data corruption.
RAID in VPS Servers
The NVMe drives which we use on the machines where we generate VPS servers operate in RAID to ensure that any content you upload will be available and intact all of the time. At least a single drive is used for parity - one bit of information is added to any data copied on it. If a main drive stops working, 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 make sure that the required information is copied and that not a single file is corrupted because the new drive will be included in the RAID afterwards. Also, we use hard drives operating in RAID on the backup servers, so in case you add this upgrade to your VPS plan, you will use an even more reliable Internet hosting service as your content will be available on multiple drives regardless of any kind of unpredicted hardware malfunction.