Robbin Harris argues in his blog over at ZDNet that silent data corruption and loss is much more than we even hazard to guess. He supports himself using recent statistical analysis by scientists at CERN on massive dataset used in recording particle acceleration results. 4 CommentsBury
written by vogelabv 440 days ago
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That's why new filesystems such as ZFS that check for this corruption are necessary. Not even RAID arrays currently check for data corruption.
written by davemackey 440 days ago
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Well, RAID arrays have consistency checks, which ensure that the data on one disk is the same as the mirrored data on another disk. The chances of the data becoming corrupted simultaneously on both disks would be extremely low...though possible. This in combination with individual CRC should provide some level of confidence. But I agree - and I've been reading up on ZFS, its pretty cool. You might even convince me to give Solaris a swing someday soon.
written by vogelabv 440 days ago
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RAID arrays will check that data is the same on both arrays, but it will not check for corruption. If it does become corrupt the RAID array will just happily copy the corrupt data. And you should use ZFS, it is amazing!
written by vogelabv 440 days ago
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I mean RAID will check for similarity between the two drives, but it doesn't know whether that data is corrupt it is mirroring.
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That's why new filesystems such as ZFS that check for this corruption are necessary. Not even RAID arrays currently check for data corruption.
Well, RAID arrays have consistency checks, which ensure that the data on one disk is the same as the mirrored data on another disk. The chances of the data becoming corrupted simultaneously on both disks would be extremely low...though possible. This in combination with individual CRC should provide some level of confidence. But I agree - and I've been reading up on ZFS, its pretty cool. You might even convince me to give Solaris a swing someday soon.
RAID arrays will check that data is the same on both arrays, but it will not check for corruption. If it does become corrupt the RAID array will just happily copy the corrupt data. And you should use ZFS, it is amazing!
I mean RAID will check for similarity between the two drives, but it doesn't know whether that data is corrupt it is mirroring.