Does ZFS really need ECC RAM?

Does ZFS really need ECC RAM?

Conceptually, ZFS does not require ECC memory any more as any other file system. There’s nothing special about ZFS that requires/encourages the use of ECC RAM more so than any other filesystem. If you use UFS, EXT, NTFS, btrfs, etc without ECC RAM, you are just as much at risk as if you used ZFS without ECC RAM.

Does Btrfs need ECC RAM?

You need both ECC. Otherwise data may be corrupted while transmission through memory before write and ECC FS accepts it corrupted and protects it that way. If it corrupted on non-ECC FS HDD then ECC memory accepts corrupted data while loading. Anyway good servers allow only ECC memory.

Will ECC RAM work with non ECC RAM?

Answer: ECC (Error Correcting Code) memory is parity memory and non-ECC memory is non-parity. Some sources say you can even mix the two types of RAM and the ECC RAM will work as non-ECC memory. However, most memory companies do not support mixing the two types, so try it at your own risk.

Is ECC RAM really necessary?

You need high-end, battery-backed fully hardware RAID with onboard RAM to ensure that you don’t lose data due to a power outage, disk failure, or whatever. So no, you don’t really need ECC RAM in your workstation. The benefit simply will not justify the price.

Is ECC memory necessary for FreeNAS?

If your system supports it and your budget allows for it, install ECC RAM. There’s a greater-than-zero chance that corruption could happen to your ZFS filesystem when using Non-ECC RAM. FreeNAS encourages you to use ECC in their hardware recommendations.

Does Btrfs use RAM?

Btrfs hogging memory (disk cache)

Can you put ECC RAM in a desktop?

Most server and workstation motherboards require ECC RAM, but the majority of desktop systems either won’t work at all with ECC RAM or the ECC functionality will be disabled. ECC RAM is slightly slower than non-ECC RAM.

Why is ECC RAM so expensive?

Another obvious difference between ECC RAM and non-ECC RAM is the price. Due to its advanced features, ECC memory is more expensive than normal RAM, and is only supported on specialised (and costly) motherboards and high-end server CPUs like Intel’s Xeon range.

Does Synology have ECC?

I am aware most Synology units do not use ECC RAM; but the Rackstations and higher-end Synology units do use ECC RAM.

What happens if ZFS is on non ECC RAM?

The scenario usually thrown out is the the much-dreaded Scrub Of Death. TL;DR version of the scenario: ZFS is on a system with non-ECC RAM that has a stuck bit, its user initiates a scrub, and as a result of in-memory corruption good blocks fail checksum tests and are overwritten with corrupt data, thus instantly murdering an entire pool.

What happens if ZFS doesn’t match checksum?

Since it doesn’t match the checksum either, ZFS doesn’t overwrite anything. It logs an unrecoverable data error for that block, and leaves both copies untouched on disk. No data has been corrupted.

What does it mean to have a ZFS file system?

ZFS is, among other things, a checksumming filesystem. This means that for every block committed to storage, a strong hash (somewhat misleadingly AKA checksum) for the contents of that block is also written.

Can a self healing array be combined with ZFS?

Absolutely. Combine ZFS checksumming with redundancy or parity, and now you have a self-healing array.