Date: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 05:23:32 +1100 From: Peter Jeremy <peterjeremy@optushome.com.au> To: Vladimir Konrad <v.konrad@lse.ac.uk> Cc: FreeBSD Current <freebsd-current@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: memtest - an idea Message-ID: <20060214182331.GE900@turion.vk2pj.dyndns.org> In-Reply-To: <1139938898.2050.70.camel@localhost.localdomain> References: <1139938898.2050.70.camel@localhost.localdomain>
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On Tue, 2006-Feb-14 17:41:38 +0000, Vladimir Konrad wrote: >is it viable to have a memtest like process running full-time (low >priority) or scheduled, on running FreeBSD system to discover bad memory >sooner than a later (without taking the system off-line)? If you're using ECC RAM then it's fairly simple to have a background task that reads all memory to detect and scrub single bit errors. If you're looking for something to check non-ECC memory then it's far more difficult. You could write a kernel module that grabbed a free page and did a few tests on it but this won't be able to test allocated memory (keep in mind that the kernel is permanently wired), will miss some pattern sensitive errors and, in the case of pattern sensitive errors, has an equal probablility of causing a failure in a page not being tested. -- Peter Jeremy
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