RAID
What is RAID? Just how does RAID work? Find out about the pros of using a RAID-equipped server.
Redundant Array of Independent Disks, or RAID, is a method of storing content on multiple hard disks simultaneously. A RAID could be software or hardware depending on the HDDs which are used - physical or logical ones, but what is common between them is the fact that they all perform as one single unit where info is stored. The key advantage of employing a RAID is redundancy because the information on all of the drives shall be the same all of the time, so even if some drive fails for whatever reason, the data will still be available on the other drives. The overall performance is also enhanced as the reading and writing processes could be split between a number of drives, so a single one will not be overloaded. There are different kinds of RAIDs where the efficiency and fault tolerance could differ according to the exact setup - whether data is written on all of the drives in real time or it is written on one drive and after that mirrored on another, what amount of drives are used for the RAID, etcetera.
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RAID in Cloud Hosting
All of the content which you upload to your new
cloud hosting account will be held on quick NVMe drives which work in RAID-Z. This configuration is built to use the ZFS file system which runs on our cloud Internet hosting platform and it adds one more level of protection for your content on top of the real-time checksum validation which ZFS uses to ensure the integrity of the data. With RAID-Z, the data is saved on several disks and at least 1 is a parity disk - whenever data is recorded on it, an additional bit is added, so if any drive stops working for some reason, the stability of the information can be verified by recalculating its bits based on what is saved on the production disks and on the parity one. With RAID-Z, the functioning of our system won't be interrupted and it will continue working smoothly until the malfunctioning drive is changed and the information is synchronized on it.
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RAID in Semi-dedicated Hosting
The NVMe drives that are used for holding any website content uploaded to the
semi-dedicated hosting accounts that we provide work in RAID-Z. This is a special configuration where one or more hard drives are employed for parity i.e. the system will add an additional bit to any data copied on this type of a drive. If a disk fails and is replaced with another one, what info will be cloned on the latter will 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 info on the new drive will be correct. Throughout the process, the RAID will continue working adequately and the problematic drive won't have an effect on the adequate operation of your websites by any means. Working with NVMes in RAID-Z is an excellent addition to the ZFS file system that runs on our state-of-the-art cloud platform with regards to preserving the integrity of your files since ZFS uses specific digital identifiers called checksums in order to prevent silent data corruption.
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RAID in VPS Web Hosting
The physical servers where we create
virtual private server use super fast NVMe drives which will increase the speed of your Internet sites noticeably. The drives work in RAID to guarantee that you will not lose any info due to a power loss or a hardware breakdown. The production servers employ a variety of drives where the data is stored and one disk is used for parity i.e. one bit is added to all the information copied on it, which makes it easier to restore the website content without loss if a main drive stops working. If you take advantage of our backup service, the data will be saved on an independent machine which uses standard hard-disk drives and even though there is no parity one in this case, they are also in a RAID to make sure that we will have a backup of your content all of the time. With this setup your information will always be safe since it will be available on a lot of disk drives.