FreeBSD 6.x CVSUP today crashes with zero load ...

[Dmitry Pryanishnikov]

Hello!

On Mon, 26 Jun 2006, M.Hirsch wrote:
> ECC is a way to mask broken hardware. I rather have my hardware fail directly 
> when it does first, so I can replace it _immediately_

  You got it backwards. If your data has any value to you, then you don't want
to miss any single-error bit in it, do you? If you're running hardware w/o
ECC, your single-bit error in your data will go to the disk unnoticed, and 
you'll lose your data. With ECC, hardware will correct it. In (rare) case of 
multiple-bit error ECC logic will generate NMI for you, so you'll notice and 
"replace it _immediately_" instead of two weeks ago when your archive wont 
extract.

> What's your hardware good for if it passes a "test", but fails in production?

  It's the way in what RAM will manifest single-bit errors: you run memory test 
- it won't catch them, later in production you'll miss this error because
nothing will provide extra sanity check of your data.

> ECC is totally overrated.

  Only by the people who don't understand it's point!


Sincerely, Dmitry
-- 
Atlantis ISP, System Administrator
e-mail:  dmitry at atlantis.dp.ua
nic-hdl: LYNX-RIPE