RAID
What is RAID? How exactly does RAID work? Become aware of the pros of having a RAID-equipped server.
RAID, which is an acronym of Redundant Array of Independent Disks, is a software or hardware storage virtualization technology which enables a system to take advantage of multiple hard drives as one single logical unit. Put simply, all of the drives are used as one and the data on all of them is identical. This kind of a configuration has 2 key advantages over using just a single drive to save data - the first is redundancy, so in case one drive stops working, the information will be accessible through the remaining ones, and the second is improved performance since the input/output, or reading/writing operations will be distributed among different drives. There're different RAID types based on what number of drives are employed, whether reading and writing are both performed from all drives concurrently, if data is written in blocks on one drive after another or is mirrored between drives in the same time, and many others. According to the particular setup, the error tolerance and the performance vary.
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RAID in Cloud Hosting
The NVMe drives which our cutting-edge cloud Internet hosting platform employs for storage operate in RAID-Z. This sort of RAID is designed to work with the ZFS file system which runs on the platform and it works by using the so-called parity disk - a special drive where data stored on the other drives is cloned with an additional bit added to it. In the event that one of the disks stops functioning, your Internet sites shall continue working from the other ones and as soon as we replace the bad one, the data that will be cloned on it will be rebuilt from what is stored on the remaining drives together with the data from the parity disk. This is performed in order to be able to recalculate the elements of each file adequately and to confirm the integrity of the info duplicated on the new drive. This is another level of security for the information you upload to your
cloud hosting account along with the ZFS file system which compares a special digital fingerprint for each file on all of the hard drives in real time.
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RAID in Semi-dedicated Servers
The information uploaded to any
semi-dedicated server account is saved on NVMe drives that operate in RAID-Z. One of the drives in such a configuration is used for parity - any time data is copied on it, an additional bit is added. If a disk turns out to be flawed, it will be taken out of the RAID without disturbing the functioning of the Internet sites because the data will load from the other drives, and when a brand new drive is included, the information which will be duplicated on it will be a combination between the data on the parity disk and data saved on the other hard disks in the RAID. This is done so as to ensure that the info which is being cloned is accurate, so as soon as the new drive is rebuilt, it can be included in the RAID as a production one. This is an additional warranty for the integrity of your information as the ZFS file system that runs on our cloud web hosting platform compares a special checksum of all of the copies of your files on the various drives in order to avoid any possibility of silent data corruption.
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RAID in VPS Servers
If you employ one of our
VPS server solutions, any content which you upload will be kept on NVMe drives which work in RAID. At least a single drive is employed for parity to guarantee the integrity of your data. In simple terms, this is a special drive where data is copied with one bit added to it. If a disk inside the RAID stops functioning, your websites will continue working and when a new disk takes the place of the defective one, the bits of the info that will be cloned on it are calculated by using the healthy and the parity drives. This way, any possibility of corrupting data during the process is avoided. We also employ ordinary hard disks which function in RAID for storing backups, so should you add this service to your VPS package, your site content will be kept on multiple drives and you'll never need to worry about its integrity even in the event of multiple drive failures.