Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a way of storing content on multiple hard disks concurrently. A RAID might be software or hardware based on the hard drives that are used - physical or logical ones, but what is common between them is the fact that they all work as a single unit where your information is saved. The main advantage of using a RAID is redundancy since the data on all of the drives will be exactly the same all of the time, so even in the event that some drive fails for some reason, the data will still be available on the other drives. The general performance is also better since the reading and writing processes can be split between multiple drives, so a single one will not be overloaded. There are different kinds of RAIDs where the functionality and fault tolerance may differ according to the exact setup - whether your data is written on all of the drives real-time or it's written on one drive and then mirrored on another, what amount of drives are used for the RAID, etc.
RAID in Cloud Hosting
The cutting-edge cloud Internet hosting platform where all cloud hosting accounts are made uses fast SSD drives as an alternative to the standard HDDs, and they operate in RAID-Z. With this setup, multiple hard disk drives work together and at least 1 is a dedicated parity disk. In simple terms, when data is written on the remaining drives, it's cloned on the parity one adding an extra bit. This is done for redundancy as even if a drive fails or falls out of the RAID for some reason, the info can be rebuilt and verified thanks to the parity disk and the data recorded on the other ones, so not a thing will be lost and there will not be any service disturbances. This is another level of security for your info together with the state-of-the-art ZFS file system that uses checksums to ensure that all of the data on our servers is intact and is not silently corrupted.
RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers
The SSD drives which are used for storing 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 used for parity i.e. the system will add an additional bit to any data copied on such a disk drive. If a disk fails and is replaced with another one, what information will be duplicated on the latter shall be a mix calculated between the data on the other drives and that on the parity one. This is done to ensure that the information on the new drive will be accurate. During the process, the RAID will continue functioning normally and the faulty drive won't affect the normal operation of your Internet sites at all. Using SSDs in RAID-Z is a great addition to the ZFS file system which runs on our state-of-the-art cloud platform with regard to preserving the integrity of your files since ZFS uses special digital identifiers identified as checksums to avoid silent data corruption.
RAID in VPS Servers
All VPS server accounts that our company offers are created on physical servers which take advantage of SSD drives working in RAID. At least one drive is employed for parity - one extra bit is added to the info duplicated on it and in case a main disk breaks down, this bit makes it simpler to recalculate the bits of the files on the damaged hard disk so that the right information is restored on the new drive added to the RAID. At the same time, your sites will still be online because all the information will still load from at least one other disk drive. In case you add routine backups to your VPS plan, a copy of your information will be saved on standard hard drives which also operate in RAID as we would like to make certain that any kind of site content you upload will be risk-free all the time. Using multiple drives in RAID for all main and backup servers enables us to offer fast and reliable hosting service.