[CentOS] server specifications

Ryan Wagoner rswagoner at gmail.com
Mon Feb 14 02:14:14 UTC 2011


On Sun, Feb 13, 2011 at 8:55 PM, compdoc <compdoc at hotrodpc.com> wrote:
>> undetected creeping bit errors due to lack of ECC would
>>be, in my book, unacceptable.
>
>
> Where can one find info or studies on this sort of thing? I use non-ecc ram
> in several servers, and of course most ppl use it in their desktops.
>
> Wouldn't bit errors result in crashes or data corruption? Or what would the
> results be?
>

ECC allows for single bit errors to be corrected and multiple bit
errors to be noticed. All our servers run ECC memory. I've had memory
go bad where the logs were showing correctable ECC errors. Since they
were correctable no data was corrupt and I was able to replace the bad
memory. Had I been using regular memory who knows what data could have
been potentially corrupt. Just like you use RAID to provide higher
reliability for drives you should use ECC memory. The cost different
is negligible.

Ryan



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