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Date:      Mon, 26 Jun 2006 23:45:35 +0200
From:      Wilko Bulte <wb@freebie.xs4all.nl>
To:        "M.Hirsch" <M.Hirsch@gmx.de>
Cc:        freebsd-stable@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: FreeBSD 6.x CVSUP today crashes with zero load ...
Message-ID:  <20060626214535.GA94015@freebie.xs4all.nl>
In-Reply-To: <44A0538E.6090906@gmx.de>
References:  <E1FuYsL-000HT3-H2@dilbert.firstcallgroup.co.uk> <20060626100949.G24406@fledge.watson.org> <20060626081029.L1114@ganymede.hub.org> <20060626140333.M38418@fledge.watson.org> <20060626235355.Q95667@atlantis.atlantis.dp.ua> <44A04FD2.1030001@hirsch.it> <20060626212654.GB93703@freebie.xs4all.nl> <44A0538E.6090906@gmx.de>

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On Mon, Jun 26, 2006 at 11:37:18PM +0200, M.Hirsch wrote..
> Nope,
> 
> I'd like my bank data to be stored on a system that does ECC, no question.
> But please, on hard disk level (RAID; that is _permanent_), not in the 
> RAM of a single node.
> 
> If memory gets corrupted, please, raise a kernel panic... Even if 

You *can't* panic if it is just a single bit error in a user page. You
will never know there was a corruption..  If that was a page holding your
account data your are toast.

> there's ECC in place.

Of course not.  You only panic once you have no other options left.
Proper hardware with ECC give you these options.  I am not talking 
consumer grade crap here of course.

> Counter question:
> Would you like your bank account data to be stored on a medium where one 
> failure can be corrected, two can be detected, but three go unnoticed? 
> How unlikely is that, if you've got some hardware that is really /broken/?

Very unlikely.  There is enough hardware design done after all these
years that this kind of problem can be prevented.

> I know this is a rather random thing to happen.
> Still, I think ECC memory is overrated. Better have it fail immediately. 
> _With a kernel panic, please_

As said, you can't 

> 
> M.
> 
> Wilko Bulte schrieb:
> 
> >Balderdash.  
> >
> >Following your rationale you want your bank account data
> >silently be corrupted by hardware with bit errors?  Be my guest, give
> >me ECC any day.
> >
> >Proper hardware will log the ECC errors, a proper OS tailored to that
> >hardware will log and notify the sysadmins.
> >
> >That is how it should be done.
> >
> >Wilko
> >
> > 
> >
--- end of quoted text ---

-- 
Wilko Bulte				wilko@FreeBSD.org



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